The Process
As with most projects, the design phase started with sketches on paper. However, before I could start the design, I had to wear the Business Analyst and Functional Analyst hats so I could create the user stories and user journeys that informed my design decisions. We started with making sure everything would work in a mobile view first since solar company surveyors would be in the field on their mobile devices.
UX Design in Figma
Figma is my go-to for rapid wire frames, hi-fi designs, and prototyping. Each user journey was mapped out and every pixel was placed. A gray palette was used on purpose to keep things as simple (and readable) as possible. The idea was to be able to white-label the application for multiple solar companies down the road.
Because Figma is a powerful prototyping tool, I was able to send it out to surveyors and engineers for testing before any code was written. This testing step is extremely important because user feedback fine tunes the design... and after all, we are going for the BEST user experience.
Development / Coding / Testing
This is a super fun project because it took me back to my days of being the "webmaster" 20+ years ago. I got to do the WHOLE enchilada - design AND development. It is always fun to put the coding hat on and take your design ideas to a working application. In this case, I went back to my PHP/MySQL/JQuery roots to make it a robust application that works on any device with an internet connection. Although this project is technically still in development, it is in the wild and is being tested by several surveyors and engineers.
Solar Companies need a streamlined way to get installation jobs approved by an engineer. This web application does that and saves a week of wait time in the process.
Business and Functional Analysis of project to create user stories and work-flows. Complete UX design in Figma as well as full development using PHP/MySQL/JQuery.
Project is currently still in development with an estimated launch date of February, 2020.