Why SA Principles Matter

Each principle addresses a specific design challenge that affects operators, engineers, and teams as they monitor and respond to real-time process information.

The Clear Picture SA framework evolves as new principles emerge through real-world testing, research, and practical implementation experience.

The framework draws from established Situation Awareness (SA) models originally developed in aviation, military, and healthcare — fields where real-time operational decisions require clear perception, comprehension, and projection. Clear Picture SA adapts these principles to the context of industrial operations and process monitoring.

How SA Levels Work

Each principle is linked to one of three levels of Situation Awareness:

• SA Level 1 — Perception: Recognizing what’s happening now. Focused on visibility, freshness, and presence of data.
• SA Level 2 — Comprehension: Understanding what it means. Focused on patterns, deviation, relationships, and meaningful change.
• SA Level 3 — Projection: Anticipating what happens next. Focused on prediction, risk exposure, or estimating future states.

These levels serve as orientation points, helping designers understand the cognitive role a visualization plays in supporting user decision-making.

Current Principles

• Information Timeliness
  “How current is this information I’m seeing?”
• Deviation
  “How far am I from where I should be?”