Control Room Design
The #1 Rule for Ergonomics & Efficiency
Why Control Room Design Matters
A control room is the nerve center of any mission-critical operation. From utilities and transportation to security and process industries, the effectiveness of a control room directly impacts safety, performance, and operator well-being. Good control room design goes beyond arranging furniture and consoles, it aligns technology, ergonomics, and workflow to ensure that operators can perform at their best during long shifts.
Done right, a well-planned control room reduces fatigue, improves situational awareness, and supports faster decision-making. Done poorly, it can introduce stress, delays, and even costly operational risks.
The Golden Rule of Control Room Design
Simply put, the Operator is at the Center of the Design
No matter how advanced the technology, the success of a control room design depends on whether the operator can work comfortably, safely, and efficiently. Ergonomic furniture, control room consoles, proper sightlines, intuitive layouts, and flexible equipment all contribute to this operator-first approach. Following this principle not only improves day-to-day performance but also extends the life of your control room by preventing costly redesigns.
A Costly Control Room Design Mistake
On July 25, 2010, a 40-foot-long pipeline segment ruptured, pouring more than 20,082 barrels of oil into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.
Across multiple shifts, operators in the Edmonton control room failed to recognize the alarms as a line-break. It took nearly 17 hours for the pipeline to be shut down, resulting in one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history. By 2014, cleanup costs had reached $1.21 billion.
In the aftermath, the control center overhauled its:
- Organizational structure
- Internal processes and training
- Instrumentation
- Pipeline Control and Leak Detection Systems
Why Operators Miss Alarms
When alarms go unnoticed, it’s often not negligence, it’s the result of poor control room design.
Common causes include:
- Alarm overload – Too many non-critical signals desensitize operators to real threats.
- Poor interface design – Critical alerts are buried in complex visual layouts.
- Distractions and fatigue – Environmental noise, poor lighting, and long shifts impair attention.
- Ineffective console layout – Operators are physically separated from key controls or displays.
Designing a control room that accounts for human cognitive limits and physical needs is essential to prevent these breakdowns. This is where ISO 11064 ergonomic principles, optimized operator sightlines, acoustic comfort, and strategic technology integration become life-saving investments.
Could more have been done in the control room to help operators make faster, better decisions?
The answer is almost certainly yes.
Key Principles for Effective Control Room Design
Ergonomics and Operator Comfort
Operators spend long hours at their consoles. Adjustable sit-stand workstations, task lighting, and ergonomic seating all reduce fatigue and improve alertness. Control room design should also consider personal environment units (PEUs) for climate and airflow management.
Sightlines, Monitors, and Video Walls
ISO 11064 emphasizes clear sightlines as a fundamental design factor. Monitors should be positioned at or just below eye level, within the operator’s natural field of view, and video walls should be angled to minimize head rotation. Flexible monitor arms make it easy to adjust layouts as needs change.
Workflow and Collaboration
Console and Control room layouts should reflect how operators interact. Single-operator pods work best in focused environments, while multi-operator configurations support collaboration in team-based settings. Designing with workflow in mind prevents bottlenecks and enhances communication.
ISO 11064 Standards
The international ISO 11064 standard provides the blueprint for ergonomic control room design. It covers everything from workstation dimensions to display placement, ensuring that designs support human performance rather than hinder it.
Common Control Room Design Pitfalls to Avoid
Even with standards and best practices available, organizations often fall into predictable design traps. These mistakes not only reduce efficiency but can also contribute to serious safety and performance failures.
Overloading Operators with Too Many Screens or Responsibilities
Operators can only process a limited number of critical displays at once. When consoles are overloaded with monitors or when alarm systems trigger simultaneously, situational awareness drops.
- During the 1979 Three Mile Island incident, operators faced dozens of conflicting alarms and ambiguous instrumentation data, making it difficult to diagnose the true system state. This confusion delayed corrective action and contributed to the partial meltdown (NRC report).
Ignoring Acoustic Treatments
Noise is an often-overlooked factor in control rooms. Constant background noise or echo makes it harder to concentrate and can increase fatigue, especially during long shifts.
- A recent study of process-industry operators found that noise and acoustic distractions were consistently reported as key barriers to focus and performance, underscoring the importance of sound-absorbing materials and acoustic planning (Nature Scientific Reports, 2025).
Overlooking Lighting Design
Lighting directly affects how operators interpret information. Glare, poor contrast, or inconsistent light sources can cause eye strain, misread data, and reduce alertness.
- Human factors evaluations by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have flagged poor lighting design as a recurring weakness in nuclear control rooms, with glare and low-contrast conditions identified as contributors to operator error (NRC HF Evaluation).
Failing to Plan for Growth
Many control rooms are designed for current needs without anticipating future demands. As more data sources, monitoring tools, and displays are added, operators are forced into cluttered environments that compromise ergonomics.
- Industry reviews note that static layouts quickly become obsolete when utilities and industrial plants expand monitoring systems. Flexible, modular consoles and layouts allow for scaling without sacrificing operator comfort (MDPI, 2024).
Prioritizing symmetry at the cost of performance
A symmetrical layout may look orderly, but it becomes problematic when it forces consoles or displays into positions that conflict with operator tasks and sightlines. In the Improved ergonomic layout design of metro control center, designers used simulation methods to adjust layout away from strict symmetry when it interfered with ergonomic placement or visibility. Nature
Furthermore, human factors literature (e.g. Human Factors in Design of Control Rooms for Process Industries) cautions that many older control rooms were built around symmetrical grids of instrumentation rather than human-centred task layouts. Over time, this contributes to compromised ergonomics, extra operator effort, and reduced situational awareness. Purdue Engineering
In other words, balance is fine, but never at the expense of operator-centric alignment, natural fields of view, and unencumbered workflow.
How Tresco Consoles Supports Better Control Room Design
At Tresco Consoles, we design with ISO 11064 principles at the core. Our AEGIS, NEXUS, and VANGUARD product lines offer flexible, ergonomic solutions for every type of control room environment. From modular layouts to advanced motorized backwalls, our consoles adapt to operator needs, ensuring that your control room design delivers long-term value and peak performance.
the main reason why this matters?
The Golden Rule for Good Control Room Design is that the Operator is at the Center of the Design
If the design process for the control room begins with a particular product, then the process isn’t being done correctly. The products that you select need to support the functional requirements of the space; starting the process with a particular product imposes the constraints of that product onto the space before you have understood what problems you are trying to solve.
At Tresco, our design process looks like this:
Frequently Asked Questions About Control Room Design
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What are the key principles of control room design?
Ergonomics, proper sightlines, intuitive workflow, and compliance with ISO 11064 standards are essential.
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Why are ergonomics important in control room design?
Operators work long shifts, and poor ergonomics lead to fatigue, strain, and mistakes. Good design reduces these risks and supports alertness.
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What standards guide modern control room design?
ISO 11064 is the global standard, providing guidelines for workstation dimensions, monitor placement, and overall layout.
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How do I choose the right console for my control room design?
It depends on your environment. AEGIS is ideal for fast deployment, NEXUS supports modular collaboration, and VANGUARD offers premium ergonomics and customization.
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What mistakes should be avoided in control room design?
Avoid prioritizing aesthetics over function, overloading operators, ignoring acoustic/lighting design, and failing to plan for future expansion.
Evan Turner
Key Account Manager
Evan Turner is a Key Account Manager at Tresco Industries, a leading manufacturer of 24/7-use control room furniture. With over nine years of experience in B2B sales and proposal management, he has worked with Fortune 500 companies to deliver tailored solutions for mission-critical environments. Known for his expertise in control room operations and client-focused approach, Evan helps businesses optimize performance and efficiency with innovative furniture solutions.
Tresco has been manufacturing custom consoles for 24/7 use critical operations centers since the early 1990s. We place a strong emphasis on operator-centered design. We want to share our collective experience working on hundreds of unique control room projects to help people make better control room design decisions.
