About
The application takes the users given criteria and suggests new and historical formulations. This allows for faster discovery and invention of new polyurethane formulations in a way that wasn’t possible for the scientists before.
Research, UX and Visual Design, User Testing - November 2021 – May 2022 (7 months)
Development and QA - May 2022 – September 2022 (5 months)
Client:
An industry leader in material science spanning across countless countries and applications.
Users:
TS&D Scientists (Technical Service and Development) across different business market segments. As the data in the system grows, this will include scientists from all over the world.
Problem
Before Formulation Designer was created, there was no robust way to look for existing formulations. You had to look for products in an Excel document that was shared amongst scientists. Since information sharing was difficult, this process led to outdated information and an in-exhaustive list of known formulations.
The scientists work required an in-person iterative testing process and depending on how much rework was needed, it could lengthen a project timeline. Because of this, it was hard to adjust to working at home due to covid.
Solution
While keeping the scientists process and the goals of the business in mind, we created an MVP for a new way of working. Our solution is the first all formulation library by market segment and plans to expand as more data is added.
It takes the process of physical in lab modeling to the digital space. You’re able to do a full detailed search for historical formulations and properties as well as put in a set of performance attributes and the AI builds a formula to match the criteria.
The user is now able to better predict material performance, accelerate discovery and optimize the properties of new formulations.
Key Screens
Welcome screen
See general information for the formulations and choose your unit type.
Select Blowing Agents
Choose which physical or chemical blowing agents you want your formulas to include.
Prioritize properties
Drag properties to the right column in the order of importance for your desired formulas.
Enter Ranges
For your prioritized properties, enter the desired minimum and maximum.
Results: Table View
View the predicted formulas from your search. You have the ability to pin formulas you like, reorder or delete to help compare your results. At the bottom are your prioritized formula properties and the ranges you entered.
Results: Plot View
View the predicted formulas from your search in a more visual way. You have the ability to switch the properties in the X and Y axis, view historical and system predicted formulas as well as viewing more details on a selected result.
Value Add
Innovation Speed - Reduces innovation time by 2/3’s by enabling the development of formulations in a virtual lab. Scientists will need fewer experiments and trial iterations to create a new formulation.
Accelerates Digital Transformation - Through the integration of AI and predictive capabilities we are creating the future of working. Our client will maintain a competitive advantage through leadership in CX and innovation.
Work Remotely - Helpful in remote work settings by giving them the ability to run more experiments with less in person team members.
Personalized Solutions For Clients - Enables a shift from selling existing products to easily creating custom formulated solutions for their clients.
Data Security - There’s a lower probability of data loss/leakage with digitization. With exports created in our system, there’s a daily limit and accountability since all activity is being logged on the backend. It also moves away from keeping all crown jewel data in one spreadsheet which would be easier to steal.
Drives Future Business Growth - The properties and formulation ingredients searched by customers will be a source of business intelligence to predict market and technology trends.
Innovation of Formulations: Prediction of formulations based on targeted properties could lead to the discovery of new combinations of ingredients and new inventions.
Client Feedback
Your support in optimizing and enhancing the user interface of our Dow Predictive Intelligence Platform will be critical for its worldwide adoption.
Specifically, your contribution to the design of the tables that capture the formulations, properties, and metadata was outstanding.
This was particularly challenging due to the number of columns the user would need to scan, and a clean but appealing format was paramount to providing an excellent UX.
Key Features
Since this is the MVP, we had to consider, what do we have time for, what’s feasible technically, what’s the most important features to users.
- Select and prioritize technical requirements for a desired formulation
- View results as a table or plot view
- Pinning, rearranging, exporting, and deleting results
- Graphing predicted and historical formulations
- Ability to switch unit type
- Edit search or start over
UX Design and Planning
Design considerations (Programs used: Figma)
Working with a UX designer, this was what the process was like:
Planning – Discovery, scope development, requirement development, prioritization, and timeline development.
Research - Initial research and interviews were conducted then analyzed.
Wireframing - Wireframes were iteratively created while keeping the possibility of an expanded database and growth in mind.
User Testing - Our approach was brought to the scientists to confirm we were on the right track. We also wanted to see if they could see value in what we were creating.
Fine Tuning Wireframes - Adjustments were made to the designs according to the feedback.
User Feedback
Interviews were conducted with users from Latin America, North America and Europe
We heard from users that the flow we created:
is logical
easy to follow
was good starting point
easy to understand
user friendly
We heard from users that the tool adds great value:
“When you get these formulations, it might throw something out there you haven’t thought of”
“This tool can help both save time and visualize the information”
“It’s no longer a concept, it’s reality”
“if you want an idea quicker instead of using an old school database, this is so much faster. Easy, great starting point”
Finds value and is useful - because it narrows the search and focused on desired properties
Sees value in the tool because it helps them in most cases and provides data in a structured way for new people
Visual Design
Design considerations (Programs used: Figma)
Branding - Created to visually fit in the existing ecosystem of products while still pushing the overall designs. The company has a library of colors and fonts, thinking of how those are used in the designs.
Usability - Maintaining usability using a distinct visual hierarchy especially on pages with a lot of functions and complex data.
Depth - Having multiple levels for the content to add depth to the page.
Responsibilities
UX Design Assistance – Helping with UX ideation, design critique and note taking in testing.
Visual Design Screen Creation – Taking the UX wireframes and elevating them using visual design. I made sure to think outside the box, iterating on the pages and not just coloring in the lines.
Thinking of Development – When designing I make sure to have all the needed states mocked up so there’s minimal questions during the development process. Things like open drop downs, long titles and edge cases are all considered and mocked up.
Prototype Creation - Screens were made into a click through prototype to better illustrate functionality and flow to the client, internal team and especially the developers.
Development Oversight – Attended meetings to answer questions, make small updates or decisions on functionality.
Thinking Towards the Future
As we continue to think about the next generation of this tool, here are some new updates we have in mind:
- Quick view of component price and availability history
- More properties and ingredients to consider
- Expanded data and customization in the regional, market and lab categories
- Ability to save your searches and results
- Connect it to its sister program to be able to edit the formulations in real time to better fit the needs of a customer.
- Ability to add in your own formulation from scratch