Helios (Xylem)

 
 

THE PROBLEM

***FOCUS ON CUSTOMER-CENTRIC VIEW FOR DEVICE USAGE (combining multiple devices)

Water utilities must continuously monitor and troubleshoot their networks of meters, radios, and base stations to ensure the timely collection of accurate consumption data used to generate bills for their customers.

Xylem’s existing suite of solutions require utilities to log into disparate applications with disparate design patterns, disparate terminology, and sometimes, disparate data.

This fragmentation wastes time and cognitive resources for users as they are forced to navigate multiple apps to complete essential tasks.

 
 
 

My role

I was assigned to redesign the existing suite of tools into a ‘single pane of glass’ solution. This process began with product validation through discovery research, followed by developing a logical information architecture to support common user flows that I would design.

 
 
 

THE RESEARCH

Helios

  • a meter monitoring & management tool for city water utilities

    • Helios

      • Highlight need for customer-centric flow

        • Customer list

          • Show aggregate usage if across multiple devices

          • Highest level of hierarchy is non-esoteric: someone’s name vs an alphanumeric string (device)

          • Device-centric is “always how we’ve done things”

            • Lots of existing workflows are built around this framework, including how information translates between helios and external billing systems, so it can’t/shouldn’t go away. Customer-centric will be IN ADDITION TO the device-centric workflows which will still be relevant for in-depth device troubleshooting workflows

      • Need to show detailed wireframes illustrating a step-by step flow 

User needs

  • Metering ops

    • to easily identify, prioritize, and troubleshoot issues in the utility’s network of meters

  • Networking ops

    • to easily identify, prioritize, and troubleshoot communication issues in the utility’s network of radios and base stations

  • Billing ops

    • to acquire accurate, up-to-date meter reads for the utility’s billable accounts

 
 
 

A key insight

Early synthesis of th

 
 
 

Evidence

Direct quotes across multiple

 
 
 
 
 

design direction

After presenting these, and other, key learnings and recommendations to stakeholders, I

 

Artifacts for portfolio comparison

 

Example user flows for common tasks involving portfolio comparison (Architect, aka Project Rainbow)

 

Portfolio comparison setup from home screen (Architect, aka Project Rainbow)

Portfolio comparison setup from content screen (Architect, aka Project Rainbow)

 
 

handoff

After wireframe flows were leveraged for usability testing with internal & external users for validation, they were handed off to a dedicated UI designer to be brought to high fidelity using design system components. This process of wireframing, testing, and handoff, was repeated across all other common user flows (outside of just portfolio comparison) designed for the product.

 
 
 

UX tools used

  • Wireframing: Pen and paper

  • Prototyping: Figma

  • Initial research: Fullstory

  • Unmoderated research: Maze

  • Research repository: Dovetail