Asset Monitoring and Health analysis Solutions (AMS) Device Manager

Product Information

Emerson AMS Device Manager is a renowned asset management application across the Automation solution/ Process management industry. It allows the remote maintenance, configuration etc. activities at chemical plants.

N.B. Some information is removed or modified due to confidentiality

Project Information

The high-level objective of the study was to understand users' mental models when they conduct certain tasks using AMS Device Manager, thus implementing the information to improvise the design of the product.

The Challenge

It was brought to the attention that the usage of the AMS Device Manager was not being helpful for customers who wanted to expand their process management plants to new locations with newly hired, less experienced employees.
Many plants were led to unplanned shutdown, increased maintenance costs, and safety risk.

Research Goals

Generative Research Goals:

A better understanding of target personas' workflow i.e work tasks with respect to AMS Device Manager considering different profiles from the hierarchy when monitoring and carrying out plant maintenance activities at newly established facilities/plants
To understand the validations & feedback our persona needs in order to know they've completed a required task(Task completed messages, Task reminders, etc)

Design Research Goals:

Evaluate the effectiveness and discoverability of user interactions within the navigation, activities to address specific/ a group of devices(including setup, health monitoring, alerts, etc.) help menu
Understand whether users need a specific troubleshooting option(s) available all the time.
Evaluation of the changes in navigation, device health monitors, and reporting options

Research Methods

Problem discovery Phase

1.Literature Review

To understand the AMS Device Managers' functionality, read the available documentation, existing process flows,etc.
Learn more about available troubleshooting documentation

2. Contextual Inquiry

3-Weeks of field study to assess the AMS Device Manager's usage at newly established facilities/plants aka target persons' natural environment across India.
Observed the users in their natural work environment conducting their daily duties
Learned more about their interaction while they explained doing so.
Learned about their ways to find solutions if any issue arises in the field.

3.Stakeholder Interviews

Interviewed internal stakeholders, Subject Matter Experts(SMEs) to understand the intended interaction for users
Interviews involved Sales, Customer support personnel

Crucial Insights

Alarm indicator in old UI

1.When AMS Device Manager was being used at new sites, the new users of the application missed certain device health alarms which were difficult to spot on the screen. Users typically needed mental validation for their actions/tasks which are in Visualized and textual form.

Our product failed to assist the basic task because it did not provide the system feedback users needed.

When a certain task was addressed the assumption of users always know the next action in the process. Hence the user will make the judgment of whether the task was finished using correct steps, without knowing the end result.

2. Application with not so easy learnability

3.Help options not available for all the activities

Other pain points:

1.Ambiguous colour schemes

2. Tedious navigation

Research Methods

Explore & Testing Phase

1.Persona Library

After interviewing different people from a plant's hierarchy based on their work duties, interaction with the application, they were grouped into categories
A common persona library was created
Utilized the same persona for further recruitment
Also to understand user journey

2.Clickable prototype testing & Feedback

Being a Windows application an executable prototype application was tested in the lab environment
It was also used for Heuristic evaluation of the UI Design

3.Qualitative Usability testing

Built the tasks based on day to day activities of the target persona.
Collected feedback from participants
Analyzed the usability testing, results, Issue prioritization & converted into redesign requirements.
Conducted Moderated remote, In-person usability tests both in the lab environment and user sites.

Miscellany

Sample task flow(details are masked)

1.Task flows

Understanding the tasks and the steps taken to accomplish the task
Utilized these to provide the help detailed options in the application
Included in the documentation for better understanding

2.Heuristic Analysis

Used Jakob Neilson's Heuristic evaluation model
It helped to discover issues based on recognition, consistency, User control offered by the product
Marked the issues based on severity

Research Impacts

1.Strategic Impact

This track of work has left a strong legacy, and a comprehensive guide for different upgrades in the product and similar applications that Organisation offered.
The product strategy always centered around the research insights
A centralized UX Research team became a strategic partner of the product (Engineering & Design) team, Sales, and customer support team.
Helped to set up processes that involved UX researchers to involve in tasks such as user story writing and mapping

2.Stakeholder Collaboration Impact

A centralized UX Research team became a strategic partner of the product (Engineering & Design) team, Sales and customer support team.
Helped to set up processes that involved UX researchers to involve in tasks such as user story writing and mapping

3.Project Impact

Better visual & textual validations for the users
Customers reduced the annual maintenance cost up to 20%
Easy to share charts/graphs for reporting purposes.
Improvised documentation
Improvised training and education programs

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