Re-design for Symphony Industrial AI
Ux design • UX research • Visual identity
Symphony Industrial AI is an emerging leader of artificial intelligence-based assets and process health, optimization, and performance solutions for smart manufacturing.
SIAI delivers machine health reliability solutions with a global reach that reduces risk, improves safety, increases production, and optimizes efficiency.
Founded in 1966, with headquarters is in Woburn City in Massachusetts, SIAI helps manufacturers: reduce unplanned asset/plant downtime, increase asset availability, reduce maintenance costs, reduce the risk of failure.
SIAI provides products like Watchman 360, APM (Asynchronous Programming Model) 360, APM Data 360, Performance 360.
Challenge
The client, who’s already been successfully operating on the market for 30 years, decided to complete a redesign of several different products and combine them into one.
The redesign process relied on users' feedback and the vast experience the client had throughout this time.
Also, we were asked to rethink the apps and possibly merge their elements to simplify as much as possible and improve the user experience of the present customers and engage new ones.
Who are the customers of SIAI
The customers of SIAI are the end-users in any area where manufacturing and production happen:
- Chemical Processing
- Facilities Management
- Industrial Manufacturing
- Smart Manufacturing
- Oil & Gas
- Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industries etc.
Our solution
Persona
We began our process with the discovery phase. By working closely with Product Owners, the Business Analyst, and the Engagement team, we interviewed key stakeholders, conducted several workshops, and performed competitors' analysis.
Reliability/Data Analyst
Is an expert in vibration analysis, who provides recommendations on severity level and actions needed. In some situations, when automated analysis highlights a potential issue with an asset, additional investigation and research should be performed. Within a system, the Reliability Analyst should be able to see assets assigned and access detailed vibration analysis information (Watchman Portal). After the diagnostic, the Analyst provides the vision on the issue, level of severity, and recommendation on further actions
Process (Operations) Manager
Is interested in reviewing process KPIs within a particular area of responsibility (for example, plant). The goals of PM are pretty similar to the goals of RM but more process-focused. The same asset can be part of different areas and processes, based on organizational structure and production needs. Thus, PM needs different point-of-view and hierarchy structure of assets within the area of responsibility. Also, processes can operate with their attributes, that are not presented within the asset description. Performance360 provides the functionality that allows PM to get all information about the performance and productivity of processes, and provide insights into their optimizations.
Reliability Manager
Is a user, usually responsible for a set of assets that is most interested in understanding conditions of assets, availability, safety, the root cause for failures, and potential impact (to prioritize maintenance activities). RM obtains this information from Watchman Reliability Portal and APM360 and is asset-focused
With the help of research, we created 3 user personas for this project and defined key features for all of them. Our goal was not only to identify the main user personas, but also their flows, pain points, and needs. This way we could create a universal design that effortlessly meets a variety of needs and use cases.
Documentation
During the discovery phase, we conducted Stakeholder interviews, Competitive analysis, Persona building, User interviews, and collected User stories to understand their requirements for the product’s features. We also completed Prototype and testing and created User flow.
Additionally, we created an Informational Architecture to organize, structure, and label content effectively.
Process
MVP
The discovery phase was followed by the creation of the MVP design and interactive prototype to engage old and new clients. Its goal was to show the primary features and the concept of the product redesign.
After several MVP iterations and its approval by the stakeholders, we gradually immersed ourselves in the details and formed our vision of the product. Then, after successful MVP demos, we moved on to the development of the core product and its functionalities, which we started with the process setup.
Design System Guide
We created an incredibly detailed design system to make the platform’s design consistent and efficient. It included described taxonomy labels and UX copywriting.
Dashboard
The system had a hierarchical structure with different dashboards on each level – from the company to plant to its specific areas. We created dashboards for each level to efficiently display all the essential information.
Analytics
Alerts
We added features for users to receive notifications about the plant’s equipment and its condition. This way the user can get updates on whether the equipment needs a repair or replacement.
Responsive design
We created a responsive design for the system to adapt it for 4 different platforms and make it perform smoothly on all of them. We created detailed rules for all systems elements’ behavior, including widgets, internal pages, tables, etc.
Results
As a result, our team successfully completed the design of the product and considerably developed its functionality. We completed a redesign of the platform’s communication system to manage various issues and performed the visualization of the front-end system that was already there. Also, we managed to create a detailed design system and assure efficient visualization of the high volume of data.
