In an Emerson Process Experts blog post, Are Human-Technology Interactions Solving or Causing Problems? Part 1, Emerson Exchange 365 community member, Tom Wallace identifies some of the driving forces behind the need to simplify products through a human centered design approach. He provides an analogy to the load automation professionals place being like a loaded beam:

In a typical facility, the number of instruments and valves is increasing as more and better information is needed to optimize plant performance. To the people who must configure, maintain, and repair these devices, this represents an increase in load.

Individual field devices are becoming more complex, and the number of different device types is growing. This means more knowledge is needed to configure, maintain, and repair the devices. This represents an increase in span.

Finally, the number of people tasked with supporting this load, and the experience of those people is decreasing. This is reducing the strength of those who must support the load.

Tom closes the post noting how HCD can help:

Fortunately, this problem is solvable. It was created with the three fundamental causative factors, increased load, increased span, and reduced strength. It’s solved by addressing the same three factors. The foundation of the solution is human centered design.

The Part 2 post is slated for a week from today... stay tuned!