Relevant keywords

Industrial machinery, User interface guidelines, Packaging

Design goal

In an effort to bring together the user interface developments of both its European and American branches, Langen Group commissioned VanBerlo to develop a new set of harmonized UI guidelines for its products.

Specific role & contribution

• Project planning and management, including preparation of quotes and direct communication with client
• Organized on-site visits and workshops with the client for an in-depth analysis of the product
• Responsible for all conceptualization and styling activities
• Direct communication with developers and support during production phase

The project

Langen Group is an industrial packaging machinery producer. These machines are controlled by an operator through the use of a control panel including a resistive touchscreen from which different parameters can be set and processes can be controlled and monitored. VanBerlo was commissioned to review and visualize the current structure of the machine’s user interface. A new styling proposal should also be defined to adequately fit the system, both in terms of the professional look that is sought-after, as well as the system’s technical limitations.

Research and analysis

On-site visits to Langen were organized in order to gather more information regarding the products affected by the new UI guidelines. The visit aimed to collect general background information about the product, the context of use and the end users.

A workshop with Langen engineers was organized to review the current navigation structure and changes were proposed the basis of the identified key aspects of the on-site visit.

Conceptualization and styling

The revised structure was then visualized as screen mockups and a single styling proposal (based on VanBerlo’s experience with similar products) was developed and applied to a selection of representative screens.

Production support

There was a constant communication with the developers as part of the projects production support. This resulted in requests for new types of screens from new machines, which fell outside the scope of the original guidelines. The graphical assets for implementation of the software were exported according to the necessary slicing required by the developers.