New application design solution (MI-MOLM-OEM)

Discovery Phase

At the outset of the MI project, the platform existed only as an abstract idea—without a clear roadmap, structure, or validated purpose.

• My role began by immersing myself in understanding the technical landscape, identifying existing assets, and mapping out the project’s scope and system interdependencies.

• Through a series of interviews, workshops, and stakeholder alignment sessions, I gathered insights from key internal teams, project leads, technical stakeholders, and external OEM customers. I conducted a full review of all available resources, including outdated UI concepts and incomplete workflows, to identify what could be reused and what needed to be redefined.

• This phase allowed me to clarify the project’s value proposition, target users, and strategic goals by applying the 5W method (Who, What, When, Where, Why). I mapped current UI workflows, assessed technical capabilities, outlined initial risks and limitations, and surfaced major dependencies across systems and teams—critical for understanding project feasibility. In collaboration with stakeholders, I produced a re-brief and technical summary that defined the foundation for further exploration and solution design.

• The outcome of this phase included an updated understanding of the product vision and user needs, initial project requirements, and an early scoping plan with estimated deliverables. It also helped shape the project estimation model and brought clarity to what was possible within the current system architecture and what additional resources might be needed.

Initial problem statement

“MOLM’s OEM platform aimed to create as a common platform to share data of different kind of OEM’s motors. Currently the platform is missing the needs and requirements of users, resulting this platform less user friendly”

Research and Analysis Phase

During this phase, I conducted benchmarking and analytical evaluations of both competitor platforms and ABB’s early-stage test environment.

• The internal prototype, developed informally over time, was populated with a mix of ideas and features without user validation. It lacked clarity, structure, and relevance—making it more of a feature dump than a solution rooted in real user needs.

• Through interviews and workshops with internal stakeholders and OEM customers, I gathered essential user insights, identified core pain points, and developed key personas to define our target users. In close collaboration with product owners and developers, I validated technical constraints, mapped project and product needs, and clarified integration requirements for external systems and data sources, which are essential due to the platform’s dependencies on various ABB tools.

• This led to the creation of a new structure for feature categorisation, redefined information hierarchy, and system flow mapping for MachineInsight. I translated these insights into detailed user journeys and UI flows, including use case scenarios and user stories. I restructured the product’s information architecture and produced an updated sitemap, content structure, and system dependencies map to reflect how external data and APIs support the lifecycle features.

• In parallel, I supported the onboarding of the ABB design system and helped establish an agile workflow with a clear roadmap, defined sprints, daily tasks, and backlog tracking. By the end of the research phase, I had delivered a refined problem statement, validated feature requirements, and created a clear foundation for the concept design phase—including everything from high-level architecture down to detailed user interactions.

Regular workshop using co-creation method

• During the ideation and concept iteration phase, I focused on sketching and refining design solutions that addressed identified user pain points while establishing a scalable and intuitive product experience. The process was highly collaborative, involving regular co-creation workshops with stakeholders, domain experts, and team members. These sessions were key in aligning on vision, generating ideas, and reviewing evolving concepts from multiple perspectives.

• I began by developing a wide range of concept sketches and Low-Fidelity Wireframes (LFW), allowing us to explore structural ideas rapidly without being constrained by detailed interactions. These initial concepts were tested and refined through iterative feedback loops, supported by affinity mapping of user insights and co-creation review workshops. Through this process, we gradually narrowed down the direction toward a final design concept that aligned with user needs and technical feasibility.

• Alongside this, we defined the first-level page hierarchies, outlined the main use cases, and onboarded the company's new design system to ensure design consistency. A dedicated project component library was created to streamline the design and development handoff. I focused on ideation clarity, concept validation, and ongoing alignment across daily and weekly checkpoints with cross-functional teams. This approach ensured the final concept was not only user-centred and technically grounded but also feasible for implementation.

• The design concept phase provided a strong foundation by combining insight-driven ideation with collaborative iteration, resulting in a validated structure and clear visual direction, ready to be developed into high-fidelity designs and interactive prototypes.

In the final phase, I delivered a complete, development-ready design solution through an interactive Figma prototype. This prototype reflected the entire application experience—closely simulating the final product—and included all critical user journeys, use cases, scenarios, and sub-flows. It enabled project stakeholders, developers, and users to explore the platform in a live, realistic format.

• Each UI component was meticulously crafted, annotated, and documented to ensure clarity during development. Alongside the prototype, I provided comprehensive design documentation, including user flow charts, platform-wide site maps, and a full design blueprint. These assets were complemented by detailed design specs, use case definitions, and handover files uploaded to Azure DevOps via Confluence and Wiki pages to support team leads and managers during implementation.

• Throughout this phase, I facilitated ongoing collaboration with the development team through regular design review workshops, coordinated feature validations, and provided continuous support to ensure quality and consistency in implementation.

• This phase ensured a smooth transition from design to development, aligning cross-functional teams and securing the quality of the final product delivery.

After completing and validating the final design solution, I conducted a comprehensive walkthrough with both internal and external stakeholders to ensure that all user stories, use cases, and design requirements were fully addressed. Once the design was confirmed and approved, we transitioned into the implementation phase.

• I led the handover process by onboarding the developers, aligning them with the design objectives, and guiding them through the final prototype and supporting documentation. This included a detailed walkthrough of each UI component, interaction behaviour, and flow to ensure the implementation reflected the intended design quality and platform standards.

• During development, I worked closely with the engineering team to ensure seamless integration of the design into the product’s codebase. I remained available to clarify specifications, respond to technical questions, and refine the design where necessary. The final high-fidelity UI design covered the complete scope of the platform and was iteratively updated to incorporate change requests and new stakeholder needs.

• Throughout the development process, I monitored progress, supervised the implementation of each feature, and conducted regular UI quality checks to validate that every use case and flow performed as designed in a live product environment. I also supported delivery preparations and ensured the solution was fully production-ready.

In the final phase of the project, the focus shifted to preparing and organising all documentation, assets, and materials for a seamless handover to ABB’s internal project team.

• This involved delivering comprehensive documentation outlining the interface logic, interaction behaviours, feature set, and the performance flow of the product from a user experience perspective.

• I verified that the development team had successfully implemented all user interface designs, flows, and assigned use case scenarios in accordance with the final specifications.

• To ensure usability and accessibility for all team members—especially those unfamiliar with design tools like Figma—I created a complete series of step-by-step screen images and recorded short demo videos of each prototype flow and use case. These resources offered an alternative, user-friendly way for internal teams to understand and explore the application without needing to interact with the design files directly.

• To support a successful knowledge transfer, I made sure all materials were clear, accessible, and complete. This guaranteed that the teams taking over the platform had everything they needed to operate, support, and build upon the delivered solution with confidence.