GentrackDesign System for Utility Management Software
Summary
Gentrack aims to improve its utility management platform, and we're tasked with creating prototypes for client demos, testing and iterating the solution. We also conducted field research with New Zealand power companies to gain deeper insights into how the system is used in real-world operations, ensuring the platform aligns with their needs.
Solution
I curated a design system library to optimize our team's workflow and create better design solutions for our stakeholders. The system includes tested and validated components that shape both product design and development. Our team conducted field research across multiple power companies, focusing on operations and customer service departments, to gain insights on improving the user experience and enhancing the clarity of data presented in the application.
As I already have experience working with design systems, one thing that I saw as a challenge is the consistency of work between one designer to the other, a quick solution for me to look at is to create the primitive and the semantics of the library and scale it along the way. As it is a fast-pace environment and projects are coming all over the place, it is better to mitigate these inconsitencies before it become a burden on the delivery space.
Within the next 3 months, I have been curating design components that the whole team is needed, that has accumulated to about 64+ design components that the design team has been using since.
In between my development of the design system, we are put through numerous feature build that needs risk mitigation and usability testing. This is to assure that all our design solution has a good experience standards and to make sure that the product is going to be scalable.
Given that these solutions are used by large utility management companies for both operations and reporting, we ensure a tiered user model is referenced in the design process. In this example, we tested a design for customer support, featuring a visual model of customer configuration and a graphical interface with seamless information flow. As this is a complex B2B product, incorporating technical knowledge is crucial to its success. My process involves presenting and validating the existing user journey, then identifying problems and opportunities. This approach fosters collaboration with the delivery team by addressing technical limitations before implementing design changes.