PorkCAD: Case study of the design of a pork product prototyper

With the help of industry experts we developed porkCAD, an application intended to aid in the communication process between producer and retailer when developing new meat products for a constantly evolving market. The application interface allows the user to make planar cuts to a virtual pig formed from CT-scans of a real-world pig carcass. We present a case study of the design process from conceptualization to intended introduction into the work flow of a meat production company. We discuss critical design decisions during development and present perspectives for future development. To determine the usability of porkCAD, we tested it with personnel from the pork industry, using two different controller interfaces, one being a traditional mouse and keyboard input, and the other a six degrees of freedom haptic feedback device. The accurate depiction of pig anatomy guided trained professionals to re-create standardized pig products using porkCAD. The quantitative results of the usability test with sales personnel did not lean significantly in favor of either interface. Since one interface was extremely well known and the other highly unfamiliar, the fact that users did not express a clear preference for the known input modality is deemed important. We report on the observed user experience regarding the two interfaces.

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