User Interfaces for Safety Inspections in Underground Mining

Abstract

Technology has made inroads in various domains of the economic industry and the Mining Industry is one such realm which has undergone a substantial transformation in a bid to attuning to the demands of modernity. Digitization of Mines is a relatively new aspect of mining, wherein the use of technology holds the potential power to revolutionize the mining experience. This has led to the emergence of new vocabularies that is in juxtaposition with the old while creating challenges that were unforeseen before the foray of technology. This, however, presents a new perspective towards the creation of user-centred designs that would require design specifications unique to the users, i.e. the mining operators. The extremely hazardous work environments of underground mines make it imperative that safety comes first. Thus safety and compliance go hand in hand and are of utmost importance. The task of a mining operator starts with an inspection of their mining equipment underground as per safety regulations of the mine. The task is carried out in the dark underground environment via a paper-based checklist. This however leaves room for error while making the task laborious and tedious. With digitization, this process has undergone a tremendous change by enhancing the task of inspection without complying safety. There are however no frameworks for interface design specific to underground dark environments that these mining operators work in. This created an opportunity to come up with guidelines for designing UI for underground mining equipment checklists. Through extensive focus group studies, user interviews and user journey mapping, design guidelines were formulated which focused on UI elements, colour contrast and eye adaptation for such settings. These guidelines were further tested and evaluated with the user groups. This paper will discuss the findings and implications of this research.