Rolls-Royce
Web app for tracking production timelines
Teams withing Rolls-Royce need to track very detailed timelines as jet engine parts move through the production cycle. This process was managed by multiple teams in multiple excel files, which didn’t facilitate easy communication and reports. My team was tasked with creating a web app to replace those numerous files. Here’s how I helped in the process:
Role
UX/UI Intern
Timeline
July 2023
Team
Software engineers
Design consultant
Deliverables
Wireframes
Hi-fidelity mockups
Usability testing insights
Design
What should the interface look like?
I started off with a whiteboarding session with the backend engineer and product manager to establish interface needs and connection with the app database. This was a valuable learning experience for me, because I was collaborating with two people who were approaching the task at hand (interface design) from very different angles. I felt a little out of my element but probed about user goals for this app to guide the conversation into clearly-defined outcomes.
Usability testing
Does it work for users?
The designer consultant that helped us with the project took our whiteboard sketches in made mockups in Figma. I took charge of leading usability testing by finding future app users and facilitating two calls with them. Here’s what I learned and modified:
Original dashboard
”The dashboard has good info, however the top charts are not the full story of what I need to know if the process will finish on time”
”Completed info is missing ... or specify on the charts that these are all of the open items?”
Iterated dashboard
Added more comprehensive charts that showed all flow steps and completed parts
Original part detail page
”[A chart would be the] most helpful thing to throw across the top”
”Try showing something like this where I can see where the baseline date is and where in the process I am so that I know overall what status the part is in.”
Iterated part detail page
Added a chart across the top of the interface like users requested to give them a big-picture view of the overall status
Results:
The tool my team and I created helped members of engine production teams better track timelines of part changes and transfers, design changes, and other part related activities to understand whether the schedule is on track or not. Ultimately, this saved the teams hours of work and ensured accurate data because by replacing locally-stored excel spreadsheets with one web app.
Internship highlights:
Summary
This past summer, I worked at Rolls-Royce as a Digital Engineering Intern with their software team. During my time there, I applied my UX and UI skills to help create and improve internal applications that other employees used, resulting in simplified processes and saving time. Additionally, I also produced marketing materials and redesigned the software department's website to bring more visibility to the benefits that my team provided the business as a whole.
Branding
One of my favorite projects that I worked on during my internship was creating branding and visuals for my departments, based on Rolls-Royce’s branding. I created posters for a demo day, one-pagers of projects we had done, as well as a library of illustrations for future projects. This was a fun way to bring awareness of the software team within a large organization and spotlight the time and money saving benefits we brought to the company
Demo Day
I led the UX/UI demo for Rolls-Royce’s digital engineering Demo Day. Over 300 people attended, and I had a fantastic time showing people some of the work my team had done this past year and how we practice user-centered design, as well as some UX fun facts relating to the company (like Charles Rolls, the co-founder of Rolls-Royce, was responsible for standardizing steering wheels in cars!)
