OpenBridge Design System: Improve efficiency and safety in the maritime sector through user experience design.

The OpenBridge Design System is a toolbox of design guidelines designed to improve the user experience on board ships and ultimately enable safer operations at sea. These guidelines are based on ongoing research from multiple academic partners and are designed to minimize human error and improve operational efficiency.

OpenBridge design system analysis

Efficient user interface design is critical for all applications, but especially for safety-critical applications in the maritime sector. However, advanced workplaces also present additional challenges in terms of user interface integration that must be considered. Many maritime workplaces are made up of multiple systems that are integrated in one workplace, often independently designed by individual manufacturers, and even if each system is well designed, users must understand and master how different manufacturers’ user interfaces operate. Inconsistent design is a well-known challenge in user interface design, which can increase the chances of user error, reduce efficiency, and cause a slower learning system. Therefore, it is essential to establish consistent design principles and standards to ensure the seamless integration of multiple systems in the workplace.

How can user experience design improve efficiency?

In response to this issue, OpenBridge Design guidelines were developed to support all workplaces on board ships, as well as land-based workplaces for maritime operations. The project is led by Professor Kjetil Nordby of the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (www.openbridge.no). The guidance provides tools and methods to simplify the implementation, design and approval of maritime workplaces and equipment.

The OpenBridge design system and its associated guidelines provide a valuable framework for the maritime industry to achieve this goal. By adhering to OpenBridge standards, designers can minimize user errors, increase efficiency, and simplify the learning process for operators. Ultimately, a well-designed and well-integrated user interface will help improve safety and productivity in the maritime industry.

Festim Zuta, User Experience Designer at Nord Electronics, said: “The goal of the OpenBridge Design Guide is to ensure a consistent user experience that helps operators immediately understand the information they are seeing, making it easier to identify errors, switch easily between systems, reduce the risk of misunderstanding, and simplify the decision-making process. These design elements are based on the results of research in the maritime field.”

By following OpenBridge design guidelines, suppliers can optimize their development processes, costs, and improve the user experience for operators, ultimately contributing to greater safety and efficiency in the maritime industry.

OpenBridge templates are available for iX and Beier Electronics HMI

Beier Electronics recently launched a template for following OpenBridge Guidelines on SmartStore, a resource that serves as a valuable example of how to design Marine graphics in iX software based on OpenBridge Design Guidelines.

OpenBridge offers a design guide and hundreds of free ICONS for the maritime user interface, all of which can be used with the Figma design tool.

Festim said: “The iX OpenBridge template is a guide and example of how our customers can implement the OpenBridge Guidelines on iX and their Hmis. For example, you can find different menu backgrounds made in four different color styles to suit the lighting conditions when operating at sea: night, dusk, day and harsher daytime environments.”

If you want to design a modern and user-friendly HMI application that is not just for the Marine industry, the iX OpenBridge template is the perfect choice.

“We’re seeing that simple features like Dark mode are becoming more popular with users, and with this template, you don’t need to spend time designing the placement of buttons, ICONS or menu bars, which are already provided and configured in the OpenBridge design!” Festim said.