ELSEVIER Safety Science 19 (1995) 309-310

Book Review

1 Human factors in alarm design, Edited by Neville Stanton. Taylor and Francis, London,

1994.238 pp., &35.OO.

This volume is based on contributions to a one-day conference on alarm design held at

Aston University on October 2, 1992. There is an introduction and final summary by the

editor, with 12 additional papers, most of which deal with theory and practice surrounding

alarms in power plants and in process control.

The volume will be of particular interest to anyone who has had cause to consider either

the design of alarms or human behaviour in situations involving alarms. More particularly, it highlights the requirement that human behaviour must be considered when designing

everything relating to alarms, from details of the visual or auditory properties of an alarm’s annunciation to the broadest aspects of the integration of alarms into control systems.

In the teaching of human factors the topic of alarms is not often considered in any detail,

if at all, but teachers who would like to introduce the topic will find in this volume sufficient material to form the basis for a substantial segment on alarms. As is common with books

of readings, the material on a given topic is somewhat scattered. However, there is an

extensive index with subtopics. Unfortunately, individual papers do not begin with abstracts, but a substitute is provided by the editor’s final chapter, which provides an excellent

overview of the papers. It could well have been part of the editor’s first chapter, which

discusses types of alarms and introduces the topic of human factors. The final chapter summarises the material of the volume under headings which include: Legislation, Problems

with alarm systems, Alarm reduction, Human factors approach, Human supervisory control, Alarm initiated activities, Characteristics of alarm media and Future research. The structure used in this final summary will almost certainly be more useful to readers than the arbitrary

four-part structure used to order the papers within the volume. Another structure might be the following, in which the papers are divided into those providing an overview of problems,

those discussing theory and those giving practical design advice, as follows. Alarms systems: an overview of human factors problems. Bye, Berg and 0wre (Chapter

9)) Hickling (Chapter 10) and Marshall and Baker (Chapter 11) discuss the ergonomic and engineering problems surrounding the design and implementation of alarm systems in nuclear power plants. Baber (Chapter 12) discusses problems surrounding alarms in motor vehicles, from the nature of the information they provide to their physical properties and the conventions surrounding their use.

Alarm theory. Usher (Chapter 8) deals with the meaning of “alarm”. Hoyes and Stanton (Chapter 4) provide data against the generality of Wilde’s transport-risk inspired notion of

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310 Book Review /Safety Science I9 (I 995) 309-310

risk homeostasis theory, and Woods (Chapter 5) provides a rather long chapter grappling with faults, symptoms, the interpretation of symptoms and the implications of all of this for dynamic fault management. Stanton (Chapter 6) discusses models of the interpretation of alarms, with emphasis on how operators respond to alarms as they try to understand and

control fault processes. Alarm design: practical advice. Hollywell and Marshall (Chapter 3) show the limited

rate at which alarm messages can be read in practice. Meredith and Edworthy (Chapter 13)

discuss the range of auditory alarms in intensive care units and the implications of demon- strated confusions among them, while Edworthy (Chapter 2) shows that the perceived

urgency of auditory alarms can be systematically varied. This chapter should be required reading for anyone attempting to design an auditory alarm. Zwaga and Hoonhout (Chapter

7) discuss the design of alarm systems in VDU-based control systems. Their extensive

research and consultation in this area provide a unique and practical insight into the approach

needed to implement a process-control alarm system. To conclude, the volume provides a succinct overview of the human factors problems

involved with alarms, bringing together a selection of material well illustrating the range of

human-factors problems present in the area.

Austin Adams