Overview
ISO 11064-7:2006 - "Ergonomic design of control centres - Part 7: Principles for the evaluation of control centres" defines ergonomic principles, requirements and guidelines for evaluating control centres. It covers evaluation of the control suite, control room, workstations, displays and controls, and the surrounding work environment. The standard focuses on a verification and validation (V&V) based evaluation process to ensure human-centred, safe and effective operator interfaces across industries such as the process industry, transport systems and emergency dispatch rooms. Although primarily for non‑mobile control centres, many principles are applicable to mobile centres (ships, aircraft).
Key topics and technical requirements
- Evaluation process (V&V): The standard treats evaluation as a combined set of verification and validation activities carried out throughout the project lifecycle in line with human‑centred design.
- V&V plan: A documented plan prepared early in the project that defines objectives, mandate, interfaces, methods, resources and schedules for evaluation.
- Scope and scenarios: Validation should cover normal operation, multiple-failure conditions and emergencies; scope should match project stage and include all essential facilities (hardware, HSI software, procedures, training, maintenance needs, etc.).
- Criteria and measures: Define ergonomics, performance and safety criteria (requirement‑referenced, benchmark‑referenced, normative and expert‑judgement approaches) and specify measurable performance and safety objectives.
- Input documentation: Evaluators must collect and access all design, procedural and operating-experience documents used in design.
- V&V team and independence: Evaluation team should be independent of the design team, have appropriate expertise (systems engineering, control systems, ergonomics, architecture) and sufficient authority and resources.
- Methods and outputs: Use appropriate evaluation methods, measures and reporting to identify human engineering discrepancies (HEDs), assess situation awareness and workload, and document resolutions.
Applications and practical value
- Ensures that control centres meet human factors, safety and usability objectives.
- Supports risk reduction by identifying human engineering discrepancies early, allowing cost‑effective redesign.
- Improves operator situation awareness, reduces workload and minimizes human error.
- Applicable to design, procurement, acceptance testing and regulatory compliance for control rooms, dispatch centres and operation suites.
Who uses this standard
- Project managers, acceptance engineers, purchasers and suppliers
- Human factors/ergonomics specialists and systems engineers
- Regulatory bodies and safety assessors
- Control centre operators and organizational decision‑makers
Related standards
- ISO 11064 series (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6) - overall ergonomic design of control centres
- ISO 13407 - human‑centred design processes for interactive systems
Keywords: ISO 11064-7:2006, ergonomic design, control centres, verification and validation (V&V), control room evaluation, human factors, workstations, displays and controls, situation awareness, workload.
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