Unique blend of talents behind award-winning cameras

Unique blend of talents behind award-winning cameras

A creative, smooth collaboration of different skill sets. That was FLIR Systems’ recipe for success when its FLIR Exx infrared camera line won the prestigious Best-of-the-Best prize at the Red Dot Award design competition.

FLIR Systems is a world leader in the design, manufacturing, and marketing of infrared cameras, with many releases each year.  When the time came to update the popular FLIR Exx product line, FLIR’s design team started thinking about the next generation of cameras from this perspective: What do users need to get their work done?

“A major part of the job is visiting customers and seeing how they work, what their conditions are like, and what experiences they have,” says Mikael Erlandsson, who works in user research at FLIR. Mikael has a doctorate in psychology, and his task is to map out customers’ work, needs, and what drives them. He also liaises closely with colleagues Anton Hoffman and Christian Högstedt, who are in charge of industrial design, and Adam Sjöberg, who is an interaction designer. Each has their own focus, where each piece of the puzzle is an important part of the whole. “All of us deals with the same things, in a way. Design and the user’s needs have to be in focus in order to create a good product experience,” Christian Högstedt says.

Combining different talents leads to innovation

The design team works together with both the product management team and engineers, and each team has its own role in product development. All four agree that it is this particular dynamic that makes the job the most fun and edifying.  “Taking the whole journey together, from idea to finished product, is just so incredibly satisfying. It’s our combined knowledge that defines the product,” says Adam Sjöberg.

It is also a culture that defines FLIR Systems as a company. Different roles work closely with one another, both physically and mentally. Solutions that might otherwise be missed are found by approaching problems from different angles, and working together often leads to totally new ideas. There is a lot of freedom at FLIR, where employees are encouraged to suggest their own ideas and initiatives and to listen to each other, says Anton Hoffman: “Over the course of a project we often see different things, and that is one of our big strengths. For example, when we visit customers or sit down to evaluate an idea, we always look at the result from our individual perspectives.”

Christian Högstedt expands on this: “Working this way is quite unique and gives us a huge strength. It leads to better results and really lends itself to innovation.” With development projects, design poses a challenge to technology instead of needing to adapt to it. And that there is now a greater understanding within the company of the importance of design for the user experience is something that the design team welcomes.

Design and user-friendliness in focus

“At FLIR we see the importance of having an internal design group that is developing all the time. We pool our knowledge together to create a vision for the future that all of our employees can draw inspiration from. And then we end up with something that works. Our goal is always to meet our customers’ needs, which is why our products hold to such a high standard,” Christian Högstedt says.

The design team shaped the new generation of Exx cameras throughout its entire development process. Now it has received the Red Dot: Best of the Best award for 2017. The award is more proof that we are really working the right way, with design and usability in focus, says Mikael Erlandsson: “User-friendliness in particular is one of our competitive strengths. We make products for professional users, and our job is to help them do their jobs as well as possible.”

There is no doubt that Mikael, Anton, Adam, and Christian have very fulfilling jobs. They all agree that the challenges and complexity of their tasks together with the way they interact have made them into a winning team. They also share a sense that infrared cameras, which show us what cannot be seen with the naked eye, are exciting products to work on, and that their use in critical applications like fire and rescue services makes the work demanding. “Our customers depend on our products. We can’t deliver anything but the very best,” Christian concludes.

Artikeln publicerad den 23 september, 2017 av Redaktionen