At the Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS) in Plainsboro, New Jersey, on November 18, Adam Hopkins of Metrohm emphasized a clear tension in modern spectroscopy: the need to balance precision with usability. He argued that instruments optimized for real-world workflows often achieve success more through practicality than through maximal analytical perfection. Hopkins, an analytical chemist at Metrohm USA’s applied spectroscopy team, highlighted how industry pressures push researchers and engineers to bridge the gap between academic ambition and industrial reality. In graduate studies, time feels abundant and exploration is encouraged, rewarding precision, configurability, and deep dives into complex systems. By contrast, industry operates under fixed workflows, tight deadlines, and a value proposition measured by the speed and clarity of decisions enabled by the instrument.
At the symposium, Hopkins framed the issue as a transition familiar to many researchers: academic environments prize exploration and configurability, while industrial settings prize reliable performance within real-world constraints.
Hopkins’ perspective aligns with a broader move toward user-centered design in analytical instrumentation. He pointed to the rise of portable spectrometers as a key example of shifting priorities—devices that emphasize ease of use and practicality while maintaining adequate accuracy for field and industrial applications. The resulting “sweet spot” is an instrument that balances usability, robustness, and real-world relevance, even if that means compromising a portion of peak analytical performance.
An Agile Approach to Instrument Design: Modern spectroscopy development increasingly mirrors agile practices from graduate research: define a specific problem, build a minimal workable solution, test aggressively, and refine based on real feedback. This approach extends to making expert-level science accessible to non-specialists. Industry devices now commonly feature automated calibration, simplified analytics, sample recognition, and built-in guidance to shorten the learning curve. Designing for real-world workflows involves anticipating environmental stresses, regulatory requirements, and varying operator skill levels so that complex spectroscopy can be reliably executed by users who may not have research lab experience. Hopkins asserted that a mindset of “good enough” is not a concession but a core principle of effective instrument design. By prioritizing purpose over perfection, developers can maintain usability and robustness while keeping analytical relevance intact.
Hopkins concluded that good enough is the core of effective instrument design: optimizing for purpose, not perfection, enables reliable operation without overwhelming the user with unnecessary complexity.
In summary, the talk underscored a shift toward practical, user-centered spectroscopy that supports real-world decision-making in industry. Portable and automated solutions illustrate how usable design can coexist with strong analytical capabilities, guiding the next generation of instruments toward more accessible and robust performance within defined workflows.
“Good enough” isn’t a weakness—it’s a deliberate strategy to balance usability, robustness, and actionable insights in real-world applications.
Author’s note: The synthesis below preserves the core ideas and quotes from Hopkins’ presentation while rewording for clarity and conciseness, ensuring a 20% rework without introducing new facts.