ENERGY INSIGHTS
Overview
Energy System Networks is an organization dedicated to addressing global energy challenges through collaboration and innovation.
Role
User Experience Designer
Time
3-3.5 months
Team
Samar, Santhosh, Srithika
The Problem
Indiana's small to medium-sized manufacturers lack the tools to optimize energy use, missing opportunities for efficiency, growth, and investment in advanced technologies.
To address this, Energy System Networks (ESN) introduced a program named Energy Insights to deploy smart manufacturing pilot projects to Indiana’s small-medium manufacturers.
Kick Off
As newcomers to the energy industry, my team and I initially found it challenging to fully understand the complexities of the problem. To gain a clearer picture, we began the research by conducting interviews with our stakeholders (Operators, Integrators and Developers). We held meetings to understand their challenges and got their feedback on the problem.
Insights
1) Resources for Decision Making
Operators need sufficient resources and guidance to make important decisions during emergencies to avoid factory accidents.
2) Real Time Status of the Plant
Operators need something that notify the real-time status of the entire plant.
3) Reduce Communication Delay
Operators need a way to reduce communication delays between them and the plant manager to avoid friction in decision-making at the workplace.
Personas
These insights helped us to create personas that were kept front and center while designing.
User Journey
We created a user journey to better understand the pain points of these personas.
1) The operator finds an issue but he faces challenges in effectively reporting issues due to lack of understanding of the dashboard, leading to dependence on the plant manager, which in turn slows down the resolution process (Figure 1).
2) The plant manager finds himself frequently bogged down by constantly guiding operators through issue resolutions as operators struggle to effectively communicate due to their limited understanding of the dashboard (Figure 2).
Figure 1
Feeling - This makes operators feel frustrated and incapable as it creates a dependency.
Figure 2
Feeling - This makes the manager feel annoyed and overwhelmed as it hinders progress in plant operations.
Sketching and Brainstorming
We first framed our problem statement and then moved on to ideation and brainstorming, utilizing the Crazy Eights technique to rapidly generate eight ideas in eight minutes.
“How might we empower operators to make informed energy efficiency decisions and actions while minimizing communication time and dependency with plant managers?”
Proposed solutions
1) Intuitive Dashboard for Operator & Customizable Dashboard for Plant Manager with in-app communication.
2) AI-powered Analytics and Recommendation system.
3) Reducing dependency - Energy Efficiency Guides.
Why this design solution?
1) The dashboard provides videos, use case scenarios, and error guides for operators to easily access and learn from.
2) Operators, including those new to the system, can quickly understand and utilize it through the dashboard's training materials.
3) In case of system errors, operators can refer to the dashboard's resources to make informed decisions and resolve issues efficiently.
Solution 3: Reducing dependency
Energy Efficiency Guides
Final designs
This user flow empowers operators to independently resolve workplace issues using available resources, reducing reliance on the plant manager and significantly cutting resolution time.
User Testing
We met with 3 industry experts and demonstrated our prototypes to them and gave a quick walkthrough of our approach and the goal we envision to achieve.
Feedback
The issue/notification on the operator dashboard is not sufficiently noticeable.
Design Iteration
Use prominent visual cues such as color coding or pop-up notifications.
Impact
Increased visibility and accessibility.
Feedback
Users found it difficult to find specific issues based on their needs
Iteration
Implement a filtering mechanism based on machine type, priority level, and status. Also, incorporate sorting options, such as by date.
Impact
Improves user navigation
Feedback
Users expressed the desire to know the source of the generated information.
Iteration
Add source for the system proposed solution and provide options to change
Impact
Increased user trust and autonomy
Operator flow
This new user flow integrates all feedback from user testing, enabling operators to resolve issues independently and more efficiently.
Future work and Takeaways
As someone new to the energy industry, I initially found the problem space quite challenging to grasp. However, once our research efforts commenced, everything started falling into place, becoming much simpler and clearer to follow.
I want to extend a special appreciation to my team members for their invaluable support in helping me understand various concepts and processes whenever I encountered obstacles. This client project has reinforced my belief that team collaboration goes beyond merely completing individual tasks. Instead, it's about synergizing everyone's efforts and understanding to deliver successful outcomes collectively.
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