A new tablet press user interface for GEA: easy to use, scalable and … beautiful
The project 10 years ago Human Interface Group designed GEA’s Multi-Control 4 (MC4) user interface. It was a revolutionary design in the world of tablet press HMIs (Human-Machine Interfaces) and it has served GEA’s customers worldwide extremely well.
In those 10 years, GEA’s tablet press machinery has evolved enormously: ! output volume increased to maximize
productivity ! tablet presses became more modular,
tailored to clients’ diversified demands ! extra functions like bi-layer tableting were
added, anticipating new needs in the market ! machines became safer and easier to
handle for operators and supervisors ! quality control mechanisms became more
refined and efficient
Figure 1. ModulS rotary tablet press
For these and additional reasons, GEA conceptualized an all-new controller: a project code-named ‘MCS’. The MCS would blow away competition, delight existing customers and attract new clients. And the beautiful and well-thought design would help to achieve those goals. In this project case you discover how we accomplished this feat.
The challenge In 2003 Human Interface Group and GEA combined their skills to create a state-of-the-art, touch-based user interface for the MC4. The goal and the challenge of this project were to visualize a logical process and workflow to operate the tablet press machines.
Figure 2. MC4 user interface, as originally designed by Human Interface Group in 2003 with focus on process and workflow
Over the years, this design has served customers very well, but at the same time it lived a tough life. To keep up with the blistering evolutionary pace of tablet press technology and its complex functionalities, the original interface of the MC4 had to be continuously expanded in order to house growing features and functions.
To prevent the MC4 becoming outdated and surpassed by competitor systems, GEA took timely action in 2013 and hired Human Interface Group to do a full redesign of the controller: the new MCS. This touchscreen HMI raises the bar for the entire tablet press industry in functionality, look-and-feel, ease of use and design.
The results With the new MCS controller, GEA offers a user interface that astonishes customers and makes the competition look pale. Its groundbreaking fresh design is beautiful to behold and is unique in the tablet press industry.
Figure 4. The new Production screen
Not only the software, but also the hardware of the machinery is completely revamped. Delivering products to multiple sectors – such as the very demanding pharmaceutical industry - requires fully adaptable and customizable software and equipment.
The new, bolder and faster MCS anticipates technical evolution and guarantees full flexibility for expansion of functions. It is developed and designed in a timeless and clean way, suited for serving the worldwide customer base for at least another 10 years.
“Through close cooperation between our team and the designers of Human Interface Group, we have created a clear and user friendly state–of–the–art design.”
“During the project HIG showed to be a versatile and flexible partner. They thoroughly discussed their innovative graphical ideas and concepts with several colleagues from different departments and then refined the designs based on their opinions and feedback.”
What we did We started with designing the main components: the dashboard bar at the top, the menu bar at the bottom and a sliding panel on the right. From day one, the focus was set on a clean and simple interface while keeping the platform as open as possible for scalability in the years to come. The interface needs to provide space for expansion, layers for multiple user profiles and loads of information both essential and secondary.
Discussions and focus groups with several stakeholders gradually resulted in screen designs that represented the ideas originating from within GEA, while continuously keeping user experience and simplicity in mind as the primary driver of the project.
In order to be able to deliver a ‘wow’ effect, the screen design phase was followed by a visual design trajectory. When designing the graphical style, Human Interface Group constantly focuses on user-friendliness, simplicity and cleanliness, by finding the perfect balance between nice graphics and usability. Not an artistic and over-the-top design, with too much ‘look’ and not enough ‘feel’, but a state-of-the-art in which user experience users come first.
The new graphical style breathes cleanliness, color and nature and gives the screen a beautiful and fresh layout. It enables GEA to distinguish itself from other companies worldwide by emphasizing its vision and mission statement ‘Engineering for a better world’ and by establishing the much-wanted ‘wow’ effect.
Figure 5. The new Product selection screen
Human Interface Group carried out the following tasks: ! Designing mock-ups (wireframes, design concepts and a click model),
thereby focusing on the main structure of the screens, the navigation, displaying of information data and mechanisms to enter data.
! Validating the mock-ups in a focus group ! Creating the visual design
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