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Sunday, February 9, 2025

OpenBridge 6.0 Design Framework Released

Maritime Activity Reports, Inc.

February 4, 2025

Source: LinkedIn

Source: LinkedIn

Professor Kjetil Nordby, head of Ocean Industries Concept Lab at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, has announced the launch of the latest version of the open source OpenBridge design framework, built to deliver consistent, modern and regulation-compliant user experiences for maritime bridges and other safety-critical applications.

‍Ship bridges are made up of systems from many suppliers that deliver individual implementations to each bridge. This leads to fragmented workplaces with a large number of different user interfaces, which in turn leads to an increased need for training and increased chances of human error. Also, this leads to high costs and low pace of innovation, since suppliers must develop and maintain a large number of systems aimed at individual suppliers or ships.

OpenBridge aims to solve these problems by developing design guidelines based on modern user interface technology, human-centered design principles, component libraries and industry 4.0 IT methodology.

Its key components are:

• Design guideline with integrated component library for maritime user interfaces that can be implemented both in modern web technology and in dedicated software systems.

• Framework for user testing consisting of tools, processes and methods for iterative quality assurance of design guidelines, components and implementations.

• Implementation platform independent of integrator system and applications.

• Component-based documentation and authentication scheme for OpenBridge components.

Openbridge has an open consortium including over 25 partners who collaborate to develop the OpenBridge platform. The consortium spans all actors involved in ships bridge delivery and use.

Some highlights of 6.0 are:

• Optimized Data Visualizations: Clarity-first design for bars, graphs, and critical instruments.

• Reengineered Maritime Instruments: New components, simplified scaling, and expanded design options.

• Maritime Maneuvering & Automation Updates: Includes a brand-new maneuvers section and updated automation elements for control rooms.

• Global Advice/Limits Framework: Show safety or eco alerts directly in components.

• Advanced Figma Features: Switch color themes instantly, prototype more efficiently, and refine designs faster.

The orderbook for U.S. dredgers is about $3B, and according to DCA CEO Bill Doyle, the incoming political administration could help this niche maritime sector continue its bull run.
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