THE DESIGN OF THE USER-INTERFACE FOR A LARGE PHYSICS EXPERIMENT

The paper describes the experience in developing and supporting the user interface of RFX, one of the large nuclear fusion experiments of the co-ordinated nuclear fusion experiment programme of the European Community. The aim of this work is to present the problems and some possible solutions when developing user interfaces in a scientific environment, especially in large physics experiments. An overview of the current state of interface technology in such an environment is first provided. The control and data acquisition system of the RFX experiment is then introduced and its user interface described in greater detail. Finally, our experience both in maintaining the system interface and in training its users is described.