SolidWorks 3DContentCentral (3DCC) Redesign

The SolidWorks 3DContent Central (3DCC) website -- a model exchange service that allows vendors to post models of their inventory for mechanical/industrial designers to download and use in their designs -- had been largely untouched for about 5 years and it was starting to really show. The original site's visuals were dated, and the features were scattered and unfocused after organic adjustments over the years.  A renewed interest in updating the site, along with a new business model was proposed in the spring of 2014, and finally in June of 2015, a new redesigned 3DCC was launched!

Yours truly lead the UX of the redesign. Although I was no longer with the company when the redesigned site finally launched, the UX design was largely completed by the time I left and it's great to see how far the product team was able to take it by the launch.

Here's a quick look at the Before

Original 3DCC Home Page
Hard to focus on what was important and where to start

Original 3DCC Find Content Page
A lot of entry points to finding content

There was a lot of work to be done, so the work was phased into 3 sections. The initial phase was to revamp the home page and general styling, revise the backend to support the new business model offering, and showcase why users and vendors should be part of the 3DCC community.

After I completed the wireframes of the main areas we could affect in the first phase, I worked with a visual designer to get the branding and color palette into place to support our new initiative.

Here's a look at the After

New 3DCC Home Page
Highlighting "Search" as the main way for designers find parts to use in their design
Sponsorship is clean and clear
Updated the overall look and feel to include the proper branding logos and color palette

As the page scrolls, the header and footer are fixed with Search persistently accessible

New 3DCC Find Content Page
Only the header and footer were adjusted in this phase to accommodate the timeline

New 3DCC Subscription Benefits Page
The navigation / site information architecture was completely reworked into the new header navigation

New 3DCC Business Model Page
Simple at a glance view of the different offerings

New 3DCC Publisher's Catalog Dashboard
High level view of your content publishing status by catalogs (publishers can have more than one)
The content manager (grid of content controls in bottom left) was not redesigned in this phase

New 3DCC Usage Report
The new feature and main selling point of the new business mode
Publishers will get a detailed view of who has downloaded their models (leads)
The report is searchable and sortable, allowing publishers to cross sell if the lead has downloaded other models
The amount of detail publishers see will depend on their subscription level

Overall the relaunch is fairly successful. We brought the website up to modern standards and provided a wealth of new functionality that publishers would (hopefully) find valuable and be willing to spend more money on a higher subscription level than before. 

Marvelous Margaret: How I Became a Potato Head

It is never easy to leave when you've really built a family of close friends at your work. And when they decided to make you into a potato head it is even harder to say goodbye!

Marvelous Margaret Potato Head
She demolishes poor workflow!

Why a potato head? You may be wondering...

Well, it started out with this little toy collection I started on my desk...

Miss Marvelous joins the Super Hero/Star Wars/Marvel Pop Taters, PacMan, Back to the Future, and Ghostbusters

And my colleagues thought, the only appropriate send off would be to make a super hero potato head of yours truly. Complete with frequently seen accessories like my fingerless gloves and my purple hair streak.

They started with a concept sketch, and then the team set to work.

Vinny drew an illustrator version of Miss Marvelous. She's carrying the DS "Compass" as a shield. After all, she's a super hero, she needs some kind of weaponry. Ben 3D modeled the shield and had it 3D printed.

The team purchased some potato parts and combined parts of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Heads to get the right elements in place. Mrs. Potato Head had blond hair and eyelashes, so Vinny painted them black. Additionally he painted the purple streak in too.

Alex custom made the box, including the feet cutout so Miss Marvelous didn't rock around inside.

And of course, have to pitch the fact that it is extremely tasty with cheese (it is a potato after all) and of course it has to be in French as well (the parent company - DS - is French)

Chinloo created the fingerless gloves by creating a fingerless glove! She took a normal sized magic glove, cut off the finger tips which is about the size of Miss Marvelous's hand, and then cut the tip off and a small side hole to fit the potato hand. She then used sparkly glue to keep it from fraying at the edges.

But wait, there's more!

Miss Marvelous is carrying a Batdz Maru backpack, complete with purple backpack straps made from purple electrical tape!

So of course, the only reasonable thing for me to do is dress as my potato head the next day. Complete with the purple shoes and red hoodie.

Badtz Maru is not amused... but then, he never is. =D

And there you have it - how I became a potato head. :)

What's New in SolidWorks Enterprise PDM 2015 - Copy Tree

Yours truly revamped the UI for an existing feature of SolidWorks Enterprise PDM - Copy Tree. In SolidWorks ePDM 2015, the UI was revamped, cleaned up, and given a brand new filter capability that allows users to locate the file they want in the fastest time possible. 

A more in depth post will appear at some point, for now, a repost of the original blog on SolidWorks by Mike Fearon follows below. 

http://blogs.solidworks.com/solidworksblog/2014/09/solidworks-2015-manager-showcase-whats-new-in-epdm.html

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The SOLIDWORKS annual release starts with feedback provided by you, our community, and finds its way to the people responsible for including your request in our annual release. For SOLIDWORKS 2015, we wanted to introduce you to some of the people responsible for the new features and let them describe their favorite tools included in the 2015 release. Today’s SOLIDWORKS Expert is Kurt Lundstedt, Product Manager, EPDM

Kurt on what’s new: Copy Tree has been available in SOLIDWORKS Enterprise PDM (EPDM) for many years, but in 2015 the user interface has been completely redesigned making it much easier to create new product structures.  As we all know, many companies reuse existing designs to make new ones.  These new designs often share many of the same sub-assemblies and components with the prior version as well as incorporating new designs.  That’s where Copy Tree comes in handy and in 2015 there are many new features that make it much easier to find and select the files to be reused or copied.  Some of the new features include:

• Selection filters based on file type and/or any text string in the file name or file property can make a large product structure easy to work with.
• Thumbnail previews for SOLIDWORKS files give the user an instant visual clue of the file they are looking at.
• Excluded folders so users don’t mistakenly make copies of standard library components
• Easy folder and file editing dialogs including searching for destination folders

The driving force behind this feature was customers telling us, both via direct interviews and submitted enhancement requests, that the interface was cumbersome to work with when working with large assembly structures. Another thing we discovered is that it was difficult for users to know what file they were looking at because most companies name their part and assembly files with a part number. Adding thumbnail previews provides users with quick visual feedback so they can make more accurate decisions.

Design Casualty: The Weather

Like many people out there, I haven't been to a weather website in quite some time because we have apps on our smart phones that tell us what we need to know on a daily basis. Sometimes when I turn on the news I might still see some weather forecasts reported, etc. Mostly things are unchanged as far as I can tell from an information presentation perspective. A large map of the country with temperature numbers and little weather icons. It's a format we all know and are familiar with.

Today, I was browsing my Facebook feed and saw a scary map a meteorologist friend posted around the Chicago area. Something about the Bears game. It got me thinking I should find out what the rest of the week's weather is going to be like. I went to the Weather Channel website (weather.com) looking for the forecast for the week.

My eyes were assailed with the following, which was what was visible above the fold.

I literally double checked the URL I typed thinking I mistype and landed on one of those domains that is being squatted by advertisers. Is this really the Weather Channel website? What happened??

While I realize some of the elements of the page might be overly saturated for the purposes of alerting people to really alarming situations with regard to the tornado and the typhoon, there are several major issues with what I'm seeing.

1) While I understand alerts are necessary, neither of the red highlighted issues (tornado and typhoon) are anywhere near the 3 locations I have saved previously nor my current location if the website is doing any IP detecting, therefore these alerts are NOT immediately relevant and do not deserve such high alarm status

2) I know everyone has jumped on the minimalist bandwagon between Metro / Win 8 and iOS 7. But it doesn't mean it is good design to just use the colors that they are using! That medium blue color being used in the top bar is now pervasive in lots of applications. It's a color that "vibrates" and causes strain on my eyes. It doesn't provide sufficient contrast against white text or as text color on white background. It probably doesn't work with black that well either. It is in the middle and that's usually bad. I wanted to make sure this isn't just personal opinion so I went to photoshop and put the screenshot through the two red-green colorblindness filters and got the following. 

Photoshop Deuteranopia Filter (Red-Green Colorblindness)

Photoshop Protanopia Filter (Red-Green Colorblindness)

No question, that blue provides horrible contrast and should not be perpetuated! Look at how well the original Weather Channel logo blue is providing contrast. 

3) The unlabeled "blocks" right in the center beneath the top banner area has 4 highlight stories (I presume, there's no label). And between "You Won't Believe What Bit Her!" and "Rare 'Unicorn' Rediscovered" and the "play" icons that look like they were either pushed onto the next line because the headline was too long, or the page didn't finish rendering and the label was missing, I was convinced that I was on an advertisement page or the Weather Channel website had been hacked. There's no way that a serious weather website would look so much like the local tabloids, right? What does either one of them have to do with weather?!

I would say the same about the "WATCH: Elk Doesn't Do Photos" caption, except that one I knew to be an actual event since I've seen that on the local news recently. But it STILL has no relation to the WEATHER.

4) There really is an ad prominently taking up about 15% of the screen and it is about shopping? For goodness sake, it would at least make more sense if it was trying to sell me a tornado survival kit!

I'm just so disheartened by the way so many major websites, programs, applications, and more has decided to just jump on the new minimalist design bandwagon and take colors directly from iOS or Win8 without thought. Everything being "flat" there's no clear hierarchy and everything is assailing your eyes the same time. Additionally, there's irrelevant content, inappropriate alerting, and much more that over stimulates the visual senses instead of keeping it simple, as originally intended by the minimalist approach. 

I came looking for the weather, and I am left asking myself why didn't I just use one of my apps to get the 5 day forecast instead. It would have saved me from this. 

Hand Modeling on Android This Time

Apparently I've graduated from iOS device hand modeling to Android device hand modeling!

The eDrawings for Android application was just launched in the Google Play app store today and yours truly was once again the hand model for showcasing the application on a Nexus 7 Android tablet. The app will work on various Android device sizes running Android 4.0+.

Maybe there's an alternative career here after all.... ;)

More Hand Modeling (and a New eDrawings iPad / iPhone App)

We launched!

eDrawings iPad & iPhone apps (both Pro and Standard) has launched with a new feature - Augmented Reality!

Yours truly is not only a hand model for the app description page this time around, I actually had something to do with designing the Augmented Reality (AR) feature, including the user interface for scaling, locking the viewport, and gestures for manipulating the model like lifting the model off the table.

What is Augmented Reality, you might ask. Here's the wikipedia definition: Augmented reality(AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.

It's a new world of 3D model manipulation on smart mobile devices in virtual space.

That's right - SolidWorks has launched this new feature on the existing eDrawings iPhone and iPad apps, so if you have already bought the apps, get the update and the feature will automatically appear. If you haven't bought it... well... what are you waiting for? =P

Replacing the Wait Staff with an iPad

By chance I had a layover in MSP (Minnesota / St. Paul) and my gate was right next to a new concept restaurant with iPads at every single table, apparently the work of OTG Management (I have no relation to them - just happened by).

My initial thought was it's kind of cold. This restaurant is basically replacing the wait staff with iPads. We, as a society in this modern digital age, could use more human contact, not less. We're so attached to our devices, it's almost as if we are electronic devices ourselves.

I was going to sit and watch while I wait for my flight, but then the designer in me thought it might be better to go and check it out, find out how they've set it up and see what the interface is like. So I sat down looking at one of the beautiful food shots on rotation and got started with my electronic wait staff looking for the cheapest thing I can buy to justify sitting at a space and taking pictures as I go.

They rewired the iPad so you can't get to the standard controls. The Home button retrieves their special customized home screen and dock.

I tapped on "Your Flight" and it kindly asked me for info about my current flight in order to track its status for me. Gave me some info on the destination weather, etc as well. It wasn't "sticky" though, and as soon as I finished my order and was idle long enough for the slide show to kick in, it lost the flight info. It would have been nice for it to remember, or somehow have the user indicate when he/she is leaving the table (which would also help the wait staff know when to clear the table), before clearing the flight info. Since it cleared it for me, I don't know if it would have given me some kind of alarm when my boarding time was near. That would be a nice feature.

Then I proceeded to go browse the menu. Having great food photography is key in this case, since these photos are ultra high def on the iPad, and never looked this sharp in an actual printed menu.

The menu certainly looked appetizing, but the prices in this case were kind of high for my taste.

After you browse into a category the menu pop over gives you quick access to other categories, but strangely stays open after you make your selection. Maybe it's done on purpose to reduce the sticker shock since you can't see the prices when the menu is open.

After awhile I finally settled on some over-priced herbal tea since it's evening and it was more affordable than dessert. The system smartly does some cross selling as I proceed to check out.

You have to pay for your order before it gets submitted, which I understand. But gratuity is included in the payment, but I haven't interacted with any wait staff. How can I determine the level of service and how much tip to give? It's defaulted to 18% and there's no option to provide a custom value besides the 15, 18, and 20 that it gives you.

Then it steps you through paying using the card swipe stationed at each table. No cash accepted.

When the transaction is complete, it asks if you would like to receive an email of the receipt. No printed receipt seems to be available at the table. I was reluctant to provide my email since I don't know if it'll mean getting spam. They should put some kind of notice on the screen about that to reassure users, especially since you cannot opt out of getting the receipt via email. What if you don't have email?

A few minutes after all of this, my tea arrived. This was the first time I interacted with a wait staff (they have been walking around asking patrons if they needed any help in the mean time).

I was left wondering if it was worth 18% for the wait staff to bring me the tea and tell me to let it steep a few more minutes before enjoying it. Seems like a premium. The restaurants don't need as many people to work the tables, though yes, they had the up front cost of buying all those iPads. But over time it more than pays for all the staff they don't need to hire and schedule/coordinate work shifts.

The wait staff doesn't need to actually take anyone's orders. Instead of selling food and offering beverages they turn into iPad app explanation staff and they make at minimum 15% on each transaction. Not that I have anything against the wait staff earning more money, but this just doesn't seem quite right for some reason.

Well, it was an interesting experience if nothing else. Apparently this is popping up in major airports all over the country, including the Dunkin Donuts in BOS.

At the rate we're going, The Matrix will be here before we know it.

Bye humans. Better plug in.