Industrial devices are configured to provide their associated industrial data to client-side user interface applications in a self-describing manner that instructs the interface applications how the data is to be rendered. In response to a request for a data item from a user interface application, the industrial device sends the requested data item together with presentation metadata that identifies a widget or graphical objects to be used by the interface application to render the data item on a user interface. By providing the industrial data in a self-describing manner, additional data or services can be added to the industrial device without requiring a corresponding update to the client-side interface application.