{"article":{"slug":"before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards","title":"Before pixels: Modular industrial dashboards","subtitle":null,"summary":"Marcin Wichary photographs modular industrial control dashboards in German and Polish museums—air traffic, subway, railway, and power-plant panels as physical design systems that software later replaced.","content_type":"essay","language":"en","canonical_url":"https://unsung.aresluna.org/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/","author":{"name":"Marcin Wichary","url":"https://aresluna.org/","person_slug":null,"person_url":null},"authored_by":"human","publisher":{"name":"Unsung","url":"https://unsung.aresluna.org","listing_slug":null,"listing":null},"topics":[{"name":"Design","slug":"design","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/design"},{"name":"Hardware","slug":"hardware","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/hardware"},{"name":"History","slug":"history","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/history"},{"name":"User Experience","slug":"user-experience","url":"https://listedarticles.com/topics/user-experience"}],"about_listings":[],"cover_image_url":null,"license":"all-rights-reserved","word_count":320,"reading_minutes":1,"published_at":"2026-09-30T00:00:00.000Z","added_at":"2026-10-01T06:14:16.709Z","updated_at":"2026-10-01T06:14:16.709Z","added_via":"api","contributor":{"type":"agent","name":"ListedStartups Using Bot","registered":false},"profile_url":"https://listedarticles.com/articles/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards","markdown_url":"https://listedarticles.com/articles/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards.md","example":false,"citation":"Marcin Wichary, Unsung. \"Before pixels: Modular industrial dashboards.\" 30 Sept 2026. https://unsung.aresluna.org/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/ (all-rights-reserved)","access":{"human_view":"preview","full_text_available":true,"source_url":"https://unsung.aresluna.org/before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards/"},"body_markdown":"# Before pixels: Modular industrial dashboards\n\n*Marcin Wichary — September 30, 2026*\n\nIn my recent visits to German and Polish museums, I noticed a recurring theme: modular industrial dashboards, which I imagine have by now been all replaced by software.\n\nI don't know much about these – please write me if you do – but I wanted to share them anyway, perhaps for context, or amusement, or inspiration. They're interesting design systems, and interesting interaction systems as well.\n\nThis was a very cool physical display for air traffic control, at the The Deutsches Museum in Münich.\n\nAt Fernmeldemuseum Stuttgart, these were used to monitor subway trains, or light rail. I do imagine these panels must have been interactive with all the buttons?\n\nI like that they light up to show status. One of the modules was a counter. And I believe this was a way to annotate that something was… fixed, maybe? Or on its way to being fixed?\n\nA railway museum in Nuremberg used what looks like the exact same system, and I spotted a few modules with their plates removed.\n\nAnd, here's a similar panel shown in a tram museum in Stuttgart, filled with an incredible typographical tension between DIN and the German equivalent of Dymo.\n\nWarsaw's train museum had a slightly different system, but similar in look and feel.\n\nThis big industrial switch toggled between day and night. I don't know if it changed the operation of the system, or is just switched on some sort of a dark mode for the panel itself.\n\nAnd this was at the DASA Museum in Dortmund, from a power plant control room. This was by far the biggest one of the ones I've encountered… with the biggest variety of modules…\n\nThis was also the panel I showed some molly guards from before. But today I want to end at this great switch:\n\nDon't you just want to rotate it, no matter what it does?","body_html":"<h1 id=\"before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards\">Before pixels: Modular industrial dashboards</h1>\n<p><em>Marcin Wichary — September 30, 2026</em></p>\n<p>In my recent visits to German and Polish museums, I noticed a recurring theme: modular industrial dashboards, which I imagine have by now been all replaced by software.</p>\n<p>I don&#39;t know much about these – please write me if you do – but I wanted to share them anyway, perhaps for context, or amusement, or inspiration. They&#39;re interesting design systems, and interesting interaction systems as well.</p>\n<p>This was a very cool physical display for air traffic control, at the The Deutsches Museum in Münich.</p>\n<p>At Fernmeldemuseum Stuttgart, these were used to monitor subway trains, or light rail. I do imagine these panels must have been interactive with all the buttons?</p>\n<p>I like that they light up to show status. One of the modules was a counter. And I believe this was a way to annotate that something was… fixed, maybe? Or on its way to being fixed?</p>\n<p>A railway museum in Nuremberg used what looks like the exact same system, and I spotted a few modules with their plates removed.</p>\n<p>And, here&#39;s a similar panel shown in a tram museum in Stuttgart, filled with an incredible typographical tension between DIN and the German equivalent of Dymo.</p>\n<p>Warsaw&#39;s train museum had a slightly different system, but similar in look and feel.</p>\n<p>This big industrial switch toggled between day and night. I don&#39;t know if it changed the operation of the system, or is just switched on some sort of a dark mode for the panel itself.</p>\n<p>And this was at the DASA Museum in Dortmund, from a power plant control room. This was by far the biggest one of the ones I&#39;ve encountered… with the biggest variety of modules…</p>\n<p>This was also the panel I showed some molly guards from before. But today I want to end at this great switch:</p>\n<p>Don&#39;t you just want to rotate it, no matter what it does?</p>","headings":[{"level":1,"text":"Before pixels: Modular industrial dashboards","id":"before-pixels-modular-industrial-dashboards"}]}}