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 HMI & Visual Systems Designer

Nov 3, 2026

Design the robot error recovery flow before the happy path

A six-step method to map how operators notice, diagnose and recover from robot stops, with a worked example flow and a checklist you can use tomorrow.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics HMI & Visual Systems Designer

Oct 25, 2026

Your HMI update screen is becoming a compliance feature

EU law will soon expect machine software to be patched, postponed and logged. The screen where an operator taps Install decides if that happens.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics HMI & Visual Systems Designer

Oct 25, 2026

Robot buyers rank vendors before they call. Content sets the order.

94% of B2B buying groups rank their shortlist before talking to sellers. How robotics vendors can win that silent phase.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics HMI & Visual Systems Designer

Oct 16, 2026

AI can write the robot program. Design the screen that checks it.

Natural-language robot programming moves the risk from writing code to approving it. The review screen is now the most important flow in the HMI.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics HMI & Visual Systems Designer

Oct 16, 2026

Your brand colour is a false alarm on a robot HMI

On a robot HMI, colour is a safety signal before it is a brand asset. How to keep the brand on screen without spending the colours operators need.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics HMI Visual Designer

Oct 13, 2026

The standard retired the cobot. Your HMI still says cobot mode.

ISO 10218:2025 dropped the term "collaborative robot", and the EU listed it in September. Here is why HMI labels, manuals and marketing now need to catch up.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Oct 8, 2026

AI makes HMI prototypes look finished. Make them fail instead.

AI tools can make HMI prototypes look done fast. For robot cells, the useful prototype is wired to a virtual controller and fails on command.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Oct 6, 2026

HMI software updates Cyber Resilience Act

AI ships HMI features faster, the CRA wants security fixes shipped separately, and operators who get burned often stop updating. Design two tracks.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual system Designer

Oct 4, 2026

Let AI read your operator interviews. Never let it be the operator.

In 2026, LLMs matched human analysts at coding interview data and still failed at inventing it. That split should decide where AI sits in HMI research.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Oct 2, 2026

Robot HMIs need a validation test borrowed from medical devices

Many medical device makers validate critical tasks with real users. Robot HMIs, in my view, rarely do. Here is how to borrow the method.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual Systems Designer

Sep 27, 2026

Natural-language robot programming needs a proof screen, not a chat box

Typing "pick the small parts" into a robot is easy. Knowing what the robot understood is the hard part. Design the proof screen first.

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 24, 2026

Proof is the new production value in robotics content

AI-generated posts now dominate the LinkedIn feed. In robotics, the content that still earns trust is the kind that proves itself on camera.

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

Sep 18, 2026

Your AI robot render may now count as a deepfake under EU law

Since 2 August 2026, a realistic AI image of a real robot can fall under the EU deep fake rules. Here is how to keep robot visuals true.

Leon Potgieter

Robotics Visual System Designer

Sep 18, 2026

Your AI robot render may now count as a deepfake under EU law

Since 2 August 2026, a realistic AI image of a real robot can fall under the EU deep fake rules. Here is how to keep robot visuals true.

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.

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.

Design the robot error recovery flow before the happy path

A six-step method to map how operators notice, diagnose and recover from robot stops, with a worked example flow and a checklist you can use tomorrow.

Your HMI update screen is becoming a compliance feature

EU law will soon expect machine software to be patched, postponed and logged. The screen where an operator taps Install decides if that happens.

Robot buyers rank vendors before they call. Content sets the order.

94% of B2B buying groups rank their shortlist before talking to sellers. How robotics vendors can win that silent phase.

AI can write the robot program. Design the screen that checks it.

Natural-language robot programming moves the risk from writing code to approving it. The review screen is now the most important flow in the HMI.

Your brand colour is a false alarm on a robot HMI

On a robot HMI, colour is a safety signal before it is a brand asset. How to keep the brand on screen without spending the colours operators need.

The standard retired the cobot. Your HMI still says cobot mode.

ISO 10218:2025 dropped the term "collaborative robot", and the EU listed it in September. Here is why HMI labels, manuals and marketing now need to catch up.

AI makes HMI prototypes look finished. Make them fail instead.

AI tools can make HMI prototypes look done fast. For robot cells, the useful prototype is wired to a virtual controller and fails on command.

HMI software updates Cyber Resilience Act

AI ships HMI features faster, the CRA wants security fixes shipped separately, and operators who get burned often stop updating. Design two tracks.

Let AI read your operator interviews. Never let it be the operator.

In 2026, LLMs matched human analysts at coding interview data and still failed at inventing it. That split should decide where AI sits in HMI research.

Robot HMIs need a validation test borrowed from medical devices

Many medical device makers validate critical tasks with real users. Robot HMIs, in my view, rarely do. Here is how to borrow the method.

Natural-language robot programming needs a proof screen, not a chat box

Typing "pick the small parts" into a robot is easy. Knowing what the robot understood is the hard part. Design the proof screen first.

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.

Proof is the new production value in robotics content

AI-generated posts now dominate the LinkedIn feed. In robotics, the content that still earns trust is the kind that proves itself on camera.

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.

Your AI robot render may now count as a deepfake under EU law

Since 2 August 2026, a realistic AI image of a real robot can fall under the EU deep fake rules. Here is how to keep robot visuals true.

Your AI robot render may now count as a deepfake under EU law

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

25 years

1997 — 2026

1997 — 2026

Let me build your next solution

Let me build your next solution

Let me build your next solution