Before pixels: Modular industrial dashboards

A string of museum visits in Germany and Poland documents a family of modular industrial dashboards - physical control panels that once monitored air traffic, rail, trams, and power plants and now largely give way to software. The write-up treats these panels as coherent design and interaction systems: grids of interchangeable modules with status lights, counters, annotation slots, buttons and large rotary switches. The narrator calls attention to the tactile vocabulary - illuminated indicators, removable module plates, and the mix of industrial typography - and invites readers who know more to get in touch.

Specific examples ground the account: an air-traffic-control display at the Deutsches Museum, subway and light-rail monitoring racks at Fernmeldemuseum Stuttgart with interactive buttons, and a tram panel showing a striking clash between DIN signage and Dymo labels. Warsaw’s rail museum shows a variant layout, while a DASA power-plant control room presents the largest, most module-rich array, including molly guards and a prominent day/night toggle. The piece emphasizes the visual and mechanical pleasures of these systems - the clarity of their status signals, the modular logic behind their parts, and the irresistible appeal of big switches - as potential inspiration for contemporary system and interface design.