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. 

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.

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.

Empire State Building Project Gantt Chart

You would think that growing up in southern NJ means I have had plenty of opportunities to go visit NYC and all of its attractions. But somehow I have never made it to the main ones just about every other NYC tourist have seen, such as the Empire State Building.

I finally had a chance to make it there on a weekend trip to NYC, and is immediately greeted with this large display in the lobby.

It was completed in 1931, at that time, at 102 stories high (1454 ft), it was the tallest building in the world. It stood as the tallest building in NYC until the World Trade Centers were built. It was once again the tallest building in NYC after the twin towers came down during the 9/11 attacks.

So during my visit, it was the tallest building in NYC.  I did attempt to go out to the viewing deck a few times. But the weather was stormy so I couldn't stay out there long. It was too windy and the visibility was almost none.

What I found most fascinating, however, is the project schedule showing the progress of construction.

I know, what an interaction design geek.

I was in awe! To see a non-computer generated project Gantt chart! This is pre MS Project and if you look closer, you'll notice it's all art deco font as well.

An original data visualization! You hardly ever see any of this nowadays, not ones that were not generated digitally.  This format of presenting information is obviously very successful for the type of information it is communicating, which is why we still see Gantt charts today for communicating project schedules and progress.

What a gem for the UI/UX eye! Ok, enough geeking out, back to being a tourist. ;)


So as I made my way up toward the top, a mom with 3 kids were in front of me.  We came across a guy in a safari outfit who said to the family that they should feel free to go up and take a picture with the King Kong (and that it doesn't cost anything).

The mom saw no harm in it and sent the 3 boys up. They got into position to take the picture, and the King Kong said "Boo!" sending them screaming. :D

Of course, that means I absolutely had to have my picture taken with King Kong.  He does look a lot like a statue instead of a person in a King Kong costume. He certainly stood still enough earlier on that you really thought he was just a statue. What great fun!

After I made it to the top and had my fill of being blown around by the gusting rain and wind, I made my way down. In the elevator was this marble silhouette of the building. Really classy!

Icon Design for Banana Republic

We come back from break to do an exercise in icon design. The premise is that main navigation categories on the Banana Republic website is being swapped out with icons. And off we go.

I created hand drawn sketches of the options and created a formal survey requesting rankings of first impression / visual appeal, clarity of meaning of each icon, and overall success of communicating the intended meaning (after those being surveyed took a stab at identifying each icon of each option first).

As with all design, not every option is good, so much hilarity ensued on some of the more ambiguous icon designs.

It was unanimously voted by those surveyed that Option C was the way to go.

So Option C is the concept that got graphically designed out. I did some general surveying on Facebook on how well these icons work, and they communicated what they needed to quite well, so I was happy that it worked out. :)

KitchenAid KitchenMentor Fridge and iPhone App

Our individual project assignment was to create a touch screen interface with accompanying iPhone app called KitchenMentor for KitchenAid's smart fridge. The goal is to help busy everyday folks manage their food and groceries by providing timely information such as when certain food items are low or out, or will be expiring soon.

Many other features are included, but one of the more interesting things we did was hack PowerPoint to create an interactive prototype/demo. I recorded the portion of the presentation that was the demo in the video below. For some reason blogger's video screen freeze is really pixelated below, but the actual video isn't so bad. Give it a bit of time to load fully before playing for best view experience. :)

The demo is just illustrating the touch screen interface that is mounted on the fridge. There is also an accompanying iPhone app that has a subset of the full functionality the fridge mounted display would have. Here are the samples screens that illustrate taking the user from Home -> KitchenDoc -> Recipes -> Recipe Details.

It's my first iPhone app design. Given Apple's rigorous guidelines on buttons and navigation at the top it looks pretty standard iPhone app. But I was glad I could get the custom colors in there to match the fridge display.

CarMe iPad App

Assignment 2 is to design an iPad application called CarMe, which is a car finder application. The point of the assignment is to go to the basics, do some card sorting of user goals and needs, and create several different conceptual models of how this app should work. I came up with a generic Specs Concept that every car finder out there does, a Behavior Concept that would be more inquiring of your driving needs and behavior, and a Personality Concept that's a take off on dating sites. Find your perfect (car) match! =P

Printing to scale again, I am glad I found an iPad background because it really puts the actual UI elements in context. That big black border ate up so much of my ink I had to go buy new cartridges over the weekend but the final effect was really good, so I'm glad I did that. The flow is pretty self-explanatory once you get past the fact that the initial questions are posed as if you're on a dating site looking for your perfect (car) soul mate.

For example, if you had answered you would want to "Hike the Grand Canyon", and the most important trait is "Frugal to a fault", the system will have some super cool intelligence to match you with the cheapest 4 wheel drive car it can find. =)