Fusion Wave
Product Overview
Fusion Wave raises the bar when it comes to digital signage for recreation facilities. It's your look, your information, your news and events — all presented beautifully and updated in real time.
My Role
As the Founding Designer, I led all design initiatives while working closely with a business analyst, developers, product owner, stakeholders, and junior designers. I was there every step of the way - from early explorations to product launch and beyond 🚀
Research
With some hard-hitting interview questions, I joined our internal Researcher in interviewing communication admins across the InnoSoft client-base. These calls enabled our team to develop a deeper understanding of our target market's needs and to precisely identify the type of organization that would benefit most from a new solution to their signage needs. Based on these interviews, we were able to identify 2 main problems.
Problem #1
If you take a glance around most university recreation centers, you will probably find what we did… a barrage of print materials plastered across the walls trying to promote events and communicate important information. This method of communication is ineffective because it is often ignored by students and requires significant time and effort to keep up to date.
Problem #2
Creating the content and managing the signage was another area of friction…
"I go around updating the slides manually using USB sticks but that takes a lot of time."
Marketing Director
"We're fortunate to have a marketing assistant here but I know others might not have that - especially with covid cuts"
Recreation Admin
"I wish I could just make it myself but I'm not an expert in photoshop or anything."
Recreation Admin
Creative Direction
Early on, we conducted an internal brainstorm session where employees with different expertise shared ideas on how we might integrate existing data into our displays. As part of the exercise, each person also visualized what their idea might look like on a digital display. Afterwards, I conducted a visual audit of everyone’s ideas and identified a few trends. One of the most profound trends was that all of the ideas could be supported through the implementation of a 3-column grid, where widgets could fill 1, 2, or all 3 columns.
After testing this direction with various clients and stakeholders, I coined what became our first design principle for the product, "structured flexibility". Structure flexibility aims to give admins creative autonomy within constraints that maintain visual best practices and consistency.
This principle was later reflected in the design & development of other features such as the theming feature.
CMS Feature Work
Each new feature underwent multiple rounds of testing by clients within our special interest group. Collaborating with the lead developer/product owner, I co-facilitated weekly calls with our clients, observing firsthand how they integrated these updates. These sessions provided invaluable insights into technical challenges and our moderated tests enabled us to fine-tune our workflows.
Design System
Building a visual language and keeping the components up to date became a regular part of my process as we moved into higher fidelity designs and closer to a formal launch. Many of the design system components originally built for FusionWave were later used to build the foundations for other back-to-base products across the organization.
Mapping the Interactions
Over the course of many months, I ideated through journey maps, user flows, wireframes and lo-fi prototypes. During this time, I also took part in value voting various features alongside our stakeholder group according to the client empathy I had acquired. I also began meeting regularly with the development team so that we could stay aligned as we started building the product. This sometimes meant adjusting designs so that they would work within the constraints they outlined or ideating new solutions together.
Continuous Testing & Iteration
Incorporating end-user feedback at every stage was crucial in crafting an exceptional user experience. With the support of the Business Analyst, Lead Developer, and a Junior Designer, I conducted tests nearly every week. In 2021 alone, we conducted a total of 81 tests, each one propelling our team closer to delivering an outstanding product.
Launch & Impact
In September 2021, we officially launched and started implementations for schools across North America. We continued to work closely with our clients to understand what was working well for them, what needed tweaking, and how else we could deliver more value.
Credits
Of course, no project is successful without a team of talented collaborators, and I had the pleasure of working with some of the best!
Steven Roefs
Product Owner & Lead Dev
Tinesha Agarwal
Researcher
Shail Patel
Developer
+ 8 more