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inQntrol Platform

To gather objective feedback and minimize bias, general public can submit safety reviews by answering fact-based questions covering the five safety dimensions. Additionally, for dedicated Google Maps Local Guides, question cards are prompted while they are at the location, minimizing the effort required to recall current safety conditions.

Increasing troubleshooting confidence in facilities management

Making safety information reliable and accessible on Google Maps

inQntrol Platform

Increasing troubleshooting confidence in facilities management

My role: 

Product designer

Contributed to the desktop design, spearheaded the design and usability testing sessions for the mobile flow, and supercharged UI visual consistency

Time frame:

Sep–Dec, 2022

Skills:

Contextual inquiry, Prototyping, Concept testing, Research through design, Design System

Team:

1 UX researcher, 2 product designers, 1 engineer, 1 PM

Gaining control over reliable sensor data is crucial in facilities management for ensuring the safety and comfort of the space. inQ Services is a SaaS IIoT startup that monitors the well-being of facility devices and reduces costly equipment downtime.

 

I worked with a team to uncover product-market fit, designing a new set of features for inQ's flagship product, inQntrol, a platform that enhances troubleshooting confidence in facilities management by providing spatial data for sensor alerts. Employing a human-centered approach to address the challenges of a hardware-centered industry, the new solution helped inQ establish a key value proposition and contributed to securing a contract with the US government, paving the way for an upcoming beta launch next year.

My role:

Product designer;

Contributed to the desktop design, spearheaded the design and usability testing sessions for the mobile flow, and supercharged UI visual consistency

Time frame:

Jan–Aug, 2023

Skills:

Contextual inquiry

Prototyping

Concept testing

Research through design

Design System

Team:

1 UX researcher

2 product designers

1 engineer 

1 PM

Goal

How might we make troubleshooting in facilities management more efficient?

Problem

Troubleshooting in facilities management feels like a guessing game

1️⃣

Facilities managers experience alert fatigue, they have to spend extra hours extracting the relevant alerts from the system

2️⃣

They struggle with managing alerts as they need to switch between multiple software applications

3️⃣

They are uncertain of the underlying causes behind a problem due to the lack of a clear oversight

Solution

Who is this solution for?

Facilities management stakeholders

inQntrol is a facilities management tool that provides spatial understanding for in-person and online troubleshooting, reducing alert fatigue and operational inefficiency experienced by users.

GOAL

To provide travel safety information that is relevant, trustworthy, and digestible to female solo travelers

Outcome

A new safety layer on Google Maps that provide aggregated safety information about neighborhoods

​LOCALITY

SafeZone is a geographical representation of safety. It maps “safety scores” of cities and neighborhoods based on government published data and crowdsourced, user-submitted reviews.

DECISION MAKING

Assess safety across five key dimensions: public transit, crime rate, phone signal, busyness, and walking at night. The scoring system relies on publicly available data and user-reported community information to maintain objectivity. Users can compare safety scores of different neighborhoods, enabling faster decision-making regarding safety.

CONTEXTUAL ASSESSMENT

Utilize crowd-sourced information to make a comprehensive assessment based on personal situations. Users have more flexibility to filter reviews based on identities and personal concerns that matter to them the most

To gather objective feedback and minimize bias, general public can submit safety reviews by answering fact-based questions covering the five safety dimensions. Additionally, for dedicated Google Maps Local Guides, question cards are prompted while they are at the location, minimizing the effort required to recall current safety conditions.

COMMUNITY

To gather objective feedback and minimize bias, general public can submit safety reviews by answering fact-based questions covering the five safety dimensions. Additionally, for dedicated Google Maps Local Guides, question cards are prompted while they are at the location, minimizing the effort required to recall current safety conditions.

PROBLEM

Female solo travelers face challenges when seeking safety information for their travel planning. The existing resources are scattered and fragmented, making it time-consuming and arduous to gather comprehensive and personalized information that caters specifically to their needs.

Discovery

Safety concerns influence how people plan for traveling

DESKTOP RESEARCH    |    USER INTERVIEW   |    DATA ANALYSIS

Design System

Maintaining consistency with Google Maps design system

In the beginning of the project, we didn’t have specific target audience to design for in travel planning. After conducting extensive research on social media, travel websites, research papers, and interviews to gather data on travel planning, we identified a prevalent issue: safety concerns. Recognizing the significance of this problem, we chose to narrow our focus to female travelers, considering their general vulnerability and the emerging opportunities within this group.

Travel Planning

How might we help women in mitigating safety concerns when planning their travel experiences

PREV PROJECT

I created the prototype for the Augmented Reality view for accessing sensor status. Users were the most excited about this feature, seeing a rise in new hire's troubleshooting confidence by 70%

I led the mobile design which facilitated faster access to locations of alert root causes on-site. 8/10 users believed that using the mobile mechanical floor plan with device status will help reduce machine downtime

Connecting sensor data from all legacy platforms in one place, facilities managers can gain a holistic view of data relationships in different locations.

A directory for consolidating different sensor sources

With sensor alerts now organized by zones rather than a list format, facilities managers can prioritize critical and relevant alerts.

 

I designed the alert description panel, which allows users to create actionable work orders, and this resulted in a 33% increase in user confidence for faster alert resolution

Desktop Features:

A map designed to facilitate actionable alerts

Locating hidden device and access real-time data via AR

App Features:

Remote access to resources for locating alerts on-site

Research At A Glance

How do female travelers assess risks of a destination?

Defining Problem

How did we tap into the human needs in the highly technical domain of facilities management?

PREV PROJECT

Initially, we encountered a highly technical challenge and struggled to find a break through point for inQ to establish their first customer base, yet after intensive user research, we identified 3 key insights focusing on why troubleshooting in facilities management is not efficient currently:

01. Alert fatigue

Facilities management receives overwhelming numbers of low-quality alerts daily, many unrelated to their direct responsibilities

02. Lack of holistic view

The need to jump back and forth between different systems in order to diagnose a problem increase troubleshooting time

03. Man power shortage

It's costly to onboard new staff who don't come with years of experience or unfamiliar with campus space 

Measuring Success

Assessing metrics for inQntrol's beta launch

Unpacking User Needs & Ideation

Turning insights into design ideas on providing actionable data

PREV PROJECT

I led the team in conducting a "5 Whys" activity, delving into underlying user needs by repeatedly asking "why" to uncover the root cause. This paved the direction for the idea brainstorm and from 24 sketches, we refined our focus to three promising ideas, validated through low-fidelity testings:

Grouping alerts based on relevance and criticality to reduce alert fatigue

Leverage past experiences from others to generate problem root causes

⓷ Using geo-guidance to locate sensors and check their status in the space

Concept Testings

Key discoveries uncovered value proposition