WIP | PROFESSION APPS
This project revolves around an integrated app that communicates data between users in a meaningful way. The app should be able to function on desktop, mobile, and tablet, though for the purposes of this project, we are only required to make two work. Whatever the app is for, it should integrate smart phone technology in such a way that adds significant value to a profession or a specific life situation.
I chose a communications and data tool for semiconductor manufacturing. It may be a very niche audience, but I feel that the industry could really benefit from a unified application through which to communicate data and priorities between departments.
SCENARIOS
Desktop (Engineering)
Scenario #1: You have finished dispositioning product number P.000001. Use the app to go into the list of wafers on hold and mark this product as released.
Scenario #2: You were just told by production that a via3barrier product went out of control. Use the app to look at the chart for the most recent product and add it to your queue.
Scenario #3: There's a containment event from one of the tools: endura01x. Use the app to find all the product that has run on that tool from 7/12-7/14 and export that data for further analysis.
Mobile (Production)
Scenario #1: One of your tools had a critical error. Use the app to submit a maintenance request with a photo of the affected tool.
Scenario #2: You know that you have a notification from engineering about product number P.000009. Use the app to complete their request and archive that message.
Scenario #3: You found product P.00001 in your area and you don't know where it belongs. Use the app to search for where this product goes.
BRAINSTORMING
Chiropractic care
Physical Therapy
Semiconductor Manufacturing
Teaching/Students
Online Learning
Tutoring
Hospice Care
Nursing Homes
Hospital Staff
Interior Decorating
Author/Editor
Baby Sitters
Pet Sitters/Pet Boarding
Therapy
College Art
Instrument Lessons
Teacher's Assistant
Personal Assistant
Executive Secretary
Employee Timecard and Record Keeping
The highlighted items are the ideas I feel the most passionate about. I have the most experience (of these items) with semiconductor processing, and as such I am very familiar with current pain points that exist within the industry software.
Communication is crucial with any kind of manufacturing facility. In an environment where precision on the nanometer level is essential, making sure each team can easily communicate problems with one another needs to be a top priority. Part of the reason why I chose semiconductor manufacturing for this project is because I understand how many moving parts there are and how many people are involved in order to produce an integrated circuit.
Initial mind map used for idea brainstorming
PROFFESSION APP RESEARCH
Dock (photo 1), Doodle (photo 2), Jibber Jobber (photo 3)
LinkedIn (photo 1), Resunate (photo 2), Trello (photo 3)
In doing research for this project, I first wanted to establish what apps existed currently that helped communication and productivity in a workplace setting. The above apps are the most recommended and come highly rated by users. It is interesting to note that all of these emphasize communication and organization as central parts to their apps.
From what I can find, there is not an app that unifies several databases as well as offers communication functions in this industry. If there is, it's not something that is easy to find to the public.
Pain points:
From communicating with people who have served two major semiconductor manufacturing companies, it seems to be standard operating procedure to rely on many different applications at once and cobbling together information in spreadsheets. There does not seem to be any standard application that makes it easy to access all (or most) information necessary to perform any given job function.
PERSONAS
Persona #1: Production
kirk (photo 1), Madeleine (photo 2), James (photo 3)
Kirk is a production lead. It is his responsibility to help ensure that operations are proceeded as normal and that any issues are reported quickly and taken care of properly.
Madeleine is a team lead, and manages several toolsets. She is also responsible for communicating problems back and forth between her team members and the production leads.
James was recently hired as an operator a few months ago. He's responsible for a certain toolset and making sure all the tools remain running. He is usually the first to detect if something is wrong, and as such, works closely with engineering and maintenance.
Persona #2: Engineers
Jean (photo 1), Richard (photo 2), Wyatt (photo 3)
Jean is one of the yield engineers. Much of her job involves working with production to make sure the tools are causing problems for the product. She's able to do this by analyzing data from wafer scans that production sends to her.
Richard is responsible for the recipes and functions of all diffusion tools. Since he cannot always be in the fab, he relies heavily on technology to supply him with the tool data he needs to make sure everything is working properly.
Wyatt was recently hired as a process engineer. Much of his work day is wrapped up in a new project that analyzes wafer thickness at various stages to build a reference database.
AUDIENCES FOR PROFESSIONAL APP
In the business of semiconductor manufacturing, the Production team is in charge of making sure product runs correctly. They manage toolsets and mostly need to pay attention to output numbers. The engineers on the other hand, are the ones who get contacted when things go wrong. With such a delicate process such as semiconductor manufacturing, things go wrong often and as such, production and engineering must work closely together to maintain streamlined processes and on-time delivery to customers. I selected these two as my two separate audiences (engineering for desktop, mobile for production). Engineering is my audience for the desktop version, as when things are not functioning properly, they are the ones who primarily do data analysis and look at a lot of different information to formulate a response. Production is my audience for the mobile version because most of their job is communications between teams and number-tracking for equipment efficiency. When there are problems with the product, the primary role of the production side is to contact engineers with all relevant information and pass off that product for disposition.
SKETCHES
Rough sketches of the app. I tried to incorporate all the data functions here, but it looks like too much information.
At this point, I realized I really needed to reduce the scope of this app. First and foremost, this should be a communication and organization app, not necessarily one that is used for analytics. I think I should take customers completely out of the picture, and put the third audience as maintenance. They are critical as well in the triad of operations at manufacturing facilities.
After communicating and brainstorming with others, it made sense to make this a project-management app. In any manufacturing organization, there are so many moving parties, and so it makes more sense (and has more applications) to switch focus.
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH
LiquidText (photo 1), Notability (photo 2), Paper (photo 3)
WIREFRAMES
After communicating and brainstorming with others, it made sense to make this a project-management app. In any manufacturing organization, there are so many moving parties, and so it makes more sense (and has more applications) to switch focus.
Wireframes for desktop version
Going forward with the project-management aspect of the app, there are many different types of product that run as part of semiconductor manufacturing. From other apps that I've seen, it's useful to make divisions so that types of data and tasks are easy and natural to navigate through. My own experience makes me think that having primary data available at first and then breaking it down (while still making it all readily available) would be the best direction for this.
USABILITY TESTING
USER 1
Name: Kelli M.
Occupation: Accountant
I had a discussion with Kelli M. about what she looks for with project management apps. She agrees that there needs to be a breakdown of information and a way to easily view how much needs to be done. While she doesn't know anything about semiconductor manufacturing, she thinks that the wireframes demonstrate a good basis for the division of information. She believes that the scenarios might need to be tailored slightly for users who have no prior knowledge of the industry - meaning that I will either have to change the names of options or change the scenarios slightly to add clarity. That is definitely one thing that I'm having issues accounting for - I have much more personal experience with this field than most, and I need to take a step back and imagine that I'm walking into the industry for the first time.
USER 2
Name: Robert M.
Occupation: Cyber Security
Robert M. has managed projects for most of his professional career. He had a lot to say about the wireframes, mostly that there needs to be quick links to access important information no matter which screen you're on. I think this is a very interesting note, and one that I will try to incorporate in the future.
USER 3
Name: Don H.
Occupation: Retired Project Manager
Don H. used to work as a project manager at a semiconductor manufacturing company, so his input was very enlightening. Most of his comments were about the communication aspect. With so many moving parts, there needs to be an easy way for each faction of the company to communicate (and communicate efficiently) with one another. There are usually so many people involved that it's very easy for someone and something to be missed when dealing with the thousands of silicon wafers that move through the production line each day.
WIREFRAMES CONTINUED
Wireframes for desktop version (engineering)
Wireframes for mobile version (production)
USABILITY TESTING
USER 1
Name: Kelli M.
Occupation: Accountant
Kelli M. wants to see a feature that will allow checklists for completed items, as well as assignment properties to individuals who need to be involved in a product. She was a little confused when following along with the scenarios (mostly with the desktop/engineering version). She thinks there needs to be some simplification added. However, she likes the overall feel, though mentioned that the desktop wireframes as they stand need more of an obvious flow.
USER 2
Name: Robert M.
Occupation: Cyber Security
Robert M. was a little confused - with the mobile app - how there were multiple ways to report an issue. He did not understand why there would be engineering requests, maintenance requests, and report an issue. He suggested maybe make the "report an issue" button the primary feature, as it would probably get used more. I tried to explain that the requests can go both ways, but I think he has a fair point. I think there needs to be more of a distinction between these options.
Something else that Robert M. mentioned was that there should be some sort of timeline or predicted timeline associated with a project management app, that way everyone involved knows what to prioritize and when.
USER 3
Name: Don H.
Occupation: Retired Project Manager
Don H.'s experience with the particular company I have in mind was both helpful and not helpful in this circumstance. On one hand, he has a lot of advice to offer on how things work in upper management, but he also knows how much information is typically attached to any request in the semiconductor industry. I've had to narrow the scope of what I want this app to contain, simply so that it can be more marketable and applicable to multiple industries. With that in mind, Don H. suggested a more consistent usage of the header and sidebars to help organize all of the external applications and data analysis tools that are typically associated with this industry.
RESTART WITH SKETCHES
COLOR ITERATION
Desktop Version
Mobile Version
USABILITY TESTING
USER 1
Name: Kelli M.
Occupation: Accountant
Kelli M. was able to participate in user testing for the county website redesign. She pointed out that the design - especially the news cards and card on the right side look very similar to the previous project. I'm not sure if that will be a problem, as this layout only applies to the home page. She suggested changing the way news cards layout on this page because of the lack of contrast with the background. Other than that, she likes the colors and layout.
USER 2
Name: Robert M.
Occupation: Cyber Security
Robert M. believes referred me to Microsoft Project and Microsoft Teams, which he called the "premiere project management software currently out there." He thought I could benefit from additional research with this site, but had nothing of note to say about this design.
USER 3
Name: Don H.
Occupation: Retired Project Manager
Don H. is always very positive when he conducts usability testing. He suggested that there needs to be a way to filter the notifications, and have a priority system set up in it as well. He also noted the lack of contrast in the news cards. He also noted that, while the desktop version has limited view of equipment and throughput, that will need to be emphasized more with the mobile app/production side because that is their primary concern on the fab floor.
FINAL ITERATION
Desktop Version
Mobile Version
USABILITY TESTING
USER 1
Name: Kelli M.
Occupation: Accountant
Kelli M. was initially worried that it was too complicated, but with the simplified scenarios, it was much easier for her to participate confidently. She likes the color scheme and the darker background. She felt that was a much better design choice.
USER 2
Name: Robert M.
Occupation: Cyber Security
Robert M. would have preferred a feature where you can assign tasks to others. Perhaps if there is more time in the future, I can work on expanding the app to include that function. Other than that, he particularly likes the way data is displayed in the mobile version.
USER 3
Name: Don H.
Occupation: Retired Project Manager
Don H. really likes the mobile version. He thinks it makes a lot of sense and would be very useful to production management. He also believes that the desktop version needs more refinement, and I am in agreement, though I think that will be part of a future expansion.
PROTOTYPE DESKTOP
PROTOTYPE MOBILE
VIDEO PRESENTATION
CONCLUSION
Overall, I think there is a lot that still needs to be refined. Given the time constraints of this project, this is something I plan on coming back to at a future date to improve. I do think the app has a lot of potential, but it was easy to become overwhelmed with the sheer volume of data that I was trying to organize in a useful way. I think narrowing down priorities will help greatly for future work.
