New HMI by Harro Höfliger: Intuitive like a Smartphone

For a long time, the Human Machine Interface (HMI) by Harro Höfliger has been regarded as a benchmark. The intuitive new HMI generation shows that even with the best system there is still room for improvement. After being awarded the iF Design Award in the communication category, the control panel was also nominated for the German Design Award 2017, one of the most important awards for groundbreaking design. The ergonomically designed HMI was developed together with CaderaDesign, a specialist for industry and user interface design. The primary objective was to offer the operator highest comfort and transparency without generating additional costs for the customer. The solution is convincing: All functions can be comfortably controlled via touch display. Swipe and zoom functions as on the smartphone or tablet facilitate easy operation without training efforts. Furthermore, the interfaces enable strategies and concepts for Industry 4.0. While the proven menu navigation of the previous HMI generation was based on stations, the operating and interaction principle of the new type is also based on tasks. That way, the operator is quickly guided through the user interface as required by the situation – whether the task is a machine set-up, changeover, loading new recipes or starting batch recording. The customizing feature provides an even better overview: The machine data is displayed in widgets on the terminal. From a machine-specific content palette, operators can individually select the widgets relevant to their Tasks.

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