One of the important differences between mass-market end-customer systems and specific professional systems for niche tasks is selection of hardware.
Mass-market approach
When we make end-customer system, in many cases we rely on the devices, that the users already have and actively use. We have to follow distribution of devices, operating systems, screen resolutions for the audience and based on them make the decisions. If most of the audience uses smartphones, we will choose smartphone application as core tool for interaction with our audience. If most of the users work with small laptop screens, it will affect our layout decisions and we will make dashboards that are not that big as they could be done for large wide modern panoramic displays. And so on. We can’t tell the users “if you want to use our app, purchase a 32-inch display”.
Professional systems approach
The opposite is with specific systems for professional and engineering contexts. In many cases the hardware is provided with the software as a single set. It may include both workstation computers and servers, sensors and embedded data processing or collecting units.
Also, the input and output devices may be a part of this set. If it is a ship, then most likely there will be trackballs instead of mouses. If it is an ARPA system (radar), then there will be a specific keyboard to operate it with apx. 5 knobs for quick adjustment of the radar settings. If it is a medical devices for digital radiology, it will have joysticks, leg pedal, knobs and buttons to make the research as quickly as possible. And even if it is a less niche CAD system, the tasks that the users are going to solve on daily basis are not achievable with small displays or smartphones.
Of course, there are multiple marketing and commercial factors that may affect this decision making process, but despite this, the user experience is also an important argument to make selection of the hardware for the tasks and goals of the system, not the opposite as we have to do with more mass-market systems.
Questions to ask
So, when we start working with a new system, it is always worth to ask the question — “what is the equipment, that is best for the tasks of the system?” — at the early stage of the project, and based on the research and understanding of the tasks and context, define the requirements to the equipment, and moreover, start designing this equipment, like embedded control panels and so on.
The following examples of questions are typical during early phase of requirements definition:
- What is the usage context? Is it office, bridge of the ship, dirty environment of car workshop or sterile conditions of surgery room?
- Is it good to make the system as web-application, as classic desktop application, mobile or tablet, or is it better to make it as an embedded large touch screen display with custom physical controls nearby?
- It is enough to have 1 display or more? How many? Which sizes? What is the distribution of information to be presented across them?
- What are the main input devices to be used? How many? What is the distribution of the functions between them?
After answering this questions, the selection will be much more sensible.