Better situational awareness for ship operators
SEAM is a company that provides zero-emission solutions for the maritime industry. We designed the interface for a new and innovative alarm system called Bridge Alert Management System. We were responsible for project management, insight and analysis, structure, prototyping and documentation.
Context
Bridge Alert Management System (BAMS) is a new alarm system that is supposed to give ship operators quick situational awareness on the bridge, and it will be useful on autonomous ships where alarms are necessary. The system will first be introduced on the bridge, but in the future, it will also play an important role on completely unmanned ships, where information from external control rooms needs to be integrated into the system.
Project goal
We were supposed to analyze the specification requirements from the Norwegian Electrical Committee (NEK), look at the guidelines from the report "Human-centered design of alert management systems on the bridge," and the instruction manual from an existing system from Japan Radio Co. (JRC). Based on this input, we were supposed to create a clickable prototype and a design rationale that SEAM could use when the system is developed and implemented.
Design process
1) Workshop at SEAM
Together with an engineer from SEAM, we analyzed the NEK requirements and created an interface specification based on these. This was useful for highlighting the most important functions of the system.
Analysis of the application structure from JRC
At the same time, Erikka and I set up a diagram showing the application structure as described in the JRC instruction manual.
Flowchart based on the JRC instruction manual
We also set up a flow chart showing how new alarms are confirmed and approved, as described in the JRC instruction manual.
2) Sketching an improved flow
After that, we worked on improving this flow, drawing several flowcharts on paper.
Improved flow for new alarms
A new and improved flowchart showing what happens when a new alarm comes in.
New and improved application structure
We also worked on improving the application structure and set up a new diagram with proposal for a new application structure.
3) Wireframes
Based on the diagrams, we sketched wireframes on paper, exploring different ways to structure the information and functions on the different parts of the interface.
Result
The result is a clickable prototype in Figma, based on the OpenBridge 5.0 design system, and a design rationale where we present various design proposals. Together, this helped SEAM with further development of the system.
