Interface Design for Embedded and Real-Time Systems

Abstract

This overview for the handbook provides insights on design aspects, approaches, and alternatives for monitoring and controlling real-time and embedded devices and systems. Making these interface designs usable and effective is central to successful product introductions and differentiation. The detailed review of interface design techniques includes developing for both user interfaces and message-based communications, enabling key interactions.

A wide range of user interface options are reviewed, including direct physical controls, interactive graphical displays, and voice user interfaces, along with industry-standard user interface design tools such as Qt and HTML. Design for these elements is supported by a framework of processes used in phases of iterative UX design like analysis and planning, user research, and user experience design and test. Each UX design phase visited includes sets of UX design methods regularly employed at that stage, with common and useful UX methods such as personas, usability heuristics, sketching, prototyping, surveys, and microinteraction design.

Device control via messaging and application programming interfaces (APIs) are also considered, including protocol alternatives to enable low level, machine-to-machine (M2M), internet of things (IoT), and low-power wide area networks (LPWANs) communications. Methods for analysis, selection, and implementation of communication protocols in designs are reviewed, including application of message queueing tools, cloud-based IoT frameworks, messaging and microservice architectures, and API design best practices. Design examples include architectures for a wide variety of systems such as single-board computer-based prototypes, wireless sensor networks and IoT gateways, devices using web- and mobile-based device interfaces, and connected wearable devices.