Role
- UX design and research
- Information architecture
- Prototyping and usability testing
- Assisted front-end refinement in React Native
Project Overview
The Smart Torque System integrates with supported bluetooth-enabled tools to collect industrial data in the field. This presents an opportunity to augment the information a worker has while using the tool, and help maintain consistent work with a site’s process.
A process of industry research, prototyping, and user testing is followed to ensure that integrations of new tools not only fit within the goals of the platform, but help a team of workers access relevant information.
Hydraulic Tightening, Tensioning
User Feedback
TorqueFit (now Cumulus Mobile App) was initially launched with support for bluetooth-enabled manual wrenches. From the beginning, the product roadmap had laid out the need for more tool types to support all activities of pipeline construction and maintenance. After building on feedback from users, industry experts, and deployment managers, we compiled a list of needs for interfacing with the new tool, as well as critical information that would need to be displayed to the user at a given time.
Problem Areas
As the tool is a high-powered hydraulic wrench system, it is typically used on larger flanges that require a higher level of torque than a manual wrench can provide. This introduced a few additional challenges from the previous work:
- More complex interface with the tool and gauge
- Complexity of guide and navigation across a larger diagram
- Considerations for planned mobile layout release
Process Documentation
Developing new interfaces often involves collaboration with tool manufacturers to align with any status messaging a tool may provide to a user, either with simple LED displays or more complex LCD screens. As a team we worked to ensure that a user’s attention is directed to the correct place at the appropriate time, whether it involves deferring to the device’s interface or focusing on the critical safety of a worker’s current task.
User Testing
Building the tool integrations is often an iterative process, but to test the effectiveness of particular UI patterns, multiple usability studies were conducted. This involved outlining a series of tasks for a user to perform, as well as background context so any subjects in the study could understand any additional information about the process that they might not be familiar with.
- Tested with a variety of users from other-department coworkers and customers to get feedback on usability and improvements of navigation