MTS Next Gen
As a UX Designer for MTS Systems I was tasked with redesigning a legacy software for a new generation, presented here is some of the foundational research and documentation for launching a project like this.
This desktop software operates and manages a large industrial testing machine called a hexapod and is used for mechanical and seismic testing of products and structures. The first physical step is starting up the machine and performing standard warm-up routines, and the first step in designing new software to do it is understanding this process. Working with expert service technicians in the field, becoming very familiar with all training materials, and picking apart the old software let me understand deeply the enitre startup routine down to individual clicks. Shown here is the full flow to start the machine, followed by sub-flows not shown in the large diagram.
Users must follow strict safety procedures during the startup process of such a large and complex machine, and a software tasked with managing these factors must account for how the user enables them. In these feature breakdowns each step in opening a settings file, establishing system output limits, and enabling mechanical failsafe measures are broken down to each individual action a technician would take using the software.
With the machine now on, and safety measures in place, the user then performs routine warm-up procedures in order to literally warm the servohydraulic oil and associated machinery to operative state. These routines are communicated to the machine via a series of functions, whose parameters are dictated by the user and software. Shown here is how a technician would set and dictate these functions in order to ensure the machine is properly and accurately primed for operation.
Lots to keep track of, right? But this is the spirit of well informed UX Design, a deep connection to not only the user but their entire process of performing an action. Such minutiae can be analyzed to make a product simpler, faster, or even just better understood, which leads to more effective design and better justified decisions throughout the software development process. With all that said, check out a hexapod here and bask in knowing that now even you could at the very least get it operational. Cool huh?