Astrosat - ThermCERT
Astrosat takes data from space and presents it visually to help people understand and improve the planet. Mapping Fuel Poverty for an Energised UK
It’s unfortunate when a member of the team leaves halfway through a project. However any designer worth their salt can and should be able to pick up where their predecessor left off. This is exactly what happened at Astrosat. While our previous UX designer went on to their next adventure one of the projects he was working one was rather left in the lurch!
To continue the work that he had started would require a crash course in all relevant user testing, project briefing and quite a bit of coffee!
The Problem
To pick up, evaluate and continue the work that had been started on the project
The Goal
To test, complete and roll out to the deadline the user interface to the client with a seem less internal handover.
The Team
Product designer (Me)
Project manager
Software development manager
Front end developers
Back end developers
R&D team
What I started with.
The ThermCERT application, I had found out, had sat in testing for a long time with not a lot of progression on the aesthetics.
What was different about this map product as apposed to many others was that the data that could be manipulated was on the right hand side of the screen!
Radical I know but in previous testing it had shown to be more pleasing to the users. This is because when they deep dived further into the application the data that gave them more detail appeared on the left and THIS was where they spent most of their time.
There had been a LOT of testing already...
But I needed to do my own to confirm these were accurate BEFORE I was set loose on the interface. A session was planned and we took off to Nottingham to continue the testing and at the same time introduce myself to the client. Better to set their mind at ease that with the unfortunate departure of the previous designer that their project would not be in any form of jeopardy or at worse be LATE!
Testing!
The fun/horrifying/enjoyable/daunting/relaxed/alarming part!
With my newly written testing script in hand, hardware all set up, dry runs complete and complimentary biscuits by my side I was ready to go!
After a full days testing with internal users at the clients head office complete it was evident they liked it but didn’t understand some parts.
Testing results
There unfortunately still seemed to be a rather large disconnect between the data and the map, how they could manipulate it to what they wanted it to do and what the numbers represented on the screen.
There was almost non existent consistency in calls to action of what they could and could not click on as well as hover and disabled states not being obvious enough.
There were aspects that weren’t headered correctly while at the same time there were parts that just didn’t go into enough detail at all for the problem we were trying to help them solve!
To be honest… a pretty great testing session when you come out with more problems than you went in with!
Where the fun in things working first time!?
Design, Build, Test!
I was the only designer in the company at this point. While I had other projects to work on this was by far my favourite! There was a complete overhaul of the user interface including
New colour palette
Defined calls to action
A new nav bar
Search functionality (important when trying to navigate a whole country!)
A multiple map comparison feature
Tabular space saving
We kept the majority of the functionality that was in the previous iteration while also adding in a few extras while also giving it a lick of paint and made it visually more appealing!
Testing MKII
All of the changed were very well received! There was a remarkable difference between the first and second testing. Users remarking about how much more they were able to understand how to navigate the interface and how, with time, they would love to play with it even more!
There were still a few queries around copy for tooltips and how they explained the data that was being displayed but thankfully this was, in our eyes, a minor failing in an otherwise major victory.
There was only about a month and a half between these testing sessions and the whole team was able to absolutely ace the redesign in the time that was given which, I feel, was a remarkable feat as this was not the only project that was going on in house at the same time.
The ThermCERT project has gone on to aid the clients staff to cut down on time spend on task.
One of our testing users letting us know later in the month that a task that would have normally taken her 3-4 days phoning her clients was cut down to only 10 minutes using the ThermCERT application! That was an enormous win for us and for them!
An example of all of the hidden features of the ThermCERT project can be seen below in this screenshot where the user was diving into more detail for the data they were interested in.
