In the cutting age of industrial 4.0, automation has developed rapidly in all aspects. The emergence of the modern industrial control room has provided a new horizon to the large operation. However, the problem facing the operators is too many screens that they need to monitor at the same time which could result in fatal mistakes such as missing important alerts or failing to act on important information. With that being said, this thesis explores the possibilities of developing a visual aid system to help guide operators’ attention. With the knowledge gained from a literature review and previous efforts from ABB, a visual aid system has been developed with implementations such as unreadable screen and blinking cue guiding the operators’ attention. An experiment to evaluate the solution has also been designed and conducted with 29 participants. Both quantitative data and qualitative data have been collected and analyzed. The results suggest a strong benefit in using such a visual aid to help guide operators’ attention.

An interactive multiple screen visualisation might become an opportunity for engaging and illustrative presentations of scientific, complex, and abstract research. With multiple (interactive) monitors, storytelling and interfaces could bring engagement, immersion, and attraction to the audience. The challenge of designing for a multiple screen setup is that the amount of information can be overwhelming, causing the perception of it and engagement with it to decrease. This thesis explores approaches that could enhance the perception and engagement of the content for a multiple screen setup. The Research Through Design approach sets the structure for the entire thesis. It consists of methods for exploration, concepting, prototyping, and user testing. By following this research approach, three versions of a prototype were developed and tested which led to the results of this thesis. The overall nature of this research process was exploratory and the design decisions were applied during the activities. The main findings of this thesis regarding the multiple screen setup during the research process included three attention guiding approaches: black and white, blur, and pause, and according to the user test participants, the preferred approach was black and white. The second vital aspect of the research and testing were the five-act story arc and interactive storytelling structures. According to the data from user tests, interactivity helped to increase the engagement and perception of the exhibition piece.