Panasonic - EMS

Upgrade the service
for electrical appliances

2020 Equipment management system UX/ UI

In order to improve the functions of the existing EMS and respond to the market demand, we reorganized the information flow of the system and added many new functions to integrate into a digital platform. Our 4-member team was responsible for the digital service design and front-end development, and worked remotely with 3 departments of the company for 4 months.

ROLE

UI Design
Visual Design
Project -
Management

TIME

4 months

TEAM

4 members

UX Opportunities

”The market demand is expanding.”

In order to facilitate the control of a large number of devices, Panasonic has introduced an equipment control system in the past. Nowadays, the market demand is expanding, so we decided to improve the system and add related functions to create a user-friendly digital platform.

Projects at Glance

3

Visual Proposals

500+

6

Major Projects

This project spans three departments of the company and is an actual sales project, so it has undergone several times of functional revision and finishing. This is the initial release and will require continuous optimization.

How do we design a usable platform to user?

Execution Challenge

The platform sells directly to the company and is separated from the market by distributors, so it does not reach users or owners in demand.

Solution

We propose the design from "Product Positioning" and then test the usability with "Cognitive Walkthrough".

1. Question clarification

Interviews with business colleagues to collect market feedback and understand the target audience, the market, and the usage patterns. Perform competitor analysis. Think about brand and product positioning from secondary data.

2. Scenario Analysis

Establish the main users and conceptualize the usage context. Categorize and reorganize functions and consider data interfacing issues at the same time. Draw prototype to quickly test the functional architecture and layout.

3. Visual Design

Propose design suggestions according to the preliminary research and execute 3 visual proposals. After finalizing the proposals, I built the design system and user interface.

Design, Testing, and Iteration

Each function page has its own main usage context, so the interface layout will be reviewed and fine-tuned at each stage. For example, the device control page will require direct selection of switches, while the power inquiry page will focus on the contrast between the current year and other time periods, equipment, and other information.

Final Results

The layout was assigned to the designer according to the page. In order to achieve consistency in the platform, after I designed the visuals, I organized the design system and fine-tuned all the interfaces for the platform according to the operating logic.

”We don't need an overly fancy system.“

At the beginning of the project, we were told this by the company. The final result, without the need for “FANCY“, is the Panasonic brand nature of technology, professionalism, and humanity.

Because the project has a time limit, some components will be fine-tuned and replaced with engineers according to the development difficulty.

Depending on the function of the page, I have organized the relevant elements to make the page layout consistent and coherent across devices.

Conclusions

Unlike previous projects, which focused only on research and design, this time the work assignment and time management changed from an individual to a team. In addition to caring about the progress and output, I also had to pay attention to the emotional changes of both the partners and the stakeholders. In the end, the project was successfully closed, and I am grateful for the guidance and help from my partners and the company. If there is still time to continue the project, I will make up for the details that I missed due to time constraints.

Team Members

Danielle Zhang(UID/VD),
Jia Yin Shi(UID),
Jun Jie Lai(Eng),
Yan Zhang Huang(Eng)

What did I do

Participate in the whole project from research, design to front-end development. Responsible for project management, functional planning, interface and visual design.