Since I'm a volunteer firefighter I have access to high-tech, low-tech and inbetween-tech toys.  Because of the environment we work in, controls and displays have to be simple: we don't have time to spend fooling around so the designs and interfaces are meant to provide critical information instantly and the controls are limitied to basic functions.

For instance currently the highest tech hardware we have in operation is a thermal imager.  Very sophisticated technology.  The controls for the unit consist of one big button.  Press and hold the button to turn the unit on or off, or press it quickly when the unit is on to put it in standby, press once more to come out of standby.

That's it.

We have heads-up displays for our breathing apparatus located in front of our masks.  The display is four little red lights: 4 lights is a full tank, three lights is 3/4, two is half a tank of air left, one light is a quarter, that one link blinking (accompanied by a high-pitched whine that will drive you nuts) means get out of the building now.

Sure, we could go with LCD displays in the masks and such (and some of our air packs have an LCD display showing exact pressure in the tank and estimate of time remaining located on a device you have to look down at) but it's not necessary.  We need to know roughly how much air we have left and when it is time to get out.  Nothing more complicated than that.

The reason I'm mentioning this is because it's an example of interfaces and controls that are designed to provide information or pass commands fast and efficiently, telling you what you really need to know.  For the thermal imager the onboard computer controls things like adjusting the aperture of the lens, adjusting the brightness of the display by taking light conditions into account, adjusting the temperature scale on the display and so on.  I don't need to do that when I'm using the device.  All I need to do is turn it on and off.  So that's the controls they gave me.

So if I were designing the command bridge of a starship I'd take that into account.  What controls does the helmsman actually need versus the navigator (if they are two different people).  Is two big buttons labelled "GO" and "STOP" all they really need because the computer handles the rest?

Similarly, at a life support station are they going to have extensive displays showing the percentages of gases in the air and humidity and pressure and temperature or are they simply going to have a few displays that basically say "OK", "YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS", "PAY ATTENTION TO THIS NOW" and "YOU"RE ALL GONNA DIE!" and if you want more details, well, then you have to bring up the specifics on a monitor.