Designers
Intuity Media Lab GmbH / Roman Grasy, Robert Wilderotter, Ricarda Schuhmann, Lukas Siegele, Simon Merath, Ludwig Rensch, Christoph Witte
Year
2020
Category
Product
Country
Germany
»The EDNA system convinced the jury as a promising approach to provide a single solution for different challenges in connected production systems. The ecosystem with its recognizable UI philosophy combines machine control and monitoring with data visualization. It is a great example of an industrial company that successfully moves towards user-centricity.«
Martin Jentsch
Three questions to the project team
1. What was the particular challenge of the project from a UX point of view?
The challenge in developing the EDNA software ecosystem was to establish a uniform operating structure for all machine tools. To do this, it is important to know that machine tools vary widely. A laser welding machine has completely different functions than a gear cutting machine, and this in turn is completely different from a hardening machine. This resulted in the most diverse requirements, which the machine operators brought into the development process. It was necessary to develop intuitive UX patterns and visualizations from these complex requirements and integrate them into the machine operation in order to generate the desired added value for everyone.
2. What was your personal highlight in the development process? Was there an aha!-moment, was there a low point?
One highlight was certainly the equipping of the first machine with our new HMI, on which the new user interface was installed. It was great to see a real machine being operated with the new UX.The biggest "aha" moment for us was when, in one of the many sessions, it suddenly became clear that our project was actually working. At first it was not at all sure if there could be a common UX for all machines. As I mentioned before, machine tools vary widely. But suddenly there was this certainty, and that gave the project another real boost.
3. Where do you see yourself and the project in the next five years?
In five years we will have left the project status and our team will be an integral part of the development of machine tools. We assume that software development will be on a par with hardware development and that they will influence each other. That e.g. new sensor technology for machine monitoring will be installed and new software will enable new methods in production, e.g. AI-controlled production, which independently plans optimal production processes and service intervals. The EDNA software ecosystem will be at the centre of these developments and will make all these things possible - perhaps even already on machines by other manufacturers.
