Design Thinking: Using Photo Prototyping for a user-centered Interface Design for Pick-by-Vision Systems

Abstract

With Industry 4.0 manufacturing facilities experience a dynamic change towards smart factories. Digitalization of processes accompanied by extensive data acquisition enables process planners to utilize innovative technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) to support employees in their tasks on the shop floor. Among others a visualization in the user's field of view allows hands-free work and avoids unnecessary head movements. To make use of the employee's expertise, we try to involve workers with the aid of Design Thinking at an early stage in the AR-interface design process. A pervasive method in app design is Paper Prototyping. Early sketches of user interfaces serve as common language in interdisciplinary teams. In this paper we develop a method based on Paper Prototyping especially for AR content needs, which is called Photo Prototyping. This method overlays the user's field of view with sketches of the future AR-content. Furthermore we elucidate our experience, we've gained during a workshop with 40 workers out of logistics in the automotive industry.