First Resonance ION
Project
Overview
ION enables manufacturers to be rapid, iterative, and data-driven.
Agile manufacturing is revolutionizing aerospace, space, energy, and electric vehicles. Manufacturers in these hard-tech industries demand rapid iteration, total traceability, and reliability in their workflow from design to production. This is very different from the traditional water-fall structure and digging data through piles of tech drawings and thick binders of data sheets.
ION aims to provide an intuitive platform that accelerates product development by optimizing collaboration, resource management, and rapid iteration. It uses object data to align teams, deliver deadlines, and secure profitability.
Company Website link HERE.
Impact
This project had achieved:
Challenges
The Production Module is the most used part of ION, with 75% of the usage and user count. We continuously refine this module to meet evolving client needs and maintain its effectiveness in supporting modern manufacturing.
Adopting Agile Methodology of Manufacturing.
ION's development focuses on streamlining the transition from traditional waterfall processes to agile methodologies in hard-tech manufacturing, aiming to create a digital shared space that enables real-time collaboration and problem-solving among design engineers, manufacturing engineers, and technicians.
App Efficiency & Data Quality Optimization
Enhance ION's effectiveness through streamlined user experience and ensure accurate and timely tracked actions/data inputs, enabling engineers to improve future production processes.
Automation & Mobility Feature Enhancement.
As technology advances, ION evolves to meet new challenges. The team focuses on integrating automation through APIs and emerging technologies to enhance user experience.
My Role
Focus on improving the current Production Module to be more user-friendly, user-efficient, and with better scalability.
I am responsible for user research, design strategy, UX/UI design, prototyping, usability testing, and building a new design system in this project, and set up quality assurance testing after beta release of the feature.
Research
Ethnography Research / User Journey Mapping
I visited 10 customers across different industries in person or virtually to understand how they each operate on the job floor and how different roles work together to prioritize their work.
Among all the users, the role of Manufacturing Technician is my main focus since it occupies 73% of the user population of ION’s production module.
Analytics & Monitoring
I leveraged Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and Sigma to analyze user behavior within the app. By tracking component usage, navigation patterns, and input data, I could identify high-impact areas for improvement and what components had higher usage than others.
Technician Workflow (Current)
The technician workflow was re-identified and updated from the research observations and insights to visually identify existing bottlenecks, which presents the opportunity to improve through new design.
Takeaways
Issue 01 - Fragmented & inconsistent UX/UI experience causing poor information hierarchy.
Issue 02: Traditional waterfall approval process hinders R&D agility & innovation processes.
Issue 03: Unexpected downtime caused by unclear status signals interrupts technician workflow.
Design Strategy
The new flow aims to streamline the production run and increase the efficiency on the production floor.
Design Process
Design Phase 1
UI components and user navigation audit
A design audit was performed on the current production module, including UI components, user navigation, frequency of usage, etc.
Key Takeaways - UI Components
Inconsistent component design in size and format. Ex. Two tabs style on one page and buttons with different size and radius
Components were not grouped following the job-to-be-done framework.
Excessive negative space at the top of the page removed the available space for job instruction which is the most important information on this page.
This navigation path need to be repeated for each installation part, which causes many repetitive and time consuming clicks.
Key Takeaways - Navigation Path
Scattered components with no apparent logic or following the job-to-be-one framework.
Unnecessary repetitive navigation patterns exist in complex job execution or jobs that require the installation of multiple parts.
There is no clear guardrail to prevent the user from inputting data incorrectly.
Design Summary
I used the job-to-be-done framework and research insights to guide my design process. Key design improvements include:
Inserting installation checkers and data input fields directly below associated instructions creates a linear navigation path.
Segmenting instructions by key breaks to enhance searchability and revision.
These changes aim to streamline user workflow, encourage timely data input, and preserve data integrity.
Usability Test Results & User Feedbacks
Takeaways
Simplified UI reduces clutter and navigation complexity.
Contextual input placement improves data accuracy and timeliness.
Modular design enhances navigation and facilitates editing more intuitively.
Trade-offs and What still need to work on…
Increased setup time yields long-term operational benefits.
Human behavior remains a key factor in system effectiveness
Final Design
Runs Dashboard with Technician Focus.
Run Execution Page in Progress with Part Installation Confirmation Module
Run Execution Page with Live Diff View on.
Run Execution Page with completed Production Run.
Run Execution Page in Light Mode vs Dark Mode comparison.
Run Execution Dashboard in Dark Mode.
Achieved OKR
We tracked the progress of user adaptation and interaction metrics by leveraging product analytic tools such as Mixpanel and Sigma to obtain quantitative results and evaluate the KPI success rate.
Clients also expressed satisfaction and gratitude about how performant the new UI is compared to the old, and the time reduced by the latest UX flows is incomparable. The more complex a procedure is, the more time is saved.
Streamlined Production Flow
On average, the installation flow for each part inventory had been reduced by at least 3 clicks, and the saved time period actually accumulates when more parts are involved in the production.
Bulk Merging is a Life Saver
The bulk merge feature reduced the time to merge approved edits to other active production runs needs the same modification to seconds no matter how complex the edit is. In the previous version of the app, each active production run edit need to be performed by Engineer manaully and invidudally. Now it can be done by just couple clicks and call it the day!
Decentralized Communication No More
All communication, situation reports, and incident artifacts can be sent, stored, and reviewed in a centralized space so all stakeholders can align on the issue and work together seamlessly to formulate solutions optimally without going through multiple channels.