MARINE
Yacht HMI
A modern and elegant yacht HMI built with Qt6 and QML, designed to provide the captain with everything needed for clear, intuitive vessel control. The system runs on a tailored embedded Linux platform built with the Yocto Project, delivering a refined user experience, reliable performance, and a production-ready foundation for marine applications.
Engineering challenge
The central challenge was delivering a visually rich, multi-page interface, with a live yacht preview and interactive map, on constrained Renesas and NXP i.MXP8 hardware. Maintaining smooth, responsive performance required careful GPU and memory management, especially when multiple graphics-heavy features were active. The gap between desktop development and embedded deployment meant every animation and visual effect had to justify its resource cost.
Comment from our Engineer
When developing the Marine HMI, it was important to deliver an application suited to a luxury yacht, while ensuring that it provided full functionality from the captain’s perspective. Features such as navigation with specialized nautical charts, real-time weather forecasting, wind chart rendering, and comprehensive management of the vessel’s systems are now standard on modern yachts, and we must ensure that the user has everything needed to venture out into the open sea. - Jakub Wincenciak, Software Engineer, Head of Operation
Supported boards
- Deployed and validated on NXP iMX8 embedded targets
- Toradex Verdin iMX8M Plus Quad 4GB SoM on a Toradex Mallow V1.1C carrier board
- Any Qt6-capable embedded Linux board with an OpenGL-capable display driver
System Key Features
All numeric values update every second using controlled random variation, creating natural movement across gauges and indicators. On the Engine Controls screen, values respond to the engine state, dropping to zero when the engine is switched off and returning when it is restarted.
Animations are present across nearly every screen, including gauges, compass movement, water levels, lighting indicators, controls, and the radio dial. Carefully managed transitions and consistent easing create a fluid, desktop like experience, which is particularly impressive on limited embedded hardware.
Pages are loaded only when needed and removed when the user navigates away, reducing memory and GPU usage while ensuring each screen opens in a clean state. Depending on the target platform, the application can use video, animated GIFs, or static backgrounds. Carefully selected resources and targeted optimizations keep motion, transitions, and visual effects smooth, even on constrained embedded hardware.
Custom Figma design
The complete Figma design for this project was created in-house by the Somco Software team. From the overall visual direction to individual interface components, every element was designed by us with usability, consistency, and the target platform in mind.
We also offer UI/UX design as a service - Somco can create a complete, implementation-ready Figma design tailored to your product and hardware.
Involved in the project
Jakub Wincenciak
Software engineer, Head of Operations
Przemysław Adam Sowa
CTO
Robert Kołodziejewski
Designer
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