HFC has been working intensively on this question in cooperation with the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) for the last two years.
In modern organizations, field staff use mobile display devices (smartphones, laptops, etc.) not only for communication, but also for data acquisition, maintenance and sometimes also for switching operations. New interaction systems, especially for field use, should be selected according to the task to be performed, because the task and the special working context of field staff in plants of various industrial sectors place increased demands on e.g. robustness, freedom from glare, sound quality, etc. Ultimately, mobile technology must support the user in his perception, processing and execution of actions in the best possible way and contribute to the avoidance of errors, because these can possibly have health consequences.
In order to support the design and introduction of new technology, our specially developed checklist can help practitioners to consider basic requirements, organisational issues, but also user-oriented hardware and software design. The checklist and the work in the project are described in a comprehensive report, which is now available at https://doi.org/10.21934/baua:bericht20191125. In addition, together with BAuA we have submitted an English language paper about the project and the checklist in CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS, which will hopefully be accepted and published by autumn 2020.