Our team was tasked with the modernization of a desktop application that allows power plants to share their emissions monitoring plans and submit their emissions data to comply with their regulatory obligations.
Tools Used
My Role
Lead on IA, wireframing, prototyping, design, and establishing the design system. Active participant in planning, and user research.
The Team
An Agile team of UX researchers, front-end devs, back-end devs, an accessibility expert, business analysts, and product owners.
The Ask
Design and develop a web-based emissions submission product usable for industry experts and folx who are new to this space.
The Challenge
The existing platform was Windows-only and required users to update the software often, with each new change to the EPA’s Part 75 emissions reporting regulations. These updates would often have to be conducted by, or approved by the client’s IT department. This caused a lot of unnecessary interruptions in workflow. The UI also had a significant learning curve and required hours of onboarding to get new users up to speed.
Our Approach
All great products start with learning from users, so that’s exactly what we did. The UXR team conducted dozens of user interviews within the first few months of the project. But we don’t stop there, we continue gaining feedback and insights from users on our prototypes and designs. We also created a number of user personas that help us run through user flows. Test and iterate!
The Solution
Our solution was two-fold. The first was to develop an API-driven product that is accessible from a browser-based platform, safely and securely. The second was to have a constant dialogue with our users, getting consistent feedback on wireframes, mid-fi prototypes, designs, and development prototypes.
I started my designs with collaborative low-fi wireframes using InVision. I created multiple low-fi screens and aligned them with our user personas and their task flows. After gaining consensus from the product owner and the rest of the team, I produced mid- to hi-fi designs, mobile-first, using the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) and the EPA web style guide as a backbone.
Reflection
This project was still underway when I moved on, but I can say that it has been an immense learning experience. This was my first exposure to the U.S. Web Design System, but I now consider myself a USWDS expert. This product is incredibly important, and also incredibly complicated. I’m still learning about this product and will continue to iterate on the UI as user needs evolve. So far, my design contributions have been very well received by both users and our product stakeholders.