Brighton Science
Brighton Science
Designing a data dashboard for a contact angle measurement tool
Background
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Brighton Science delivers solutions to the manufacturing industry through a hand-held contact angle measurement device that helps to measure an object’s surface readiness for bonding, adhesion, and/or coating systems.
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When I joined the project, the company was looking to have a data dashboard created to help users of their contact angle measurement device know if it had passed their QA test. The test is called the Gage Repeatability & Reproducibility (GR&R) test, and once it is completed on the device, data can be sent to Brighton Science’s BConnect web app.
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Create a prototype for a data visualization page to help users of Brighton Science’s contact angle measurement device easily understand the results of the GR&R test - whether their device passed the test or not.
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Client discovery call
Customer journey mapping
Annotated low fidelity wireframes
Prototype
Research
Client Discovery Call
We started the research for Brighton Science by speaking at length with the company and learning about the context of the the GR&R QA test for the contact angle measurement device and the way it currently shares data for test results with users. In the current version, the data sent to users was in an excel format and does not clearly state whether the device passed or failed the GR&R test. It also did not highlight the most important information: the repeatability score, reproducibility score, part-to-part score, and overall GR&R score.
The client let us know that they are looking for an easy way for users to share the most information about the test with other stakeholders, as well. This helped inform the customer journey mapping.
2. Customer Journey Mapping
After learning from the client, I mapped the customer journey of users going through the GR&R testing process - in the current state of the product and in the future state of the project.
The “before” journey included the user confusion the client described in the interview with the client. The “after” journey mapped user needs and expected reactions to a new, clearer data platform.
Annotated low fidelity wireframes
The customer journey information and the client call informed the low fidelity wireframes, which presented simple diagrams and data with a pass/fail symbol, as well as a share feature and drop down menus to see more information about each part of the test.
Prototype
After the client approved the low-fidelity wireframes, I created a prototype showing a chart of the parts of the test results with color coding to show the pass/fail thresholds for each section. I also included a thumbs up / thumbs down indicator and label to communicate overall test results.
Learning and Next Steps
This was an exciting case to work on given that Brighton Science is an 18 year old company with a physical / technical product. I learned that even for complicated products, designers can play the role of being the outside eyes to help simplify processes and flows.
For next steps, I recommend further cleaning up the fonts and displays for the dashboard and thinking through what other role types and permissions are needed for sharing the data and results.
