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Liquidtool

Liquidtool is a mobile app for managing and monitoring coolant for industrial CNC machines.

Liquidtool is a mobile app for managing and monitoring coolant for industrial CNC machines.

Role

UI/UX & Product Design

Duration

Duration

6 months

Tools

Background

CNC machines require coolant for them to run for long hours in a production setting. The health of the coolant directly correlates to the performance of the machine and therefore the coolant requires constant monitoring. Traditionally, this involves a specialist having to manually monitor the coolant and record measurements to maintain its health.

Business IoT App

Mobile App

THE PROBLEM

THE PROBLEM

What is the better way for companies to

monitor their CNC machines?

What is the better way for companies to monitor their CNC machines?

The Goal

Create a solution that optimizes CNC machine monitoring, not only for the specialist on the ground, but for the company as a whole. Automation would be necessary to accomplish this and it was decided a hardware solution would be needed. Specifically, a sensor that could in realtime, take coolant measurements. I was tasked with designing the UI/UX for the mobile app that served as the interface for the sensors that would plug and play with the machines.

Create a solution that optimizes CNC machine monitoring, not only for the specialist on the ground, but for the company as a whole. Automation would be necessary to accomplish this and it was decided a hardware solution would be needed. Specifically, a sensor that could in realtime, take coolant measurements. I was tasked with designing the UI/UX for the mobile app that served as the interface for the sensors that would plug and play with the machines.

User Flow

User Flow

My first step in designing the app was to create a user flow. The primary user would be a technician working on the factory floor and responsible for maintaining the CNC machines.

My first step in designing the app was to create a user flow. The primary user would be a technician working on the factory floor and responsible for maintaining the CNC machines.

The Design

Connecting to the Sensor

We wanted to make the sensor setup as easy as possible for the specialists as this would be entirely novel to them. It should be said that they generally aren't the most tech savy bunch as well, therefore a simple wizard instructing them on how to set it up would be the way to go.

Setting the Theme

Before designing the app, I started by creating a simple theme and some components that would lay the foundation of the app's design. I based it largely off of Google's Material Design system because I felt like using a minimalistic, natural-looking design would work well with an app that is intimately connected to the physical world.

Monitoring the Coolant

Being able to closely monitor the health of the machine's coolant is the core function of the Liquidtool app. When the user logs into the app we wanted to provide them with a way to quickly scan all of their sensors in order to keep tabs on the health of all the coolant running through their machines. We also wanted the user to be able to single out a machine and review more analytical details. By default, we decided to visualize this into a chart that is updated in real-time while still being able to provide some historical context.

Being able to closely monitor the health of the machine's coolant is the core function of the Liquidtool app. When the user logs into the app we wanted to provide them with a way to quickly scan all of their sensors in order to keep tabs on the health of all the coolant running through their machines. We also wanted the user to be able to single out a machine and review more analytical details. By default, we decided to visualize this into a chart that is updated in real-time while still being able to provide some historical context.

Real-time Measurements

One critical function of the app is to receive real-time measurements directly from the sensor. We needed a way to visualize this in a way where operators could glance at all their operating machines and quickly determine how healthy the coolant is. We came up with a design that focused on displaying the concentration and a dynamic infographic so that they can see exactly where the recording is with respect to its limit values.

One level deeper

Tracking a coolant's health would be nothing without being able to have a detailed view into how it's performing. Therefore it was critical to design an easy way for specialists to keep close tabs on the sensor's live results.

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Neena

Crafted by Colin, thanks for stopping by

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