Interpreter Console
Redesigning the EU’s interpreter console, and changing how Shure designs hardware
SHURE · 2015–2018 · Sole UX Designer on project
What an interpreter console does, and why it’s hard
Interpreters work in soundproof booths, translating live in 30-minute shifts because the cognitive load is too high to sustain longer. The console is the small, non-touchscreen device on the desk, operated largely by feel while they listen with their eyes closed. Many interpreters are visually impaired, and most sighted ones effectively work eyes-closed, so any visual change that doesn’t also communicate through touch or sound fails this population.
Two constraints framed the work: comply with the ISO 20109/20108 standards, and don’t break habits interpreters had built over decades. ISO is prescriptive about layouts and keys; the interesting space was in what it didn’t specify.
Researching with interpreters at the EU Parliament
Access was tightly controlled, and the research nearly didn’t happen. Through an ISO committee member who also worked as an interpreter, I ran on-site research in Brussels between live sessions using working prototypes. It reshaped the design.
Featured design decision
Four buttons replaced by one rotary encoder
The original design proposed four soft-keyed buttons down the side. I prototyped it and found three problems: the buttons didn’t signal their changing function between pages, the four labels ate 20% of a cramped screen, and navigating 90+ languages with stateful buttons took too many presses. I proposed a single rotary encoder modeled on a car radio, turn to scroll, press to select, which solved all three at once and freed the screen for content. It later did double duty for settings like volume and brightness, adjustable without looking.
Research with EU Parliament interpreters between live sessions. Booth from outside (left) and view from inside (right).
Wireframe recording that shows the interaction for setting the language for one an input-language channel
What happened
The console shipped as part of the wired MXC system and deployed at the European Union and other government venues. It was the first Shure hardware project where design influenced the hardware itself: the prototypes showed the encoder required physical changes, and the hardware was modified to match. Later Shure projects brought design into industrial design earlier.
What I learned
Design leadership in engineering-heavy orgs is partly teaching the team to evaluate design.
I tied every choice to research or an ISO requirement and showed the alternatives. Over four years the same engineers moved from “I don’t like it” to “this conflicts with the encoder pattern from page 3.”
The case for a decision has to be made before it’s challenged, not after.
Documentation isn’t bureaucracy; it’s how design wins arguments in rooms where design isn’t the dominant culture.
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