Before pixels: Modular industrial dashboards

In my recent visits to German and Polish museums, I noticed a recurring theme: modular industrial dashboards, which I imagine have by now been all replaced by software.

I don’t know much about these – please write me if you do – but I wanted to share them anyway, perhaps for context, or amusement, or inspiration. They’re interesting design systems, and interesting interaction systems as well.

This was a very cool physical display for air traffic control, at the The Deutsches Museum in Münich:

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= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/2.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/2.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

At Fernmeldemuseum Stuttgart, these were used to monitor subway trains, or light rail. I do imagine these panels must have been interactive with all the buttons?

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/3.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/3.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/4.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/4.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

I like that they light up to show status:

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/5.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/5.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/6.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/6.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

One of the modules was a counter:

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/7.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/7.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

And I believe this was a way to annotate that something was… fixed, maybe? Or on its way to being fixed?

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/8.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/8.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

A railway museum in Nuremberg used what looks like the exact same system, and I spotted a few modules with their plates removed:

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/9.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/9.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/10.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/10.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

And, here’s a similar panel shown in a tram museum in Stuttgart, filled with an incredible typographical tension between DIN and the German equivalent of Dymo:

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/11.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/11.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

Warsaw’s train museum had a slightly different system, but similar in look and feel:

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/12.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/12.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/13.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/13.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/14.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/14.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

This big industrial switch toggled between day and night. I don’t know if it changed the operation of the system, or is just switched on some sort of a dark mode for the panel itself:

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/15.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/15.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

And this was at the DASA Museum in Dortmund, from a power plant control room:

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/16.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/16.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/17.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/17.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

This was by far the biggest one of the ones I’ve encountered…

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/18.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/18.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/19.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/19.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

…with the biggest variety of modules…

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/22.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/22.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/23.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/23.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

This was also the panel I showed some molly guards from before. But today I want to end at this great switch:

= 2x) and (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/24.2096w.avif" type="image/avif"> = 3x) or (width >= 700px)" srcset="_media/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/24.1600w.avif" type="image/avif">

Don’t you just want to rotate it, no matter what it does?