Centigrade and TRUMPF win Red Dot Award 2016 for HMI framework

For decades, the Red Dot Design Award has provided a platform for measuring yourself against the best in the industry. In 2015 alone, Red Dot recorded more than 17,000 submissions from 70 countries. This makes the competition, consisting of the three categories Product Design, Design Concept, and Communication Design, one of the largest design competitions worldwide. The jury awarded the coveted Red Dot distinction to TRUMPF and to Centigrade GmbH as the executing agency. The prize recognized the high design quality of the “Touchpoint” control interface and, in particular, the layout of the interface for the new TruLaser Center 7030 2D laser machine.

A holistic product experience with Touchpoint

The completely redesigned interface design of Touchpoint is derived from the product design of the machine tools and thus creates a holistic product experience. The machine and Touchpoint form a unit. The interface impresses not only with its new design, but also with the optimization of operating workflows. It is designed intuitively and gives the machine operator immediate feedback on their actions. In addition, gestures such as pinch-to-zoom, familiar from smartphones and tablets, enable simple and familiar control of heavy machine tools.

What makes Touchpoint especially distinctive is its broad applicability: in various adaptations it is used on machine types that differ functionally, such as the new TruLaser Center 7030 and the TruBend Series 5000. At the same time, it maintains a consistent information architecture, visual design, and interaction concept.

Honoring the winners in Berlin

Last Friday, November 4, the highlight of the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2016 was celebrated in Berlin. At the Red Dot Gala, the best designers of the year received their trophies. Communication designers and marketing professionals from around the world were honored for their creative achievements before an international audience at the Konzerthaus Berlin. Employees from Centigrade and TRUMPF traveled there on behalf of the entire team to accept the award.

About the Red Dot Award: Communication Design

The Red Dot Award: Communication Design, also known until 2001 as the “German Prize for Communication Design,” is organized annually by Design Zentrum NRW and is aimed at creative professionals from agencies or design offices, freelancers, and campaign-strong companies.

Submissions are evaluated according to defined criteria. These include design quality and aesthetics, to determine whether an independent and high-quality design concept is recognizable and whether the execution matches the chosen medium. Functional and aesthetic aspects of the work, such as originality and recognizability, also play a role.

Not to be forgotten are the craftsmanship and haptics of the respective project: how well is it designed and is the choice of materials appropriate to its purpose? Only if a work convinces the jury in all of these areas does it have a chance of receiving the coveted Red Dot seal of quality.