Activities with ISA-101 Human Machine Interfaces (HMI)
The ISA101 standards committee was formed in 2006 to establish standards, recommended practices, and/or technical reports pertaining to designing, implementing, using, and/or managing human-machine interfaces in manufacturing applications. The committee is co-chaired by Dr. Maurice Wilkins of Yokogawa Corporation of America and Greg Lehmann of URS Corporation.
The areas covered within ISA101's work includes every facet of HMI design and operation, such as: menu hierarchies, screen navigation conventions, graphics and color conventions, dynamic elements, alarming conventions, security methods and electronic signature attributes, interfaces with background programming and historical databases, popup conventions, help screens and methods used to work with alarms, program object interfaces, and configuration interfaces to databases, servers, and networks.
The standard takes a lifecycle approach categorized into four stages: system standards, design, implementation, and operation.
Each clause is being developed under the leadership of one or two industry experts, with the help of a number of committee members. The clauses are as follows:
- Clause 0: General
- Clause 1: Scope
- Clause 2: Normative References
- Clause 3: Definition of Terms and Acronyms
- Clause 4: HMI System Management
- Clause 5: Human Factors/Ergonomics
- Clause 6: Display Styles and Hierarchy
- Clause 7: User Interaction
- Clause 8: Performance
- Clause 9: Documentation and Training
Draft 3 was sent out for a review by the full committee at the end of April 2012, and Draft 4 at the end of June 2013. After discussions at ISA Automation Week in November 2013, a small working group was set up to get the standard into a format and content to be put forward for ballot in 2014.
Technical reports such as HMI philosophy, HMI style guide, HMI design guide, HMI usability and performance, and HMI purchase specifications have been identified for future development as soon as the standard has been accepted. A new working group is soon to be set up for HMI for mobile platforms.
As of December 2013, the committee member numbers around 230.