UX design improves safety in the process industries

In industrial control environments, the User Experience, or UX, when interacting with a Distributed Control System (DCS) impacts how effectively and efficiently operators monitor and control industrial processes. 

It also plays a critical role in safety. Poor UX can lead to misinterpretation of data, delayed responses, alarm fatigue, and operational mistakes, while good UX contributes to faster decision-making, reduced training time, improved operator confidence, and more stable plant operation. 

“Today, UX design is no longer a ‘nice to have’ in safety critical process industries. Instead, it plays an important role in how operators control the process, improve situational awareness, and make the right decisions under pressure,” says Anna Sydänmaa, Business Manager at Valmet, aa global technology leader in serving process industries.

According to Valmet UX Manager Nina Flink user experience should not be mistaken for the user interface (part of user experience), which focuses on user interactions, visual and interactive elements such as layout, colors, typography, buttons, and icons. The UX is broader and centers on the overall experience a user has while interacting with a product.

In a DCS environment, UX considers physical workplace, collaboration aspects, workstations and used hardware, tools including user interface which includes the clarity of process displays, the intuitiveness of navigation, the consistency of symbols and terminology, the responsiveness of the system, and the way information is prioritized and presented during both normal operation and abnormal situations.

A well-designed user experience helps operators maintain situational awareness by ensuring critical information is available when it matters most. By reducing unnecessary mental effort, it enables faster, more confident decisions and lowers the chance of mistakes. This approach relies on clear visibility into process conditions, alarms that communicate priority and intent without overwhelming the user, and workflows that mirror real operating practices rather than theoretical models.

The UX also considers how efficiently operators can carry out everyday tasks such as reviewing trends, acknowledging alarms, adjusting setpoints, and performing diagnostics, along with how rapidly they can understand abnormal conditions and take appropriate action.

“Safety in process industries cannot be achieved by focusing on equipment alone,” says Sydänmaa. “True safety depends on how people operate, maintain, and manage processes. It is about ensuring operators have the right information at the right time.”

At Valmet, UX design is incorporated into the development of its leading Distributed Control Systems (DCS). As part of a ground-up approach to designing its new web-based DCS, DNAe, the Valmet design team placed a strong emphasis on improving the system’s user experience (UX). 

The urgency was driven in part by the growing need for an interface that is easy-to-use and intuitive while requiring less operator training, as processors face a significant wave of workforce retirements.

Valmet’s Automation Solutions business area maintains a dedicated UX team consisting of over ten  specialists whose sole focus is user experience. These professionals are UX experts rather than engineers or software developers. As a result, all configuration workflows, UI workflows, and on-screen components are defined and governed by the UX team, including how each workflow functions and how it is visually presented.

According to Valmet UX Manager Nina Flink, the design is based on understanding how operators, supervisors, managers, and engineers actually do their work, rather than only focusing on Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams.

“We start by understanding the bigger picture: how people want to work, what they need, and what the process demands. After that, we move into the details,” explains Flink. 

The user interface is structured around practical operating scenarios and user requirements rather than being driven solely by the process itself. Visual elements such as colors, shapes, and symbols are used consistently throughout the system, with alarm colors strictly limited to true alarm conditions. Critical information is presented to process automation users according to their roles.

Intuitive dashboards and clear views of the process and its subprocesses enable users to concentrate on what matters most. Information is prioritized so operators can quickly detect even subtle changes and respond without delay, in alignment with their responsibilities and regardless of location. Trends and event information are also available through the same user interface. Do we want to mention reporting? DNA UI supports it now.

At its core, a well-designed UX enables operators to achieve situational awareness at a glance, explains Flink. 

Situational awareness describes an operator’s capacity to rapidly comprehend system conditions, identify what requires attention, and anticipate upcoming developments. To support this, the interface must present information in a clear and intuitive manner, allowing operators to immediately understand the current state of the process, recognize abnormal behavior, and make sound decisions without the need to hunt for information or mentally piece together essential data.

“When situational awareness is strong, operators can respond faster and more accurately, reducing the risk of errors and unsafe conditions,” says Flink.

In the case of alarms, for example, maintaining situational awareness requires deprioritizing non-critical information and ensuring that key information is placed where operators can easily see it and act upon it.

In an industrial control room, thousands of alarms can appear in seconds. Operators then have only a few seconds to find the real issue and take corrective action. In these high-risk environments, where chemicals and flammable materials are part of daily operations, a well-designed UX can make the difference between a near-miss and a major incident.

“Plants do not want to be managed blindly by alarms alone. Instead, they require clear situational awareness that provides the proper context to effectively address abnormal conditions when an alarm occurs,” says Flink.

In addition, operators’ roles have expanded and one person often oversees multiple processes, sites, and equipment. The solution is not to add more displays to control rooms, however. Without clear structure data quickly becomes noise, delaying responses and increasing the likelihood of human error.

“The human factor is the biggest contributor to operational hazards. Misinterpreting a value or making a small mistake can be enough to trigger a serious incident,” explains Valtteri Mustonen, Solution Manager at Valmet. 

While most incidents don’t make headlines, they do occur in process industries. 

“Emergency situations develop very quickly,” says Mustonen. “Operators must be able to see immediately what is happening so they can react quickly and in the right way.

Ultimately, safety in process industries is influenced not only by technology and procedures, but by how effectively people are able to perceive, interpret, and act on critical information.

A well-designed user experience is central to this outcome. It reinforces situational awareness, limits unnecessary cognitive burden, and steers operators toward appropriate actions when speed and precision are essential.

By organizing information in a manner that reflects real operating conditions, effective UX design helps stop errors before they escalate and makes a direct contribution to safer, more reliable process operations.