Nokia focus on B2B technology innovation.
I helped them to:
Identify innovation opportunities in building maintenance
Create a Proof of Concept (POC) using Augmented Reality (AR)
Pitch and win investment and partners for future development
Contribution
Type
Year
Problem
Property construction and maintenance companies are great at compliance and safety but struggle with operational silos, inaccurate building data and inefficient task tracking.
In addition, building repairs are often hard to locate and costly to fix when the issues are not visible (i.e. behind walls).
Nokia wanted to test if mobile AR technology and building data models could solve the problem.
Process
Discovering the Appropriate Job Roles to Support
Primary and secondary research help map current roles, but inconsistent naming conventions and responsibilities across businesses pose a challenge.
Inspectors are involved at every stage of a maintenance issue and need information about the building, as well as task management tools, to process the problem effectively.
Meanwhile, Contractors who are hired to fix maintenance problems often discover new issues, but lack a consistent tool or process to share them efficiently.
It was clear that Inspectors and Contractors were the users with the most unmet needs and could benefit greatly from a new improved solution.
Process Mapping to Identify Opportunities
There was no clear understanding of the current maintenance management process. By translating user tasks into consolidated 'As Is' and 'To Be' service flows we could begin to spot opportunities and a clear idea emerged.
Idea:
A mobile tool that helps log, understand and fix maintenance issues combining historical + contemporary building data viewed contextually using AR.
Priorities:
Creation of consistent and accurate building reference data set
Task information is collected, consistent and searchable
Remote access to building data
Historical building data is presented in context
Data Modelling was a Top Priority
A good experience relies on quality data inputs and outputs. Working with the Product Owner and Developers we collaborated on a prioritised data set to generate a working Proof of Concept (POC).
Historical building data from the BIM (Building information Model) often had missing timestamps which impacted our timeline view. Task Information data was non-existent and had to be modelled from scratch.
Desired data sets were captured in a roadmap to increase accuracy as the product evolved.
Prototyping the Enhanced End-to-End Workflow Failed
But failure means we are learning. The wireframes were great at illustrating all the potential screens that were required, however it failed because of 2 major reasons:
Efficacy - to save time we built 1 prototype and tried to combine 2 flows together (Inspector and Contractor). It failed because each user would have a dedicated interface with role related features. This combination caused confusion and clutter.
Static - the prototype was built as a click through demo but did not have the sophistication to mimic the AR calibration processes. Creating a screen-by-screen walkthrough actually gave the perception this was a lengthy process when the goal was to save the user’s time.
AR Required a Unique Calibration + Localisation Approach
Viewing building data with AR had a specific onboarding process. Users were required to Calibrate and Localise.
Calibration (Spatial Mapping): Creating a precise map of the physical environment so that virtual objects can be placed correctly within it. This involved moving the camera up down, left right to pick up the geometry and spatial layout of the surroundings.
Localisation (Feature Detection): Identifying and tracking distinct features in the environment, such as edges, corners, or textures, which serve as reference points for accurate localisation. This involved aligning and pinning virtual planes to real world environments such as corners of pillars and walls.
User are mostly unfamiliar with AR and we predicted they would struggle with these new interactions. We also predicted POC technology bugs could decrease the overall usability.
It was important to test the calibration and localisation features early and often, so we built the flows into an isolated feature.
Real world testing validated most of our predictions and also brought up several new insights such as the challenges of limited on-site wifi access which needed to be considered and resolved.
Designing a Vision for Additional Investment
Leading the design team to ensure the creative output was intuitive yet innovative.
Working in collaboration with a brand designer to create a look and feel as well as a motion designer to create a demo video that brought the more complex interactions to life.
In addition creating a pitch presentation showcased the user needs and demonstrated how the full product could effectively address them.
Outcome
$5M Investment Injection
In record time we created a historical building data, that was contextually accessible during maintenance tasks. This had a predicted saving of millions per year for commercial property managers.
The Proof of Concept resulted in a $5 million investment to continue the project's success.
“Jenna provided us with incredibly useful insights about our target users and crafted a product that was critical to our success.”
Ilia
Head of Product & Service Innovations · Nokia
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