Note: This is part 4 in a series of posts about Technical Project Management Services offered by Draper. Click here to read the introduction to this series, including information on the full TPMS program.

July 17, 2024 - In the previous TPMS post, we explained how to customize an automated shade control system to take into account buildings and other obstructions. This post is another way control system impacts user experience, but in a much different way.

No matter how complex a shade control system is, it needs to make sense to the people using it. Have you ever walked into a room to find rows of buttons and sliders, and no indication of which does what?

Once again, the Draper Technical Project Management Services team has a solution! That solution is a Floorplan GUI (Graphical User Interface).

If you’ve never heard of a GUI, think back to that scenario above – the one with the switches and sliders. Now consider how handy it would be to have directions right there on those switches telling you what to do.

That’s what a Graphical User Interface does. The GUI uses a set of images and graphics to show the user how to operate a particular system.

A Floorplan GUI literally uses a building’s floorplan as the guide to operate the shade control system, making it easy to interact with and control the shades throughout the space. This digital floorplan includes icons representing each window or shading zone. Users can see the layout of the space, the location of windows, and the current positions of motorized shades.

The benefits to a Floorplan GUI are many and probably pretty obvious. You can see where shades are located, and their position – even if you can’t see the windows. The interface also allows the user to control one shade, a set of shades, or an entire building from one place.

The goal for a custom Floorplan GUI is to make shade controls as user-friendly as possible. The easier something is to use, the more it will get used. That’s why we tailor each GUI to the specific needs of a building and its occupants.

For more information about Technical Project Management Services visit the “Commissioning” link in the Pro Portal Pro toolbox, or reach out to your Draper representative.