Case Bluefors

Step one: understanding the users

The applications for Bluefors' dilution refrigerator measurement systems are numerous – ranging from quantum computing to research on new medicine. Similarly, their user experience needs to accommodate different types of users.

We started the project with a series of interviews to understand these segments better, talking to test engineers, scientists, researchers – as well as Bluefors' own sales and management teams. Based on this, we formed an understanding of how the interfaces could best serve their audience by letting them focus on the work itself rather than navigating complex menus.

Robust technical implementation

The key for a successful technical implementation was finding the best ways to display the complex information that the system outputs in a way that would remain easy to maintain and update in the future.

We created a React component compiler that works together with Bluefors' system configuration and predefined set of components, resulting in an interactive system diagram. We also extended and improved an open source graphing library to bring the data viewer into the application. The result displays all the essential information about the system's state at any given point in time.

For back-end, we implemented a system enabling Cryo-Engineers to implement the state machines controlling the cryostat in Python, with the ability to work either inside or outside of the control software.