OPTIMIZING PROCESS THROUGH analytics
ORGANIZATION
Microsoft
DATE
2021
THE PROJECT
As a designer and data scientist at Microsoft, I worked on the team building Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides for HoloLens. It's a mixed reality application enabling users to create step-by-step holographic instructions. Authors create work instructions with a desktop application and operators then use those instructions on the job in HoloLens. If you're curious, check out the overview video.
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I was the lead designer on Guides Analytics, a suite of Power BI templates for visualizing Guides usage data within an organization. It helps answer questions like "Which step of a guide takes the most time?" and can reveal the points in a process that require further optimization.
THE DESIGN
inspired by Industry standards
I took inspiration from Operator Balance Charts used to visualize how work elements are distributed among operators in manufacturing. In my final design, I used a similar approach with stacked bars to reveal imbalances in total task times.
approachable
I phrased each chart title as a question to help new users understand how each chart can help for example, How many minutes did each step take?
Accessible
From colour choices, to alt text, to the tab order used by screen readers, all of the reports were designed with accessibility in mind.
MY CONTRIBUTIONS
DEFINE
the problem
I shaped the concept of Guides Analytics and took the lead on transforming it from an idea to a fully functional feature. Collaborating with the team's User Researchers and Customer Engagement Managers, I helped articulate the core goals and scope.
WRANGLE
the data
This project is different from others in that I did not have access to customers' data in accordance with Microsoft's strict data privacy guidelines. I focused on data schema design and generating simulated data which was key in prototyping the visuals.
DESIGN
the prototypes
I iteratively designed all of the dashboards in Guides Analytics through prototyping in Power BI with simulated data and using customer needs to inform design choices from chart types to interactions.
DEPLOY
the solution
I built all of the Power BI templates used in the public releases as well as prepared updates to address bug fixes or new features.
COMMUNICATE
the methods
I wrote the public documentation for this feature in collaboration with Microsoft's technical writers and delivered a detailed webinar for customers.
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