alt Hacker NewsIt's great that so much about those old control rooms is posted here lately!
One thing I notice is how much efforts had been spent to illustrate both the current status of the system, but also it's overall structure and how the two relate - i.e. the actual components of the facility.
Almost all of the dashboards here have some kind of graph, showing the wiring or plumbing between components, or in case of railway control, the railway lines. The graph acts like a map on which status indicators or switches can be placed.
Compare that to modern software "dashboards" which are full of complicated charts showing various metrics, but almost never show the structure of the system.
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I am an automation engineer for power generation and transmission facilities. Modern industrial HMIs that are the analogue of this always show the structure of the system. This is a weirdly common thing people have been saying on these threads and I have no idea why.
I feel that when you see actual plant control systems they tend to have some sort of visual design. Software might just be especially different as many times there is no clear physical things to represent.