Extended Reality Light Feedback System

Three questions to the project team

What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
Our research activities regularly reveal that machine operators neglect using advanced assistive systems, mainly because they require operators to familiarize themselves with new interaction techniques, which often seem too complex due to poor and conventional design. In researching and exploring multimodal ways of information presentation including 'low-tech' interaction technologies we aim to reduce information complexity of industrial user interfaces ready for an even more digitalized but human-friendly future.

What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
Designing light feedback is very different from our conventional GUI design approaches. While, on first glimpse, light does not have much of a design space, we discovered a complex design space when it was about to combine color, brightness, position, and spread of light objects in dynamic animations. It was much fun to explore different designs that resulted in a light feedback system capable of conveying a surprisingly high level of complexity while still providing a very intuitive experience.

Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
After still spending time on developing and fine-tuning, we will show the light feedback system to the public next year and conduct more complex and scientific user studies in our lab and real test machines. We want to encourage machine manufactures and digital service providers to think outside the (display) box when developing user interfaces. We may see the first machines in production with our light feedback system in the next 5 years.