Flow Control - Jan 2012
useability file Designed for Use Emersons Human Centered Design Approach Editors Note This is the first in a regular column called the Useability File This series aims to highlight innovations in technology and business practices that make managing industrial processes more efficient for end users Ideas for future Useability Files can be submitted to FlowControl@ GrandViewMedia com T he concept of human centered design HCD is a philosophy that puts the user at the forefront of the product development cycle Whereas a traditional product design process generally focuses on building features into a solution a humancentered approach hones in on the needs wants and limitations of the end user and tailors the product along those lines This user first design process aims to enable end users to more efficiently accomplish those tasks that are most important to them in their day to day interaction with a given technology The International Standards Organization iso org has developed a specification ISO 9241 210 2010 that outlines the core characteristics of human centered design According to ISO this standard is intended to be used by those managing design processes and is concerned with ways in which both hardware and software components of interactive systems can enhance human system interaction Emerson Takes On Human Centered Design In 2005 Emerson Process Management emersonprocess com began investing in its human centered design initiative which was developed in accordance with ISO 9241 210 and is now the foundation of Emersons product design process However Duane Toavs director of Emerson Process Managements Human Centered Design Institute says this usercentered culture has not taken root without a fair amount of hard work and a change in mindset and approach I believe we have the smartest people in the world working on our technology says Toavs But what seems simple to them is really complicated to most other people Because of this dynamic Toavs says it has taken some training and effort to get Emersons product designers to see the world through the eyes of the end user This is why we created the Human Centered Design Institute says Toavs The institute was formed in 2009 with the aim of training Emersons product designers on the principles of human centered design and enabling the companys HCD culture The motivation behind Emersons human centered design push came from the users themselves Toavs says Emerson found that while it was building a lot of advanced functionality into its products much of it was not being utilized When Emerson asked its users why they werent leveraging what on face value seemed to be particularly advantageous features the typical reply was that while such options may have been helpful they were often too complicated and or time consuming to install Upon this realization Toavs says Emersons leadership team recognized the company needed to make systems that were more intuitive and easier to use And so the company began its journey along the human centered design path immersing all of its product design associates in user first design principles Features vs Accomplishing Tasks At the heart of Emersons Human Centered Design initiative is a narrow focus on how end users accomplish the day to day tasks of their job Human centered design is not a feature says Toavs In fact he says the term feature is actually frowned upon by those at Emerson who spend their time thinking about human centered design Instead he says the mantra for describing HCD at Emerson is designed for purpose David Holmes public relations manager for Emerson Process Management says one of the executives at Emerson regularly uses the metaphor of a hotel room alarm clock to explain how product designers can lose sight of what is important to endusers and get too caught up in designing for features All you want from a hotel room alarm clock is a sound that will wake you up at the appropriate time in the morning but it has all of these other features in it says Holmes He points out that the average alarm clock may have a CD player an iPod dock a variety of ambient sound settings an AM FM tuner a reading light etc Somewhere along the line Holmes says the designers of the alarm clock got so wrapped up in building features into their product that they lost sight of the end user With its Human Centered Design initiative Holmes says Emerson is fostering a product design culture that positions the end user as the focal point of the companys technology development roadmap Emersons human centered design approach is highlighted in its Device Dashboards which were developed with the aim of streamlining the end users typical interaction with field devices The Device Dashboards provide in one glance a view of everything users need to evaluate diagnose and configure a field device Each has embedded expert guidance to streamline the most important and frequent tasks performed by plant operations engineering and maintenance personnel Toavs says Emerson has conducted extensive research to support the development of its Device Dashboards and to quantify the efficiencies they provide He says results show the Device Dashboards provide an efficiency improvement on the order of 8 to 1 compared to traditional methods for evaluating diagnosing and configuring field devices Nevertheless he says this efficiency improvement would be for naught if the Device Dashboards werent first and foremost easy to use If it requires a bunch of effort to get the return on invest 34 January 2012 Flow Control
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