The Power of Prototyping for a Human Machine Interface Design concept

Prototypes of single devices or whole machines are built since decades. So prototyping is not really new - it only becomes more and more interesting for different industries and "stages" of product development due to the progressive development of technology and tools.

The interface between humans and machines is a critical part of the whole user experience (UX). Therefore special attention should be paid to ensure that the user's requirements are met when developing the user interface design concept.

Especially in machine engineering or the industrial environment in general, it is important that information is displayed in a way that it cannot be misunderstood. For that, prototyping the HMI screens is very suitable.

What is a prototype?

A prototype is a simple model that may be developed in the future. The prototype is usually used to validate a particular idea. The functionality of a prototype can range from single hand-drawn sketches to fully functional demo systems that are already close to the final product.

If a picture is worth 1000 words, a prototype is worth 1000 meetings

The main advantages of prototyping

1. Early detection of errors: Believe me, every error you detect in the prototyping phase costs you significantly less money than at a later stage in the development process.
2. Collaboration: Collaborate with several members of the team due to the fact that ideas are documented very early in the process, these ideas can be discussed much better in the team.
3. Get users feedback: Presenting an Human Machine Interface concept as a prototype to potential customers is much easier than communicating an idea via voice. The customers compare the new concept with their own experiences and working methods and bring incredibly valuable feedback into the development process. Afterwards this feedback can be easily integrated into the next iteration of the prototype.
4. Pre-development validation: Prototyping allows you to have various discussions between iterations before it goes into final development. This iterative process makes it easier for you to know that what you want to build is exactly what the customer needs.

Tools you can use to create a user interface prototype

Pen and paper

As mentioned above, prototypes differ greatly in their implementation. As the simplest form of the prototype, it is quite sufficient to put first thoughts on paper as a simple sketch. These sketches are perfectly suited as a basis for discussion for all further steps.

Microsoft Power Point

Yes - Power Point!!! The big advantage of this tool is that nearly every person has already worked with it and knows how to handle it. With Power Point it is therefore possible to create an interactive prototype within a few minutes. This is often enough to validate that the fundamental concept will work.

Adobe Experience Design (Adobe XD)

Adobe XD is a tool specifically designed for the design of digital interfaces. From design to the creation of interactive prototypes, all steps are covered. Recently, Adobe XD has also been introduced as a free, full-featured entry-level solution.

Conclusion

In my opinion - prototyping a user interface is a very powerful tool to ensure, that the HMI design concept you are developing is exactly what the user will need for the final system. There should be no excuse not to spend the extra effort for that, because your end product will be much more better!

The tools are here and most of them are available for free! You just have to start :-)