Hardware interface design: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:35, 30 April 2014

Latest revision as of 10:43, 10 August 2025

(27 intermediate revisions by 18 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{Short description|Cross-disciplinary design field}}

[[File:Braun T1000CD Closeup.jpg|thumb|[[Dieter Rams]], and by extension [[Braun (company)|Braun]], produced minimal yet tactile hardware interfaces for a variety of products such as this Braun T1000CD.]]

'''Hardware interface design''' ('''HID''') is a cross-disciplinary design field that shapes the physical connection between people and technology in order to create new hardware interfaces that transform purely digital processes into analog methods of interaction. It employs a combination of filmmaking tools, software prototyping, and electronics breadboarding.

Through this parallel visualization and development, hardware interface designers are able to shape a cohesive vision alongside business and engineering that more deeply embeds design throughout every stage of the product. The development of hardware interfaces as a field continues to mature as more things connect to the internet.

Hardware interface designers draw upon [[industrial design]], [[interaction design]] and [[electrical engineering]]. Interface elements include [[touchscreens]], knobs, buttons, sliders and switches as well as input sensors such as microphones, cameras, and accelerometers.

[[File:OP-1 Sequencer Concept.png|thumb|The [[Teenage Engineering OP-1]] combines a mixture of hardware buttons, knobs, and a color-coded OLED display.]]

[[Image:IPod Nano 4G black.jpg|thumb|An [[iPod]], an iconic & revolutionary hardware interface that re-imagined the [[jog wheel]].]]

[[Image:IPod Nano 4G black.jpg|thumb|An [[iPod]], an iconic & revolutionary hardware interface that re-imagined the [[jog wheel]].]]

'''Hardware Interface Design''' is a transdisciplinary design field that shapes the physical connection between people & technology. The development of hardware interfaces as a field is both unique and budding and continues to mature as more and more things around us connect to the internet and operate with grander digital implications.

==Profession History ==

Hardware interface designers have the sensibility of a designer, ingenuity of an engineer, the ability to converse fluently with creative and technical teams, and a limitless passion for learning and tinkering with unproven and cutting edge technologies and user interaction models. By drawing upon the fields of [[industrial design]], [[interaction design]], and [[electrical engineering]] hardware interface designers are able to transcend the typical boundaries of each respective field in order to prototype and invent physical interfaces that feel, sound, and behave beautifully.

In the last decade a trend had evolved in the area of human-machine-communication, taking the user experience from haptic, tactile and acoustic interfaces to a more digitally graphical approach. Important tasks that had been assigned to the industrial designers so far, had instead been moved into fields like UI and UX design and usability engineering. The creation of good user interaction was more a question of software than hardware. Things like having to push two buttons on the tape recorder to have them pop back out again and the cradle of some older telephones remain mechanical haptic relicts that have long found their digital nemesis and are waiting to disappear.

While glossy [[touchscreens]] have their time & place, so do knobs, buttons, sliders, and switches in the grander toolset of hardware interface design. These all then culminate to answer one simple, driving question during the job: what do we want people to feel, when using technology?

However, this excessive use of GUIs in today’s world has led to a worsening impairment of the human cognitive capabilities.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} Visual interfaces are at the maximum of their upgradability. Even though the resolution of new screens is constantly rising, you can see a change of direction away from the descriptive intuitive design to natural interface strategies, based on learnable habits (Google’s [[Material Design]], Apple’s [[iOS]] flat design, Microsoft’s [[Metro Design Language]]). Several of the more important commands are not shown directly but can be accessed through dragging, holding and swiping across the screen; gestures which have to be learned once but feel very natural afterwards and are easy to remember.

==Examples==

In the area of controlling these systems, there is a need to move away from GUIs and instead find other means of interaction which use the full capabilities of all our senses. Hardware interface design solves this by taking physical forms and objects and connecting them with digital information to have the user control virtual data flow through grasping, moving and manipulating the used physical forms.

An example of a hardware interface could include a remote control, kitchen timer, control panel for a nuclear power plant<ref>{{cite web|title=User interface design in safety parameter display systems: direction for enhancement|url=http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=27496|publisher=Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab|accessdate=28 June 2011|author=E.E. Shultz|coauthors=G.L. Johnson}}</ref> or even the cockpit of an aircraft.<ref>{{cite web|title=DESIGNING USER-INTERFACES FOR THE COCKPIT:|url=http://human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/publications/feary_CockpitUIDesignErrors.pdf|publisher=Society of Automotive Engineers|accessdate=28 June 2011|author=Lance Sherry|coauthors=Peter Polson, Michael Feary}}</ref>

If you see the classic industrial hardware interface design as an “analog” method, it finds its digital counterpart in the HID approach. Instead of translating analog methods of control into a virtual form via a GUI, one can see the TUI as an approach to do the exact opposite: transmitting purely digital processes into analog methods of interaction.<ref>{{cite web|title=Human factors and ergonomics of future Smarthome Appliances|url=http://experimental-platform.tumblr.com/post/132397946935/human-factors-and-ergonomics-of-future-smarthome|publisher=Protonet|access-date=16 January 2016|archive-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006151325/http://experimental-platform.tumblr.com/post/132397946935/human-factors-and-ergonomics-of-future-smarthome|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{Unreliable source|date=September 2019|sure=y|reason=Cites a Tumblr blog post which cites other Wikipedia articles.}}

Another example is the [[computer mouse]]. It combines hardware interface staple features such as buttons and a scrolling wheel with an innovative two-dimensional motion tracking laser. Dragging the mouse over a flat surface and have a pointer moves on the screen accordingly. There is a very clear relationship about the behaviors shown by a system with the movements of a mouse.

==References Examples ==

{{reflist|2}}

AnExample examplehardware ofinterfaces include a hardware[[computer interfacemouse]], could include aTV remote control, kitchen timer, control panel for a nuclear power plant<ref>{{cite webbook|titlechapter=User interface design in safety parameter display systems: direction for enhancement|url=http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=27496|publisher=Lawrence Livermore Nat. Lab|accessdate=28 June 2011|author=E.E. Shultz|coauthorsauthor2=G.L. Johnson|title=Conference Record for 1988 IEEE Fourth Conference on Human Factors and Power Plants|pages=165–170|doi=10.1109/HFPP.1988.27496|year=1988}}</ref> or even the cockpit ofand an aircraft cockpit.<ref>{{cite web|title=DESIGNING USER-INTERFACES FOR THE COCKPIT:|url=http://human-factors.arc.nasa.gov/publications/feary_CockpitUIDesignErrors.pdf|publisher=Society of Automotive Engineers|accessdateaccess-date=28 June 2011|author=Lance Sherry|coauthorsauthor2=Peter Polson, |author3=Michael Feary }}</ref>

==See also==

{{div col|cols=2}}

*[[Interaction design]]

*[[Interface design]]

*[[Industrial design]]

*[[Kinetic user interface]]

*[[User experience design]]

*[[User-centered design]]

*[[Tangible User Interface]]

*[[Organic User Interface]]

*[[Service design]]

*[[Usability]]

{{div col end}}

== See also ==

{{Multiple issues|{{refimprove|date=April 2014}}{{copy edit|date=April 2014}}}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

* [[Interaction design]]

* [[Interface design]]

* [[Industrial design]]

* [[Kinetic user interface]]

* [[User experience design]]

* [[User-centered design]]

* [[Tangible Useruser Interfaceinterface]]

* [[Organic Useruser Interfaceinterface]]

* [[Service design]]

* [[Usability]]

}}

== References ==

{{reflist|2}}

{{Design}}

[[Category:Systems engineering]]

[[Category:Interfaces]]

[[Category:User interfaces]]

{{stub}}