When a Northern Line quart won't fit into a Jubilee Line pint

Early design development of line OverView Display (OVD) was undertaken before the signalling supplier had developed the line overview diagrams for the Jubilee and Northern lines and this development confirmed an OVD based on... [ view full abstract ]

Early design development of line OverView Display (OVD) was undertaken before the signalling supplier had developed the line overview diagrams for the Jubilee and Northern lines and this development confirmed an OVD based on twin 32” LCD displays as sufficient for the Jubilee and Northern Line diagrams. Subsequent development of the Jubilee Line and Northern Line diagrams by Thales demonstrated that 32” displays were sufficiently large for the Jubilee Line but might not be optimal for the Northern Line (NL). The size and complexity of the NL diagram and the different information needs required additional development of the NL OVD. A user centred approach was adopted to develop the requirements and the interface design. The post commissioning assessments clearly showed the OVD interface achieving the highest usability score for all the new interfaces, which vindicates the approach adopted by the Human Factors Engineers.