Aloud: Writing on HMI, Automation and AI Design

From a 12px status label to a six metre trade fair wall.

Robots, interfaces, and the people who have to work with both.

Automation, checked against reality.

Interfaces for machines that decide.

Tools, taste, and staying recognisable.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 15, 2026

The HMI Was a Mirror. Now It Has to Be an Argument

For forty years, the industrial HMI represented machine state. AI broke that contract. The screen's job is now accountability, and that is a different design discipline.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 14, 2026

The Brand System Should Start at the Panel, Not at the Fair Wall

Most brand work is built for the first ninety seconds, not for five years. The interface faces the hardest constraints, so it should set the rules.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 14, 2026

The AI Tooling I Actually Use for HMI Visuals, and the Line I Do Not Cross

A working account of the generative tooling in my HMI pipeline: what it does for cell renders, motion and variants, and what it must never be allowed near.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 15, 2026

AI Did Not Make Palletisers Smarter. It Moved the Configuration Problem Elsewhere.

Palletising is the most automated end-of-line task and the one where AI claims drift furthest from what ships. What actually changed, and who now has to decide.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 15, 2026

AI Did Not Make Palletisers Smarter. It Moved the Configuration Problem Elsewhere.

Palletising is the most automated end-of-line task and the one where AI claims drift furthest from what ships. What actually changed, and who now has to decide.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Jul 20, 2025

Perception Does Not Check Its Sources

Gestalt cannot become obsolete because it describes the viewer, not the screen. Which is why it is now dangerous: it will confidently group a guess with a fact.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Jul 20, 2025

Perception Does Not Check Its Sources

Gestalt cannot become obsolete because it describes the viewer, not the screen. Which is why it is now dangerous: it will confidently group a guess with a fact.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 18, 2026

Four months to the Machinery Regulation: what HMI teams must fix

The EU Machinery Regulation applies on 20 January 2027. Several of its requirements end on a screen. Here is what HMI teams should fix now.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 18, 2026

Four months to the Machinery Regulation: what HMI teams must fix

The EU Machinery Regulation applies on 20 January 2027. Several of its requirements end on a screen. Here is what HMI teams should fix now.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 14, 2026

Slop Is a Decision Failure: Taste, Perception and Why Plausible Is Not Correct

Slop isn't an aesthetic failure; it is output made without a cost function. What taste actually is, why perception is trainable, and where AI still loses.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 14, 2026

Slop Is a Decision Failure: Taste, Perception and Why Plausible Is Not Correct

Slop isn't an aesthetic failure; it is output made without a cost function. What taste actually is, why perception is trainable, and where AI still loses.

From a 12px status label to a six metre trade fair wall.

aloud

aloud

aloud

Robots, interfaces, and the people who have to work with both.

The HMI Was a Mirror. Now It Has to Be an Argument

For forty years, the industrial HMI represented machine state. AI broke that contract. The screen's job is now accountability, and that is a different design discipline.

The Brand System Should Start at the Panel, Not at the Fair Wall

Most brand work is built for the first ninety seconds, not for five years. The interface faces the hardest constraints, so it should set the rules.

The AI Tooling I Actually Use for HMI Visuals, and the Line I Do Not Cross

A working account of the generative tooling in my HMI pipeline: what it does for cell renders, motion and variants, and what it must never be allowed near.

AI Did Not Make Palletisers Smarter. It Moved the Configuration Problem Elsewhere.

Palletising is the most automated end-of-line task and the one where AI claims drift furthest from what ships. What actually changed, and who now has to decide.

AI Did Not Make Palletisers Smarter. It Moved the Configuration Problem Elsewhere.

Perception Does Not Check Its Sources

Gestalt cannot become obsolete because it describes the viewer, not the screen. Which is why it is now dangerous: it will confidently group a guess with a fact.

Perception Does Not Check Its Sources

Four months to the Machinery Regulation: what HMI teams must fix

The EU Machinery Regulation applies on 20 January 2027. Several of its requirements end on a screen. Here is what HMI teams should fix now.

Four months to the Machinery Regulation: what HMI teams must fix

Slop Is a Decision Failure: Taste, Perception and Why Plausible Is Not Correct

Slop isn't an aesthetic failure; it is output made without a cost function. What taste actually is, why perception is trainable, and where AI still loses.

Slop Is a Decision Failure: Taste, Perception and Why Plausible Is Not Correct

25 years

1997 — 2026

1997 — 2026

Let me build your next solution

Let me build your next solution

Let me build your next solution

+27 82 955 65 47

+27 82 955 65 47