ROle
Lead ux/ui designer
Product
ineight model
Client
ineight
The Project
This was a massive project that included a total redesign of the UI/UX of our 3D estimating tool (model), the creation of a mobile companion app, and the build-out of our Desktop Style Guide.
The Product
Model (product name) is a powerful BIM tool that allows users to collaborate on a single 3D project where engineers, architects, and other construction professionals manage a project through its life cycle.
The Team
I was the lead designer on this team which consisted of developers, product managers, product owners, sales, and marketing.
Outcomes
Amazing
The process
This process was kicked off due to a slow down in sales of model, AS WELL AS a number of users not interested in renewing their model contracts
Following the process below we were able to diagnose key issues and create effective solutions.
- Discover - Why were sales numbers declining?
- Define - What issues need to be addressed?
- Design - How do we address those issues?
- TEst - Did we accomplish our goal?
Discover
To kick off our investigative process we started a qualitative discovery process with our users who had decided to move away from model as their choice of BIM software. We then moved on to a competitive analysis of the products they were jumping to.
Why they left
Model is an extremely complex piece of software that offers solutions in all areas of BIM software. Because of this, the application had become clunky and difficult to master.
A lot of the built-in functionality of the product was unused or poorly used due to its complexity and poor discoverability. This made new more streamlined products more attractive even if it meant giving up on better functionality.
Where they went
InEight's main competitors on the market are Procore and Autodesk.
Autodesk offers a comprehensive cloud solution and clean UX that has a lot of documentation to support it.
Procore's main attraction was a mobile app that could be brought with you in the field, which is extremely valuable for BIM users.
Define
The Problem
Model, though powerful, had fallen behind the competition. AS a team we idenTIFIED our biggest problems and potential solutions for them
Those areas were:
- Poor Feature discoverability - Redesign Ribbon
- Slow, clunky, and hard to use tools - Redesign Core UX for most used tools
- the UI needed Unification - consistant UI throughout
- no Mobile APP - create a mobile app
Design
After clearly defining a goal I was able to work weekly with my team over the course of two years to accomplish our goal. Below is just a small snapshot of the work we did.
Toolbar/Ribbon UX
Old Ribbon and it's problem
The "OLD" Ribbon was a powerful but combersome exPERIENCE. It hid a lot of the functionality the software had to offer. If users wanted to do something more niche, they would often have to search through endless menus until they found what they were looking for. We would sometimes get feature requests for things the application could already do due to the poor architecture.
New Toolbar
With the new toolbar I brought most of the functionality into the users field of view. I followed a similar pattern to the old menus to avoid confusion with legacy users and gave users more control over the application. We worked a lot with users to create something that would not only improve their DAY-TO-DAY work experience but hopefully save them time and heartache. This LED to a huge boost in user satisfaction with the applICATION.
Toolbar EXTENSIONS are an extension of the toolbar that are active when certain tools are active. fROM FEEDBACK WE LEARNED Users like the main toolbar collapsed when WORKING. Toolbar extensions were made to allow them to do their work with more space.
Tools Reworks
Olds Tools
I'm showcasing two of the tools that were reworked on this project. These for me were the most fun to rework and I believe the impact was the greatest.
Sectioning
Sectioning allows users to splice a model, giving them a different perspective. In the old design users had to rely on a complicated window to change the size of the sectioning box. This is a slow process, espeCIALLY WHEN most of the time the size of this box does not need to be precise. With the update we added arrows that allowed users to select and drag faces of the box to change it's size.
Measurement
The measurement tool previously was very diffICULT TO use. This required a total rework from the ground up. We also moved some options that are document driven to a dIFFERENT portion of the UI.
Users often complained about the object snaping options in the old menu. When looking at this example keep in mind that you can only select one of those options at a time unless you're using Vertex, THEN you can also select midpoint and center. The menus to the left change which options are selectable as well.
UI Unification
The UI for the many different panels, menus, and dialogues was very mismatched. During the redesign of the ribbon and major tools I also made an effort to ensure all interactions in the application felt cohesive and familiar.
This is a Ui for the project selection screen. This was one of the large reworks we had to go through. It allows users to select projects to save locally and sync when changes are made. Order is important here due to file size.
This is showing how a user would select a project to save locally.
Mobile ApplICATION
One major part of this project was creating a mobile companion application to go along with the desktop appLICATION. This would allow people to bring the model into the field and make changes to a project on the go.
Challenges and Outcomes
WE were able greatly increase customer retention through our design efforts. We did a number of user Interviews towards the end of our project and 90% of users interviewed stated our design changes were one of the main reasons for them staying.
There's a lot I would change if I could go back. We hit a lot of roadbumps along the way but OVERALL, I'm extremely happy with how our desktop application turned out.
