Designing for a Collaborative Industrial Environment: The Case of the ABB Powerwall

Abstract
This paper presents the design of a collaborative interface for highly automated, industrial environments. The resulting system, the ABB Powerwall, consists of large, shared interactive displays and several personal mobile information technology devices. On-site service technicians can seamlessly move information back and forth from their mobile devices to the shared display. The system supports various kinds of collaborative work, including making annotations; browsing for information; and visualizing blueprints and three-dimensional representations of products and torrents.

The design vision has been to provide end users with an unobtrusive way of sharing information, discussing problems and issues with others in front of a large collaborative screen, and the chance of socializing and learning from each other. Located strategically in the specific environment for which it has been designed, the ABB Powerwall is intended to become a natural gathering point that increases interaction, afford gathering, discussions, collaboration, small talk, socializing, and community-making.

Keywords
Interaction design, industrial environment, collaborative work, collaboration, mobile devices, human-computer interaction, user experience, prototyping.

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First presented at the conference on Designing for User eXperience, November 3-5, 2005, San Francisco, CA