Flow Control - Jan 2012
Emerson Process Managements Device Dashboards employ human centered design principles to improve ease of use At a glance status and one button shortcuts speed task completion for evaluating diagnosing and configuring field devices Photo courtesy of Emerson Process Management emersonprocess com ment out of the product the end users arent going to do it says Toavs As such he says the most critical aspect of Emersons Device Dashboards is how easy they make it for the end user to perform the most important and most common tasks associated with field devices The User Is No 1 Toavs says Emersons Human Centered Design approach is about creating a user first mindset within the company Instead of reviewing the products to see if they are meeting requirements we are training our designers and they have been thoroughly dipped in the goo of HCD and carry it with them every day says Toavs Emerson has partnered with Luma Institute luma institute com to conduct research and develop training modules that revolve around human centered design And in what Toavs believes is a sign of affirmation Emerson Process Managements Human Centered Design program has been adopted by its parent company Emerson which recently hired its own HCD director who is collaborating with Toavs to drive the concept of Human Centered Design on a company wide scale HCD Brain Drain As industry faces the retirement of many of its more experienced technical professionals in the years to come and as universities particularly in the United States are struggling to generate more Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics STEM graduates a trend toward easy to use products may seem as though it will further exacerbate the shortfall of technical knowhow many companies now face The question arises that if the next generation of engineering and technical professionals are interfacing only with products that bring the easiest and most common tasks to the forefront will this stunt the sort of innovation and creativity by Matt Migliore that is the product of working with technology in a more traditional hands on fashion Emerson sees the issue from a different perspective Through human centered design it believes it is enabling technical professionals to more effectively perform the tasks of their jobs The workforce is what it is says Toavs and we have to do what we can to help them do their jobs more efficiently Toavs uses an example from the early stages of his career when he worked in a plant environment to show how technology can change the landscape for the better He says the plant was upgrading to distributed control systems DCS which his supervisor an old school veteran engineer was somewhat skeptical about As a result the supervisor who Toavs says was the type of guy who liked his operators to feel the vibration in the pipes ordered the installation of expensive board mounted controllers in case the DCS ever went down Not one time in the history of the plant did they have to get up to touch those boardmounted controllers after the DCS was installed says Toavs He says the lesson learned from that experience is that while hands on experience is certainly an asset technology when properly designed and employed can offer a safer and more efficient alternative Circle 24 or Request Info Instantly at www FlowControlNetwork com www FlowControlNetwork com January 2012 35
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