Case Study: Neara's UX vision: A 'consume' experience
The Neara interface is aimed at a 'configure' experience. Customers buy specific solutions consisting of different use-cases that can be used to identify and prioritise risks to the network. Neara can simulate the effects of these risks on a network in a 3D digital twin. An example of a solution aimed at extreme weather is 'Weather resillience and grid hardening'. Inside this solution are different use cases e.g., wild-fire, floods, storms and snow and ice.
The Neara world viewer (digital twin) where insights are extracted based on the configured use case. In this screenshot the delivery team is in the process of creating the ‘twin’, training the AI to identify spans and poles based on LiDAR scans.
The Neara user interface is aimed at a configure experience. Pipelines are automated workflows importing and transforming datasets.
The Challenge
Neara relies on an off-shore delivery team to, configure the 3D twin and interface for customers which will enable customers to extract insights from purchased use cases. This mean that the user experience is created by a technical team with no understanding of UX. Once the use cases are configured the customer success team onboard the customer through a intensive training schedule where the customer is taught very specific workflows.
The combination of the above process and a nonintuitive interface makes the product unusable. Business partners have been unable to agree on a customer vision for the product. With the loss of a tender based on feedback that the product is to complicated, the need for a simpler interface where a customer can onboard themselves easily became clear.
Working with business partners and SMEs I created a UX vision for the product. The intent of this vision was to create a roadmap for the business they could use to plan the implementation of a customer facing portal.
The ‘CONSUME’ experience for a non-technical user VS ‘CONFIGURE’ for advanced users
Approach
Working with SMEs I identified areas in the product that could be re-designed for a self-serve experience.
Out goals were -
Simplification of the interface without losing the power of the platform
Efficient manual workflows
Automated workflows for self-service
Enhance the platform usability with UI that guides and supports users through the workflow
In an attempt to standardise the ambiguous nomenclature of Neara we created new core concepts -
Home aka Worldviewer / current 3D map
Use cases and insights aka analytics
Projects aka designs
Workspaces aka workspaces
Data aka datasets
We conducted a series of workshops in Figjam. Using on personas and JTBD we flushed out potential behaviour and concepts in flows and lo-fi wires. Once we were satisfied, the high level prototype was designed in Figma using the Carbon Design System.
Home - visualising insights
New concepts - pipelines and projects
Flows for prototype
Design intent:
The 3D twin / map is the hero element of the product. As you select / click on information on the map slide in panels will display and hide information as needed leaving the interface uncluttered. Panels are collapsable, can be grouped into the main themes of the product;
Design of the network in the digital twin,
LiDAR classification of different point cloud types and
Use cases and insights, identifying and prioritising risks to my network
Workspaces in the current platform is used to guide users through flows, I redefined them as spaces where a user can do specific JTBD based on the above themes.
VIEW detailed presentation here
Conclusion
I presented this vision at the company’s yearly off-site and it was well received by the company as a whole. The challenge would be how this vision would be realised given a crammed roadmap and constraints in front-end resources.