The effects of spatial and temporal proximity of means-end information in ecological display design for an industrial simulation

Large displays are prone to losses of integration between different views. To support problem-solving, people must be able to reason functionally along means-ends relations from plant purposes to plant equipment. This research, therefore, was directed at improving integration in ecological displays for large plants by trying to smooth means-ends transitions by manipulating the spatial and temporal proximity of those relations.; Three different ecological displays were developed for a simulation of a conventional power plant based on an abstraction hierarchy model of that plant. The three displays demonstrated different spatial and temporal designs of means-ends relations: a high spatial low temporal connection, a low spatial high temporal connection and a high spatial high temporal connection. Subjects performed information search tasks and fault detection and diagnosis tasks. It was found that the spatial and temporal proximity of means-end related information improves the traversal of means-end connections on information search tasks. In addition, it was found that close spatial and temporal proximity improved the use of those connections and resulted in faster and more accurate fault diagnosis performance.; It can be inferred from this research that greater spatial and temporal proximity of means-ends information may enhance the integration of the display and thereby improve problem-solving performance. This research is a unique look at integration issues with a large plant simulation and helps to expand the application of the ecological approach to large systems.