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UX for industry and plant engineering
Operator interfaces for plants where every decision counts.
We design operator concepts and HMI screens for control systems, SCADA/MES and machine software — and test them with the operators who work with them in shifts. For machine and plant builders, automation integrators and operators who need the operator to keep the overview during an upset, and who want new software to be genuinely used after the rollout.
In short
Beabstracto is a UX studio in Munich for industrial control and expert software: HMI and plant visualisation, control systems (PCS/DCS), SCADA, MES and operator software for machines such as industrial furnaces. We observe in the control room and at the operator station, analyse tasks and plant states, design the operator concept, operator displays and alarm presentation, test with real operators and hand over documented specifications to engineering teams who build in WinCC Unified, TIA Portal, Qt/QML or web technologies. A first operator concept with tests typically takes six to ten weeks.
We align our work with ANSI/ISA-101.01, ANSI/ISA-18.2, EEMUA 191 and VDI/VDE 3699 — as references for good practice, not as certificates. The founder comes from industrial engineering in steam-turbine manufacturing at Siemens; most recently we modernised the legacy software of Ebner Industrieofenbau. On request we also support the rollout: key users, training, machine acceptance, deployment across sites.
At a glance
- Role
- UX/UI designer for machine builders, HMI designer, usability engineer — external, as a studio or as a single role in the project team
- Services
- Operator concept and HMI design, plant visualisation, alarm concept, usability tests with operators, modernisation of machine software, rollout support
- Industries
- Machine and plant engineering, industrial furnaces and heat treatment, power generation (steam-turbine manufacturing), process and discrete manufacturing
- Systems
- Figma for concept, prototype and design system; SAP manufacturing routings (case); handover to engineering in WinCC Unified, TIA Portal, Qt/QML or web technologies
- Location
- Remote, Munich, on site by arrangement — observation in control rooms and plants is always on site
- Languages
- German, English, Portuguese
Where do HMI and control systems fail in daily operation?
Rarely in the controller. Usually in an operator interface that works in normal operation and does not hold up during an upset. These are the five situations we hear most often.
Alarm flood instead of alarm management
During a fault, dozens of messages arrive at once and the originating alarm cannot be told from consequential ones. The operator learns to acknowledge alarms away — and one day misses the one that matters.
Displays that show everything and highlight nothing
The mimic is a full-colour copy of the P&ID with every value the same size. Whether the plant is running at setpoint or drifting is only visible to someone who carries the numbers in their head.
Unclear states, unclear options
Is the machine stopped, waiting, or starting up? Is the recipe step finished or merely triggered? If the state display cannot answer that within a second, the operator reaches for the phone, a sticky note or a second screen.
Knowledge lives with the veterans
The shift works because two colleagues know every quirk of the plant. Onboarding takes months and consists of spoken rules: “Ignore the value at the bottom, it is never current.” Each of those rules marks a spot where the interface does not create trust by itself.
Rollout without acceptance
The MES or line-control software is live and machine acceptance has been signed — and six months later shift handover runs on Excel and shouting again. Training alone does not fix this when the software does not reflect how shop-floor workers actually work, or when key users were never involved.
Numbers we can back up
Only numbers with a source — from our own project records or from the standards themselves.
- 80 %
- less lead time for documenting manufacturing routings in SAP after observation, automation and a template library
- 1–2 days → hours
- processing time per component list; manual sorting of commercial parts eliminated
- Ed. 4 / 2024
- current edition of EEMUA 191 on alarm systems, terminology aligned with ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682
- 6 parts
- VDI/VDE 3699 “Process control using display screens”: terminology, principles, mimics, curves, alarms/messages, interaction procedures (2014–2015)
Steam-turbine manufacturing case (project records)
Steam-turbine manufacturing case
EEMUA, November 2024
VDI/VDE-GMA
What we deliver
Four services, individually or as a package — always starting with observation at the operator station and ending with documented specifications for engineering.
Operator concept, displays and alarm concept for control systems, SCADA and machines
We develop the operator concept from the operators' tasks, not from the signal list: which decision is due when, and which plant state has to be visible for it? From that we derive the display hierarchy, operator displays following high-performance HMI principles, an alarm concept with priorities and acknowledgement logic, and an HMI style guide. We work in Figma and hand over so that WinCC, TIA Portal or Qt teams can build without re-translation.
- Task and state analysis per role (plant operator, shift leader, maintenance)
- Display hierarchy, navigation and operator displays as a clickable Figma prototype, including upset scenarios
- Alarm concept: priorities, presentation, acknowledgement — informed by ISA-18.2 / EEMUA 191
- HMI style guide and component library as the basis for a design system
- Handover documentation for engineering (WinCC Unified, TIA Portal, Qt/QML, web)
Operator concept, displays and alarm concept for control systems, SCADA and machines
We develop the operator concept from the operators' tasks, not from the signal list: which decision is due when, and which plant state has to be visible for it? From that we derive the display hierarchy, operator displays following high-performance HMI principles, an alarm concept with priorities and acknowledgement logic, and an HMI style guide. We work in Figma and hand over so that WinCC, TIA Portal or Qt teams can build without re-translation.
- Task and state analysis per role (plant operator, shift leader, maintenance)
- Display hierarchy, navigation and operator displays as a clickable Figma prototype, including upset scenarios
- Alarm concept: priorities, presentation, acknowledgement — informed by ISA-18.2 / EEMUA 191
- HMI style guide and component library as the basis for a design system
- Handover documentation for engineering (WinCC Unified, TIA Portal, Qt/QML, web)
HMI usability tests with real operators, real tasks, real faults
An operator display is not judged in a meeting but in the situation it was built for. We test prototypes or existing HMI screens with operators from the shift — at the operator station, on a simulator or remotely — and measure how quickly state and cause are recognised and the right action is taken. The result is a prioritised list of concrete changes.
- Test plan with scenarios from normal operation, start-up, upset and shift handover
- Recruiting aligned with the shift schedule, usually 5–8 operators per round; recording only by agreement with the works council
- Metrics: time to recognise, operating errors, abandoned tasks, subjective workload
- Findings report with prioritised changes; optionally an old-versus-new comparison before machine acceptance
Modernise grown operator software without losing its domain depth
For Ebner Industrieofenbau we restructured a legacy application for expert users: first product and information architecture, then user flows for the operational workflows, then high-fidelity concepts and the direction for a design system. The approach fits any machine or plant software that has grown over years and where a rebuild would be neither affordable nor acceptable to existing customers.
- Inventory of functions with usage frequency
- Product and information architecture: modules, objects, terminology
- User flows for core workflows (recipe, batch start, fault, service)
- High-fidelity concepts, clickable prototype and design-system direction
- Migration path: what stays, what changes, in which order
Rolling out MES, line-control or machine software that is actually used after go-live
Software is implemented when the shift works with it — not when the acceptance protocol is signed. We support implementation projects on the vendor or operator side: as-is analysis of plant workflows, key-user concept, training material built from real work tasks, preparation of machine acceptance and UAT, rollout across sites and hypercare.
- As-is analysis: process capture on the shop floor, shadow processes (Excel, shouting, paper notes) documented
- Key-user concept: selection, role, time budget, feedback channel
- Training concept and materials built around real work tasks per role
- Acceptance and UAT scenarios from the operator's point of view
- Rollout plan for further sites and lines; hypercare with handover to product and engineering
Domain language
We speak the language of the control room, of engineering and of the tender.
- Control room / control station
- Process control system (PCS / DCS)
- HMI / plant visualisation
- SCADA
- MES
- Operator display / mimic
- Alarm management
- Alarm flood
- State indication
- Situation awareness
- Operator concept
- Shift operation
- Machine acceptance
- Key user
- Control room / control station
- The workplace from which operators monitor and run a plant or line. Long phases of observation alternate with short phases of high density in which they must recognise, decide and act.
- HMI (Human Machine Interface)
- The operator interface between human and machine — from the panel on the machine to the plant visualisation in the control room. ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015 describes the HMI lifecycle from philosophy and style guide through design to operation.
- MES (Manufacturing Execution System)
- The production-level system between ERP and machine control: orders, worker guidance, confirmations, quality. MES rollouts rarely fail on interfaces; they often fail on terminals that do not support the worker within the cycle time.
- Alarm management and alarm rationalisation
- The systematic handling of alarms across their lifecycle: philosophy, rationalisation (does this alarm require an operator action?), design, monitoring of alarm rates. Described in ANSI/ISA-18.2-2016, IEC 62682:2022 and EEMUA 191 (Ed. 4, 2024).
- Alarm flood
- More alarms than an operator can process — typical during start-up, shutdown or an upset. EEMUA 191 and ISA-18.2 give benchmark values for manageable alarm rates.
- Situation awareness
- Following Endsley (1995): perceiving the relevant elements, comprehending their meaning and projecting their development. A good operator display shows not only values but deviation and trend.
- High-performance HMI
- The design approach set out by Hollifield et al. (2008): grey backgrounds, colour only for deviations and alarms, analogue representation of target ranges, a clear display hierarchy — so that an abnormal state is recognisable at a glance.
How we work
Observe before we draw. Test before engineering builds. Hand over without anything getting lost. The durations apply to a typical operator concept for one plant or machine family.
- 1
Observation in the control room and at the operator station
We sit in on the shift — day, night, start-up, fault —, listen to what experienced operators explain to newcomers, and document workarounds: sticky notes, phone calls, second screens. The result is a map of the spots where today's interface does not hold up.
1–2 weeks
- 2
Task and state analysis
With operators, shift leaders, maintenance and automation engineers we clarify per role: which decisions are due when, which plant state must be visible for them, which alarms genuinely require an action? This yields a state model, a role matrix and a first alarm rationalisation.
1–2 weeks
- 3
Operator concept and displays
Display hierarchy, navigation, operator displays and alarm presentation as a clickable Figma prototype, informed by ISA-101, VDI/VDE 3699 and high-performance HMI principles. In parallel we write the HMI style guide so that colour, state and symbology are not decided anew on every screen.
2–3 weeks
- 4
Tests with operators
We test the prototype with 5–8 operators in realistic scenarios, including at least one upset and one shift handover. We measure whether state and cause are recognised faster and whether operating errors decrease.
1–2 weeks
- 5
Handover to engineering
Documented specifications for the team building in WinCC Unified, TIA Portal, Qt/QML or web technologies: components, states, alarm classes, layout grid, rules for new displays. We review interim builds so that nothing is lost in translation.
1 week plus support
- 6
Implementation and hypercare
On request we support training, key users, machine acceptance and the rollout to further lines or sites. Feedback from the first weeks is collected, prioritised and handed to product and engineering.
depending on scope
What we have learned
Five lessons from industrial engineering, control-system and machine-software projects — without client data.
- 01
The signal list is not an operator concept
Many HMI projects start with the question of how to fit every signal on the screen. The better question is which decision the operator has to make in which situation. Thinking from the signal yields a complete display that highlights nothing; thinking from the task yields a hierarchy.
- 02
What veterans explain to newcomers is the requirements list
The most valuable source in a control room is the induction: “Watch out here”, “ignore that value”, “with more than three alarms, look at the trend display”. Every sentence marks a spot where the interface does not create trust by itself. Fix those spots first and you win the operators; modernise only the looks and you lose them.
- 03
Automation shifts the work, it does not remove it
Bainbridge described it in 1983: the more is automated, the less often the human intervenes — and the harder and more important that intervention becomes. Normal operation may be quiet, but the transition into an upset must orient the operator immediately. Our tests therefore always include the scenario in which the automation is not helping.
- 04
Observe, then build — for internal tools too
In steam-turbine manufacturing we worked with industrial engineers for months, created manufacturing routings in SAP ourselves and only then named the core problems: paper parts lists, highlighters, copy-paste from old projects. A searchable interface, a template library and Excel-to-SAP automation cut lead time by 80 percent.
- 05
Modernising means structure first, screens second
In the legacy software of Ebner Industrieofenbau the decisive step was not the new design but the product and information architecture: which modules, which objects, which terms? Only then followed user flows, high-fidelity concepts and the design-system direction — and existing customers still recognised their software.
Experience
Stations that shape our work in industry. Names appear only where cleared.
Ebner Industrieofenbau
Modernising a legacy application for expert users
UX/Product Design Lead (2024–2025): product architecture, information architecture, user flows, high-fidelity concepts and design-system direction for software grown over many years — without losing the depth of the domain. Publication as a case study is not cleared.
Siemens · steam-turbine manufacturing
Making manufacturing routings in SAP faster and more reliable
A real case from industrial engineering: observation on the shop floor, automation of recurring SAP workflows, a searchable interface instead of paper parts lists, a template library instead of copy-paste. Result: 80 percent less lead time.
→Siemens · engineering and automation (2016–2021)
From the plant to the interface
Five years in an industrial engineering context in Brazil: application engineer for steam-turbine generators, Python tools for the team, automation of SAP processes. This is where the conviction formed that a tool only counts if it holds up in the plant's daily routine.
→Control system for power plants
Work in the context of a power-plant control system
Remove the entry if not confirmed.]]
Professional references
We align our work with these standards, guidelines and works — as references for good practice; we claim no certification or conformity.
International Society of Automation (ISA) · 2015
ANSI/ISA-101.01-2015, Human Machine Interfaces for Process Automation Systems
Describes the HMI lifecycle — philosophy, style guide, design, implementation, operation — rather than specific colours; the order in which we build operator concept and handover.
International Society of Automation (ISA); internationally as IEC 62682:2022 (Ed. 2.0) · 2016 / 2022
ANSI/ISA-18.2-2016, Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries
Alarm lifecycle with philosophy, rationalisation, design and performance monitoring — the basis of our alarm concepts.
Engineering Equipment and Materials Users Association (EEMUA) · November 2024
EEMUA Publication 191, Alarm Systems: A Guide to Design, Management and Procurement, Edition 4
Practical guide to alarm rates, prioritisation and alarm floods; Edition 4 aligns terminology with ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682.
VDI/VDE Society for Measurement and Automatic Control (GMA) · 2014–2015
VDI/VDE 3699, Prozessführung mit Bildschirmen (Process control using display screens), Parts 1–6
The German-language guideline for operator displays: terminology, principles, mimics, curves, alarms and messages, interaction procedures.
NAMUR — User Association of Automation Technology in Process Industries · 2008
NAMUR NA 102, Alarm management
Recommendation of the German process industry and one of the foundations of ISA-18.2 and IEC 62682.
Mica R. Endsley, Human Factors 37(1), 32–64 · 1995
Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems
Three levels — perception, comprehension, projection. We check every operator display against whether it makes deviation and development visible.
Lisanne Bainbridge, Automatica 19(6), 775–779 · 1983
Ironies of Automation
The higher the degree of automation, the rarer and harder the human intervention — which is why we test the transition into an upset.
Bill Hollifield, Dana Oliver, Ian Nimmo, Eddie Habibi — PAS / User Centered Design Services · 2008
The High Performance HMI Handbook
Grey backgrounds, colour only for deviations, analogue target ranges, clear display hierarchy: the practical formulation of the ISA-101 philosophy.
Frequently asked questions
- Do you know our domain, or do we have to explain everything?
- We bring experience from industrial engineering in steam-turbine manufacturing and from modernising machine software for industrial furnaces, and we know ISA-101, ISA-18.2, EEMUA 191 and VDI/VDE 3699. Even so, only your team knows your plant. That is why we start with observation in the control room or at the operator station, not with a questionnaire.
- Do you work with our engineering team — WinCC, TIA Portal, Qt?
- Yes, that is the normal case. We design in Figma and hand over display hierarchy, components, states, alarm classes and style guide documented so that your team can build in WinCC Unified, TIA Portal, Qt/QML or web technologies. We do not program the visualisation ourselves, but we review interim builds.
- Does this work for existing systems, without rebuilding everything?
- Yes. Three levers are usually enough: clean up the alarm structure, clarify the display hierarchy, and make the spots unambiguous where operators hesitate today. For grown machine software we work with a migration path — structure first, then screens — instead of a rebuild that scares existing customers.
- How does a usability test with operators in shift operation work?
- We plan around the shift schedule and usually test with 5–8 operators per round, 45–60 minutes each, at the operator station, on a simulator or remotely. Scenarios come from normal operation, start-up, upset and shift handover. Recordings only by agreement with the works council; we evaluate time to recognise and operating errors, not people.
- What does “informed by ISA-101 or VDI/VDE 3699” mean in practice?
- That we apply the principles of these standards and guidelines — display hierarchy, state coding, alarm rationalisation, legibility under control-room conditions — and relate our decisions to them. It does not mean that we hold a certification or attest conformity; ISA-101, ISA-18.2 and EEMUA 191 have no certification scheme for that anyway.
- Do you also support the rollout — training, key users, deployment?
- Yes. We capture the workflows on the shop floor, develop a key-user concept, build training material around real work tasks, prepare acceptance and UAT scenarios from the operator's point of view and support the rollout to further lines and sites including hypercare. The goal is that the software is used after go-live — not merely accepted.
- Can you join our project team as an external role — HMI designer, UX/UI designer for machine builders, usability engineer?
- Yes. We work as a studio or as a single role in the team of the machine builder, automation integrator or operator — also via staffing partners. Typical role titles: HMI designer, UX/UI designer for machine and plant engineering, usability engineer, UX consultant for plant visualisation. Remote with a base in Munich, on site for observation and tests.
- How long does an operator concept take, and what does it cost?
- An operator concept for one plant or machine family with observation, analysis, prototype and one round of tests typically takes six to ten weeks. Modernisations of whole products and rollout support are planned according to scope. We quote prices after a first conversation.
Let's talk about your plant, your HMI or your rollout.
A first conversation without sales theatre: you show us today's interface or describe the implementation project, and we tell you honestly where UX brings the most — and where it does not.
Book a first conversation