Digitizing applications for technicians in energy sector
Ores is an energy provider in Wallonia. They collaborate with various stakeholders such as technicians, professionals, partners, managers, and administrators. Their tasks involve collecting client requests, structuring and assigning work within the organisation, distributing equipment, and documenting efforts. Our objective is to help them transition from Excel files to user-friendly applications, specifically designed to meet their needs.
Team
1 UX designer, 1 UI designer, 1 project manager
Industry
Energy distribution
Language
French
Year
2020 – Current
My role
My role as a digital product designer and Project manager: I defined the project approach, the activities for the team, workshop, translated business requirements into design concepts, used user research to update the design, and created a library of components to create a common identity for the products
Methodology
We introduced with an internal ambassador the design thinking methodology, we defined an approach that was applied to a pilot project and subsequently adapted to fit all other subsequent projects.
Approach
Given the field’s complexity, we started with field studies for each application to understand major difficulties. Internally, we ensured clear communication with all client-side stakeholders. We facilitaded all parties, using their insights to prioritize and redefine business requirements.
We draft design solutions in co-creation with key stakeholders and the development team to gauge technical and business feasibility.
Upon defining the main features, we created a prototype for user testing. This helped us test the user’s mental model and our design’s weakest assumptions and consequentially to design a robust application and justify design decisions.
Starting from branding guidelines, we designed digital assets and a component library, this file has been a key resource, reused and expanded in each project.
We organised a figma tutorial for the development team, we organised the handover in multiple sessions and quality control to follow closely the production of the application.
Deliverables
We conducted user tests, field studies, quality controls and many co-creation workshops to reconcile business requirements, users’ needs, and development perspectives. The result of these activities is the design and documentation of six applications and a library of components.
☞ What I learn
👉🏼 Acquiring knowledge in the domain of energy distribution is a requirement for technical applications, to correctly understand the vocabulary, the internal processes, and the company culture is relevant to understand client’s request.
👉🏼 Often the most difficult part of the project is not the design of a product but is to manage resources, managing frequent turnover within the team, onboarding new designers, and ensuring the team shares the same practices, quality standards, and information was the biggest challenge of this project.
👉🏼 It is possible to introduce smoothly and in little predictable steps the design thinking methodology in a traditional company with a consolidated workflow and a hierarchical structure but it is important to set up realistic expectations and to have internal promoters.
Alessandra Rodilosso Portfolio 