Switching on a Faster and Safer System

We kicked off product discovery to reduce risk and create visible learning opportunities with our customer. This time was invaluable for us to gain a shared understanding of our client’s complex domain. Since the user experience was highly important to the success of our client’s product, we chose a dual-track agile approach for this engagement. Designers and developers worked together iteratively throughout the project. This approach allowed the team to get early feedback on designs.

Previously, users interacted with software on one device, then separately interacted with accompanying physical hardware. The software we built allowed the user to watch progress on the software while waiting to interact with the physical equipment. Our design challenge was to make it clear when the user needed to activate the levers on the equipment reducing the need to split attention. Due to the high cost of failure if operating the switch is done at the wrong time, we had to ensure our design got it right. We introduced many error recovery states to allow users to react quickly to make decisions if it was done incorrectly. 

Over the course of our engagement, we evolved the product from manual operation to automated, as well as scaled from firing one switch to a string of multiple switches. We maintained the same simple user experience despite functionality that grew in complexity.

As the needs of the product grew, our high speed, collaborative process allowed both SEP and our client to make quick decisions and implement features that best served their users.