A new premium feature in our 3D manufacturing software. Providing real-time device monitoring for greater production control, productivity, and efficiency.
HP 3D Center: Factory Floor view
Role: Feature lead for team of 4
Timeline: 5 weeks
Key Results: ⬆️ Increased premium subscriptions
SITUATION
HP 3D Center is a freemium SaaS product that delivered a cost-effective, easy-to-use, cloud-based dashboard for our additive manufacturing users. It is the only software that allowed users access to manufacturing and production data coming from their 3D printers.
However, we had a business problem which was:
We had a freemium software and not many paying customers
We also had a user problem:
“Your software is the most convenient way for me to view data from my machines, but you aren’t addressing my manufacturing needs beyond the basics. I want real-time data so I can be as efficient as possible.”
Things eventually came to a head when our largest 3D printing customer came to us and said…
“Do this in 5 weeks, or we’re paying for someone else’s software.”
TASK
We quickly sprung into action, with the challenge to create an experience which will optimize production floor monitoring by increasing throughput and reducing downtime for large 3D manufacturing fleets.
I ran qualitative research and a competitive analysis, where I found the personas and needs are:
Production floor supervisors: “I want my team to be a well oiled machine so I can get things done and report good numbers to my boss”
Operators: “I want to know what I’m supposed to do and where, I do my best work with straightforward tasks”
I also ran a workshop / week long design sprint with business stakeholders where we aligned the main software opportunity area is:
Operators, Supervisors, and other Factory Floor personas do not have a way to easily know:
If an action is required
What the action is, and
Where it needs to be performed
We needed an experience that would accomplish this.
Photo of whiteboard demonstrating manual work the users were doing to track production
ACTION
Coming out of the workshop, we agreed to have a production floor monitoring view in the software. The experience is meant to show up on a monitor on the factory floor, I made wireframes and status diagrams to make sure we were accurate when action is required and to start defining our general action colors (red/green):
I ran more qualitative concept testing, where we found users want to prioritize by finish time, enjoyed the use of visual elements such as colors and progress bars, and appreciated customization. They also wanted to see more devices on the screen at once, which I have marked as a tradeoff here because…
⬇️ Less devices ⬆️ More visibility
⬇️ Less visibility ⬆️ More devices
Putting more devices on the screen would sacrifice visibility, one of our core requirements. Our business partners wanted to pivot the design to include more devices but I know that what the user says is not always what they need, so I decided to design both solutions to completion and allow the user to toggle between as part of the customization feature. However, the business needed to get this feature out fast, so only the right one was developed as our first iteration.
RESULT
Impact on users:
Our biggest user bought our software! I also tracked the quantitative data for out software and found we increased time in app, which means they are actively using the feature on production floor monitors.
Impact on design team:
Our “status” colors and cards were integrated into the design system and used other places in our tracking software for contextual info.
Live view at HP Barcelona Factory
ReflectionFinal reflection is PHEW. This was a crazy project going from nothing to handoff in 5 weeks, especially with so many things stacked against us. I continuously involved stakeholders in the process for buy in and pushed back the team from solutioning too quickly. I also learned we need to better plan for reviews as part of our process to keep the team effective, even when we don’t feel like we have time.