With all the capability to monitor device parameters and performance, there is a real choice presented to the designer in how much information is needed by the user.
One of the things I love about being back at the top of a masthead is that I get to write about cool stuff to share with you. Design philosophy and best practices are a treasure trove of subjects and issues we all confront and address regularly. The ability to be able to bring up some of these issues and ideas with the goal of fomenting development is a wonderful and humbling opportunity.
One of the ways to present ideas is to reflect them in their allegories from the past. Many design issues haven’t changed, only in the way of the technology that expresses them. The same issues usually get rehashed with every disruptive technological advance that causes/forces/cajoles business and the marketplace into moving forward.
For example, we often point out how the conversation over Edge Computing and the Cloud is very similar to the evolution from Thin-Client architectures, back in the dawn of distributed computing. Moving as much processing power to the “point of load” of the application will continue to be an issue, even as computing migrates to smart autonomous remote devices, wearables, and implantables.
One of the issues that comes up today when developing advanced embedded systems is the matter of information management. Beyond the question of Big Data, the sheer amount and types of information you can extract and use from a device today is tremendous. This ability is not just restricted to the confines of the device itself, but is, in fact, part of its operational suite for core functionality.
In remote and autonomous devices, telemetry is usually delivered by RF systems to management. There may be a connector on the product somewhere to attach a diagnostic cable, but usually there isn’t a need for a display of any kind, as the drone/tower/module doesn’t have to provide dynamic information to anyone on the spot. These kinds of applications are not the ones presenting a challenge in that aspect.
It is when we come to consumer-oriented devices that we get into the quandary of information management as it applies to sharing data with the user. Usually the device involved can obtain and present more information than a person can be reasonably expected to act upon. This threshold of ability, however, changes with the application, the device capabilities, and the user-group level of expertise.
With today’s microdisplays, it is relatively easy to provide every available operational parameter to the user. Properly designed, a display can convey about any tidbit of data desired. But do you really need to show a user all available information? Will it improve the user experience? Will it support the application in a more effective way? Is there such a thing as too much information?
A historic parallel exists for this issue as well, and the space that had that discussion in the past is still having it. The automotive industry has wrestled with the data display issue since the car was invented, as some information about a vehicle’s engine is critical for safe and effective operation. The debate between gauges and “idiot lights” has been mitigated to a degree by the cost-effectiveness of LCD technology, but the core issue exists.
This issue has been amplified by the emergence of the new measurement and evaluation reality, where the ability to continuously monitor operational parameters via the IoT has enabled companies to provide an advanced level of service and performance optimization in a real-time manner in the field. Even if that given piece of information isn’t directly presented to the user, it is still a part of the device’s operational infrastructure.
