Prototyping

For most of 2017 I led a prototyping team focused on digital and physical prototypes. The team was two designers with frontend skills, one IoT developer who can do anything sensors, Arduino, backend, and iOS, and one industrial designer with a motion graphics background. On some projects we would add other people.

Find Packages on a Truck

Honeywell works with a lot of logistics companies and package delivery companies and through extensive user research we knew that finding packages on a car can be a challenge. We also knew each second saved would be hugely valuable to the companies with large fleets of trucks and drivers.

We wanted to see whether we could treat the inside of a truck as a mini warehouse and get continuously updated location information about each package.

This prototype is focused on technology and workflow i.e. will this actually help people. We refined the aesthetics when we brought the concepts to our retail prototyping lab (see below).

My role: Design and prototyping manager.

Worked with: Most of the work was done by the IoT Developer on my team who set up the laser pointer, app, LED strip, and got it all to work. The ideas and momentum came primarily from the industrial designer on my team.

This project is included to show physical / digital prototyping.

Shelves with packagages. LED strip to show location.

Laser pointer controlled by Arduino. Points to the package you need to find.

Test App where you select a package to find + the red laser dot on a package.

Retail Prototyping Lab

Honeywell needed a place to prototype new ideas for retail, and preferably a place where we could take customers to see new ideas. This was the idea of a single Product Manager and some of my team latched on to the idea and pushed it through to become real.

My role: Design and prototyping manager, Project sponsor.

Most of the actual work was done by the industrial designer and two UX designers who project managed, built the store, and got all the items in the store and made it look great. The technology was done by the IoT developer.

My role was primarily to fend off other managers including my own manager and director who did not believe in the project and wanted us to be done. And to cheer on the designers and the developer who had a strong vision for this space.

This project is included because I'm honestly incredibly proud of the team and the result.

We took over a conference room and built a store.

We made a clothing store with an aesthetic like Anthropologie.

App where you can search for items + green light on the shelve where the item is.

Interaction Design Direction for Charts

My team was designing charts for a product and I had a hard time getting the designers to think deeply enough about all the microinteractions and mouse states.

I wrote this prototype to have a way to talk about details such as what happens on a click when you already have a selection vs. when you don't.

This prototype was specifically not meant to be a design for charts. It was purely meant as a way to work through the interaction details of a design with my team. And it was successful in that the designers created a design that will allow us to expand functionality in the future without having to redo what we have already designed and built.

My role: Design Prototyper. I coded the prototype.

This project is included mostly to show individual prototyping work. And also, to give an idea about how much I value detailed design and how I work with my team.

Try the prototype here

AR Exploration for Warehouses

Maintenance workers and Operations Managers can typically see data about their equipment on a desktop yet frequently need to understand what's going on with their equipment when they are walking the floor.

I wanted to inspire and persuade our product management to consider an augmented reality solution because it would help bring the information to the user in the right context.

The idea is that you look at one piece of equipment to see how it's doing (here a printer is used for demo purposes) and then at another piece of equipment for comparison. The interesting idea is that you can tab any tile from one piece of equipment and move it back over to the other piece of equipment to compare.

My role: Design Prototyper. I coded the prototype.

Worked With: Designer on my team.

This project is included to show both exploration in AR and individual prototyping work.

Sun Glare Sleeve for Barcode Scanners

A customer approached us with a consistent sun glare problem affecting the ability to scan. This problem blocked new sales to this customer.

Within a day of workshopping and a few days of Industrial Design tweaks to existing CAD drawings, we had a solution. We had a company create durable 3D prints which the customer tested. The customer was very satisfied, and this sleeve is now a standard product accessory.

My role: I had the contact to sales. Design management and project sponsor.

Worked With: Sales team, industrial designers, vendors.

This project is included to show how I use design in customer engagements and to enable sales.