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Issue templates

The Issues tool is a way for construction workers to track tasks proactively and reactively on the construction job-site. The underlying data spanned 8 different tools within Autodesk Construction Cloud (ACC), including the flagship product known as Autodesk Build. I conceptualized an experience to improve issue tracking across multiple surfaces within Autodesk Build and beyond: 2D drawings, 3D models as well as the Issues log table view. By pushing the team to opt for a phased vision, I was able to advocate for a product that met user needs as well as business needs and drove customer satisfaction resulting in double the user-retention.

Role

Design Lead

Responsibilities

Visual Design,
UI & UX Design,
Product strategy

Timeline

May - September 2022

Problem

Research & Insights

Goals

Solution

Process

xfn brainstorms

Vision

Information Architecture

Iteration

Concept testing

Launch

Problem

Construction workers struggle to create repetitive issues using Autodesk Build in the job site, leading to slowdowns impacting the project timelines.

In construction, 80% of the issues share a lot of the information and can be predicted in advance. However, contractors and subcontractors using Autodesk Build were spending a long time filling out all the details one by one.

Our customers were using legacy tools because it was faster to create issues due to copy-paste, templating, auto-populating, etc. We had to unblock customers from migrating over to ACC.

Research & Insights

Issues data capture needs to be standardized and easy to do.

“In the absence of a way to create issues efficiently, it makes our job harder because we have a blank slate. And our design team - they're probably not gonna use this system.

As a result, we have 2000 issues that are all assigned to Rodgers and we got to go through each one of them and figure out which trades to assign that to."

Project Manager

Rodgers Builders (General Contractor)

01 Not creating detailed issues leads to delays and revenue loss

02 Not being able to standardize issues causes back and forth in communication

03 Not being able to cross-reference issues leads to frustration

Reduce the time to capturing issue that contain repetitive as well as unique information

The team needed a cohesive strategy for creating issues at scale for enhanced issue creation that could serve both field and office needs.

Ideating possible solutions

Documented assumptions
and constraints

Vision

Established a clear north star vision for the future to ensure that the concept scales well

I created concept prototypes for the future vision for both web and mobile, which we wanted to tackle for follow-up phases as a result of the prioritization exercise.

On the web,we aimed to enhance the flexibility of issue creation by enabling users to place the issue at any point in the process, following the completion of issue details. This change not only streamlines the process but also unlocks additional speed and efficiency.

On mobile, our goal was to empower them in the field by enabling the creation of templates from existing issues, facilitating rapid scaling for one-off problems.

Solution

A scalable, easy way for issue creation across all surfaces (2D, 3D)

Issue templates were incorporated on both web and mobile, and the experience was created from different entry points: Sheets viewer, Issues table view, as well as 3D model viewer.

Before

Several steps (Open sheet- Select issue markup - Select type - Fill description- Fill Assignee) - (5 clicks) to create an actionable issue

After

Easy one step process to create issue

An easy-to-use feature for Issue types and Issue templates on mobile

Before

After

Easy one step process to create issue to create issue after selecting an issue type

Cross-functional brainstorms

Partnered with marketing to prioritize the concepts

Initially, out of all the ideas, duplicate issues seemed to bring the most value in the short-term. We had analytics usage that 20% of all issues were "copied". However, it doesn't solve for longer term-needs of standardization and cross-referencing.

We discussed our concepts and mapped them on an effort <> impact matrix. We then held open office hours with stakeholder teams and narrowed down on Issue templates based on the following rationale:

  1. Lean Construction narrative and a need for predictable release around this aspect

    Creating standard, repeatable work helps to reduce waste. With Issue templates, one can proactively create those repeatable tasks, optimize to reduce any wasted time/movements etc and then roll out on the project, account, and eventually to the company library level.

  2. Standardization is a key need for Named Accounts

    Part of the focus of expanding ACC within accounts is standardization on ACC/Build. With issue templates, it is easy to tell the story of standardization and connected construction.

Vision

Established a clear north star vision for the future to ensure that the concept scales well

I created concept prototypes for the future vision for both web and mobile, which we wanted to tackle for follow-up phases as a result of the prioritization exercise.

On the web,we aimed to enhance the flexibility of issue creation by enabling users to place the issue at any point in the process, following the completion of issue details. This change not only streamlines the process but also unlocks additional speed and efficiency.

On mobile, our goal was to empower them in the field by enabling the creation of templates from existing issues, facilitating rapid scaling for one-off problems.

Re-imagining issue creation on the web

Empowering field users to convert issues to templates

Information architecture

Resolved conflicting mental models regarding the underlying data

I completed a journey mapping exercise to uncover that the templates could be independent of issue types. This was also the model available in legacy tools. However, this was conflicting for how templates would work technically. I worked with engineering to document all our underlying assumptions and identified technical constraints to make it work with the experience design.

Iteration

Involved stakeholders early in the iterations in advance of concept testing

I explored a wide-variety of concepts to accommodate the different possibilities of Information architecture

User research

Drove research with customers and iterated based on feedback

We chose two front-runner concepts for research - the tabs view separating the entry points for types and templates and a nested-list view, with the information architecture that is technically most feasible. Customers liked the mixture of both - the clarity of the tabs as well as the ease of scrolling the list-view. I then combined both of them and added a shortcut to templates on the first tab!

Launch

Over 15% of customers are using this feature successfully!

We had a successful launch, despite some hiccups around the shortcut not being able to launch on mobile for the initial release and the search feature not fully tested. But we did a fast-follow and customers have since been creating lots of issue templates and it has been increasing quarter over quarter.

I am a designer who believes in close collaborations to
push the boundaries of what is possible.

Ask me about ☕️ Chai, 🖋️Calligraphy and 🎻Violin!

© 2023 Meera Ramachandran

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