Crank Software
Ensuring Smartphone-Like Experiences for Embedded GUIs

Modern-day customers expect nothing less than a seamless smartphone experience on any device with touchscreen graphical user interfaces (GUI). In the medical device industry, touchscreen GUIs are becoming increasingly commonplace with the growing demand for improved hardware performance and user interfaces (UI) rich in sophisticated graphics. The industry has witnessed a proliferation of embedded GUIs in devices in recent years, with the medical user interface design now being a crucial part of product differentiation. In order to accelerate overall product development and bring successful products to market, companies need to effectively manage embedded GUI design and software development alongside the safety considerations for medical devices. With over 25 years of experience in the embedded UI space, industry veterans Brian Edmond, Thomas Fletcher, and Jason Clarke noticed a significant gap in the medical device industry in terms of embedded GUI touch screen design and development. In 2007, they realized that the whole process was frustrating for the product teams that often struggled to recreate the smartphone experience as per the customers’ expectations, all while delivering on time and within the budget. Besides, manufacturers were continually launching poor-quality embedded touchscreens on their smart, connected devices.

To solve this predicament, they cofounded Crank Software—an innovator in embedded user interface solutions. Crank Software delivers products and services that enable R&D teams to more quickly develop rich graphical displays for resource-constrained embedded devices. “Customers today expect a smartphone experience as soon as they touch a piece of glass and want more features and functionalities. To stay relevant in the marketplace, it’s up to designers and development teams working together to deliver and exceed that UI expectation,” says Jason Clarke, Co-Founder and VP of Sales at Crank Software. “Our aim is to bridge the gap between UI design and embedded systems development, accelerate product development time to market, and deliver an incredible, highly responsive, and brilliant customer experience,” he asserts.

Crank Software is focused on enabling rapid development of embedded products with sophisticated user interfaces through its flagship, cross-platform embedded GUI framework—Storyboard. As a complete graphical user interface development tool, Storyboard helps an organization’s product team accelerate their development process while embracing design change and maximizing UI flexibility.

Our aim is to bridge the gap between UI design and embedded systems development, accelerate product development time to market, and deliver an incredible, highly responsive, and brilliant customer experience

The suite has two major components—designer and engine—that work together to bring a UI application from an idea to a finished product. Storyboard designer allows users to import assignments from a graphics program such as Photoshop or Sketch, and add functionality to the design components, including animations and screen changes. One of its significant benefits is that when design iterations are required, developer scan simply reimport the graphics without having to start from scratch. The Storyboard engine enables developers to simulate their application and start testing on their desktop/tablet or an embedded device. Moreover, Story board enables UI designers with no programming experience to drag-and-drop their UI designs and work collaboratively with engineers handling the coding.

Storyboard enables embedded product teams to drastically reduce their product development life cycle, resulting in a faster time to market with reduced cost. “Storyboard is different than tools available in the marketplace that rely on desktop solutions because it’s built from the ground up exclusively for creating GUIs for embedded products,” states Clarke. According to Clarke, it’s not enough for medical device manufacturers to just provide a device that works. Everyone wants to make sure their branding and the look and feel of their product are on point. A clear focus on usability is paramount, and the devices’ GUI must be simple and straightforward, without requiring extensive user training, which otherwise can be a deal-breaker. He highlights a customer success story (https:// www.cranksoftware.com/ resources/case-studies/ medical-ventec-life-saving-ventilator-updates-gui-to-help-with-critical-covid- 19-needs) of a recent client, Ventec Life Systems, a Red Dot Design award-winning company that leveraged Storyboard. The U.S. Government had chosen the company to provide ventilator systems during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They took five different features and functionalities of a traditional ventilator and brought them together in a single device that’s portable and usable by the end-user. Using Storyboard, they successfully mapped multiple functionalities into a single ventilator system with an easy-to-use UI, enabling both medical personnel and patients to leverage it effortlessly.

As a rapidly growing company, Crank Software plans to expand into new markets, including the wearables in the medical industry. With new hardware platforms in the pipeline, Crank Software aims to stay at the forefront of helping companies build their products easier and faster while delivering an exceptional customer experience.