The Challenge

The development team at Siemens AG was tasked with designing a new GUI for the software that controls part of its manufacturing assembly line. The new design had to meet strict criteria: it had to make the software easy to learn and use and it had to enable user input via touch screen with keyboard and trackball as options. Additionally, the software tools and dialogs had to be delivered separately from the main application. Not only that, the existing GUI had to be supported and extended throughout update. The job was made more challenging by the fact that, while the development team had C++ experience, it had little GUI experience.

The Solution

The team attended a one week course as an introduction to Qt. After only one week, they were proficient enough to implement some of the over 250 dialogs that would be needed. Soon, all of the criteria were being met with developers leveraging Qt’s Plug-In concept and its Qt Styles to get the desired functionality as well as the updated user interface look and feel. The resulting design so user friendly that manufacturing line operators can use the software without having to be trained.

The Value

The easy-to-use GUI delivered increased satisfaction and the ease of development saved time, resources and cost.

“It became very clear to us that using Qt would enable us to crate a clear and easy design. In fact, one person who joined the team was a student with no experience at all. Within 2-1/2 months, the student was implementing MFC controls as Qt widgets. They could easily be integrated within Qt Designer and we could use the Qt style function right out of the box.”
Jose Carlos Arcas, Lead Developer, Siemens AG Automation & Drives EA