Visual awareness aiding communication

Visual awareness is essential to developing and implementing visualizations that meet the needs of cross-functional teams. The theoretical and practical domain of information design can potentially play a major role in such collaborative working processes by improving flows of relevant information and aiding communication between stakeholders. We argue that one way this can be achieved is by exploiting the boundary object concept, in combination with knowledge from the visual field, and recommending guidelines intended to help clients formulate requirements when planning factory layouts which, with appropriate modification, may also provide support in similar situations. Our suggested guidelines for constructing block layouts and diagrams in factory layout planning highlight the value of simple visualizations based on spatial relationships; utilizing information on available spaces, sizes of machines, and their relationships to human proportions. Such block layouts and diagrams can also be used for ergonomic planning and logistics. The visuals can act as boundary objects between various stakeholders, including those who create CAD models in VR environments.