Responsive design ensures that websites adapt to the respective screen. Can the technology be applied 1:1 to the industry?

Stefan Niermann: Basically, yes. Responsive design doesn't just want to adapt the pages somehow, but to achieve a high-quality display and good usability on a variety of different screens. This includes mobile devices as well as fixed screens. As the industry also places these requirements on HMI and SCADA interfaces, this fits perfectly.

Responsive design needs elements that can be dynamically arranged or even shown and hidden depending on the screen. Consideration in the initial design is therefore preferable to the subsequent conversion of an interface.

Certain requirements must be met in industrial plants. How can these be reconciled with responsive design?

The effective and efficient monitoring and operation of an industrial plant requires an ergonomic design that enables the operator to make decisions and act quickly and safely. To do this, they need all the relevant information and operating options at the right time, in the right place and in the right form. If this is taken into account, the distinction between responsive and traditional design no longer plays a role. In fact, a responsive interface on a portable device can usefully supplement or replace the traditional interface.

What specific opportunities does responsive design offer the industry?

To answer this question, we need to take a closer look at the basis of responsive design. By definition, there are four different classes of screens: Smartphone, tablet and two desktop screens with different resolutions. For industry, we can deduce from this that a responsively implemented interface is ideally suited, for example, to bring information about the individual machine or the entire production process to these different device classes.

Stefan Niermann, Inosoft.

© Inosoft

The HMI of a machine can certainly also scale responsively on 10-, 12- and 15-inch screens. However, this must be planned and tested from the outset, as the approach does not provide for 'quasi-infinite' scaling.

What trends do you see in the HMI sector over the next five years?

Clearly the trend towards more openness. I'm currently seeing more and more app stores for automation technology, where users can freely compile the software modules they need and then conveniently transfer them to a target hardware. The main operating system used there is Linux and the software is transferred to the device as a Docker container, for example. Then, for example, our VisiWin Cross-Platform Server runs together with a PLC on the same device. These solutions are still in their infancy, but are just gaining momentum and will certainly become established over the next five years. The topic of networking and data will become increasingly important. I'm thinking of edge devices, connection to the cloud and IIoT.

Last but not least, users want to use more and more portable devices to monitor their machines or systems. I recently had a new development of data glasses in my hand. Many influences from the consumer market are coming to us in this area.

SPS 2022: Hall 7, Stand 480