Cervello is an IoT platform designed to integrate, monitor, automate, and control any device or system. As a multi-tenant on-premises platform, it specifically targets integrators and software vendors, enabling them to build vertical smart solutions efficiently.
Date
2020 - 2021
Role
Product Design, Strategy
Platform
Web Application
Link
No available
Overview
The internet of things, or IoT, is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. (Source: IoT Agenda)
Through 4 components Cervello can integrate with things to collect, analyse, and monitor data to store it and take actions based on predefined logic or machine learning and represent a friendly user interface to interact with people in the smart world. The main pillar in a digital platform is the user, how the user will act and how the application will interact to facilitate the capabilities of the platform to get users' goals done.
Allow any user around the world to build their smart solution.
To represent Cervello “on-premise” Platform in a cloud version, that user can access it anywhere.
Increase organic ultimate users.
Connect and manage devices.
Empower less-code App Builder.
Remote access and monitor devices.
Cervello on-premises serves in several areas, it works well although it has some solvable issues. When we need to go cloud we have to maintain highly needed features in the market, insert some competitive features, increase product value, and engage our users with the product.
On-premises software is located and operated within a user’s data centre. As such, it uses the user’s computing hardware rather than that of a cloud provider.
Cloud software, usually hosted in the cloud or accessible via the Internet, is run and managed by a third-party provider. All of the troubleshooting it requires is handled by the provider’s staff.
Challenges
Cervello on-premises faces limitations in reaching targeted users and offering a free trial version.
Transitioning Cervello to the cloud while maintaining its current structure and enabling real-time collaboration among users across different locations is proving difficult.
Users are forced to repeatedly duplicate their solutions—built within applications—when reselling, as each customisation must be manually adjusted for specific user requirements every time.
The onboarding process for users is cumbersome, and there are significant privacy and security concerns. Furthermore, the customer purchasing the platform isn’t necessarily the one directly using it.
Users are unable to view and manage specific workspaces effectively, making it challenging to monitor activities when multiple users are working within the same workspace simultaneously.
While Cervello integrates with multiple systems for data exchange, it falls short in generating static reports that are essential for supporting other restricted systems and services.
Assumptions!
Users face difficulties during account registration due to an extensive number of required fields, compounded by security and privacy concerns.
Users currently need to duplicate and manually customize their solutions for resale, which indicates a lack of efficient, reusable customization options.
The cloud version of Cervello needs to maintain the existing structure of the on-premises version while adding capabilities for real-time collaboration among users
While Cervello integrates with multiple systems, it lacks capabilities for generating static reports required for restricted systems and services.
Multiple users working simultaneously in the same workspace may lead to conflicts and inadequate activity tracking.
IoT solutions often rely on multiple external systems for data collection and actions, requiring significant investment and time from solution providers.
Users reselling applications built on Cervello face challenges in managing and transferring payment for consumption to their customers.
Despite offering many features, Cervello does not fully empower users without relying on external services or custom code for certain goals.
Users can monitor their work from handheld devices for many solutions, but Cervello does not support this functionality.
Most users are developers who enjoy coding but struggle with building new projects and designing professional system architectures.
Research
We divided the research into three parallel segments: interaction research, the development of end-user personas, and the creation of activity diagrams.
Immediate user research
We initiated a thorough testing process to evaluate the existing on-premises app interfaces. Our goal was to identify which design elements performed optimally, which features were most engaging and usable, and which aspects fell short. This process also aimed to clarify how users prioritize the overall feature set.
Additionally, we conducted a competitive analysis to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of user experiences offered by competing products. Our approach involved two rounds of usability testing and, where applicable, focus group research to gain a comprehensive understanding of the market landscape and user expectations.
Persona Creation
In addition, we began a process to create a profile of the existing user base and to better understand how they act with the system. This will -we hope- uncover opportunities for the service to expand into and provide a closer fit to people’s lives, further encouraging its use.
Activity Diagram
Activity map observed our actual user activities through the on-premise app and their expectations. We started with user flows, then translated it to journey map line, to discover the best sequences. Later we did our initiative journey map, to collect all known data in one table to be more accessible to our team members and able to add on.
The initiative journey map, contain gain, pain points, user feelings, and opportunities as well.
Synthesis
Research Findings
There Are Many Metrics And Synthesis, that Needs To Be Arranged And Get Priorities According To Our OKRs.
Affinity map
Affinity map and grouping problems in clusters helped un to create synergy and take decisions.
Prioritisation
Problem Statements
We started to convert our user's pains and needs to problem statements to be clear to set our UX roadmap, estimate time, form our design sprints, and assign tasks.
User can’t get their instance members' details, that makes them unable to add or invite new members on their project.
I am an organisation admin, i am trying to add a member to a certain project but I can't because I not allowed to see my organisation members’ details that makes me feel restricted.
Users need to make a lot of steps very confusing to be onboarded.
I am a new user, I want to use Cervello, but I can't get easily onboarded because there are many steps, that make me feel confused and frustrated.
User unable to create organisation and when he created a project he doesn’t know for which organisation the project is created however he needs to create it in a specific organisation for a certain customer.
I am an instance admin, I want to create a new project in a specific organisation, but I can't create or attach project to an organisation, because I add instance project, that contradict my business logics.
When there are other systems, workflow depends on a report generated from Cervello in an automated cycle, the user is forced to make it manually or can’t complete the flow.
I am a developer, I want to connect my system to Cervello and extract reports automatically, but I can't, because I should create a manual reports every time in case I have a variable parameter, that makes do more effort.
Projects & Features
Conceptual solution
User Flows
How user starts their journey and specify their needs.
How the user will move from module to another and Link between their data.
All modules in so abstracted look to connect our users journey through the application.
Sample of Architecture of one module.
Structure
Balance user needs with a business goal
It is so important phase, but the most. We trying to set the architecture that we will build our system and experience on, it will hard to replace it in the future and every change might make us lose everything by confusing our users because of bad structure. So we took our time to build it in detail and cover most cases. It's not easy to maintain if there are any leaks.
Defining Scope
This is sample of how we set a UX map after prioritisation and effort evaluation.
UX Roadmap
Why UX roadmap?
UX roadmap it somehow belongs and follows business roadmap, but not the same. UX roadmap sets experience value in order, to deliver our business goals while we achieve the user's needs so we can always balance between both business and user's needs. But we cannot present it in one iteration, huge effort and more time needed so we priorities it according to this roadmap.
Card sorting helps us to arrange our ideas.
UX Principals
The main rules that will guide us to build one consistent design.
Seamless.
Driving design into a funnel, so no leaks.
Security Over Usability.
When experience matters, security is a target and Usable design is just away.
Defensive Design.
Defensive design is always on the lookout for what problems may arise
Context Over Consistency.
It’s better to be right than consistent
Ideas to Action
Idea cards
Idea cards abstract all information about problem, value proposition, capabilities, and why we solve this problem. Every idea card should has a specific goal, restrictions and limitation as well.
Roughly Wireframes
Why we do roughly wireframes?
Wireframes are a great tool to get your clients to focus on what you want them to think about early in the design process. We use roughly wireframes to convert our thoughts from just ideas in our minds to put it on papers, it helps us to focus on idea itself and make accurate decisions.
Setting-up Process
Workflow
Choose methods and framework
Actions
Forming Design Sprints
We sliced our valuable features into design sprints to do make sure that we are committing to the product roadmap and deliver our design on time.
Hi-Fi Wireframes
Visual Design
Trying to translate ideas to action in a user interfaces
Instance landing page
Controlling user's organisations, teams, members, and projects of the certain workspace.
Accessing account settings, privacy sets, and track data usage as well.
First time login view
Creating first organisation, team and first project while onboarding.
Instamce's Member -Not admin- view
Showing only entry points of organisations, and teams without ability to create.
Signing up
Sign up by email.
Sending email to our user with a verification link, user supposed to be redirected to the next screen when this mail not in our users database, but if the user inserted the already registered email, the security email will be sent to email notify them that we dedicated someone tries to signup with this email. The user could be go to signing up page and ignore this email, or go to change their password.
We expect to solve the issue of searching about the certain email if it's already registered or not, to attack this email. We're trying to increase the security level by this experience and maintain our users privacy.
A Skippable screen
To short our onboarding steps, we allow the user to skip this screen, but as our recommendations we will notify the user while they are using our platform to confirm their dedicated region and fill out the missing information.
We have any kind of phone verification and it's impossible to force users to use a unique number.
Onboarding
Setting instance up
Choosing a unique name, makes users able to login their instance directly, by creating a subdomain link of their new instance.
We automatically create first organisation, team and get our user ready in seconds.
How we manage instances
User can join multiple instance, and they will be redirected to choose instance if they have an invitation link, but they can own just one instance with 14 days trial.
User Management
Organisations
Teams
Members
Organisation Management
Organisation Landing
User able to access, and control his organisation through a landing page contains the latest updates of projects, teams and shows the organisation's members sorted by activities.
Team Management
Team Profile
This screen shows projects created in a specific team, so user can sort projects by name or activity or devices capacity.
Members Management
All team members
Another tab in team profile shows all team's members, to track and mange access and activities on a specific project.
instance's members
All members joined the owned instance, only instance owner or admin can access this page.
Organisation's Members
All members of a specific organisation, they belong to any team under a specific organisation.
User profile
All about a specific member of instance, and all of projects and teams they participated in, and some of the latest activities across instance.
Take Control
Remotely integrate, manage, connect, monitor, automate, and control any device.
Device Management
Take control on your device Remotely
Device management
All Devices in one place
User can manage all of the devices in a specific project, privy to connectivity, uptime, and count of telemetries.
Monitoring
Be aware of any alarms, event
and Telemetry change
Real-time Monitoring
Alarm, events by Location
User able to monitor every alarm or events by location, can track the alarm and define where it happen and severity on the map, grouped by vertical modules.
Alarm Tracking system
User can track all aralms of specific project from any device and manage workforce tasks sent to technicians to solve a certain alarm.
Events Tracking system
User can track all of project events, sorted by time and grouped by devices.
Automation
Rules
Commands
Scheduler
Command Templates
Automation Scheduler
Account Control
Control Consumption
Manage account
Account Security
Account management
Personal info & account security
User able to customise all settings specially time zone that different form region to another and it affect alarms and events time. User can set authentication method for more security.
Subscription Management
Payment, Billing and used resources
In order to have many services and user will able to invite others to their instance, User can manage payment methods, billing address and control used resoucres.
Be on top of things
Group, Manage, and get real statistics.
Asset management
Reflect your real world to the system
All assets list
Assets made for user to reflect the real structure to the system and manage their assets by one action, it applies all devices and another assets related or belong to a certain asset.
Dashboard
Asset Attributes
Asset Alarms
Asset Events
Asset Location
Asset Telemetries
Asset Relations
Asset Hierarchy
User can set the real structure and manage their city or smart solution by building the hierarchy, parents, children and sibling through two types of links, belong and relates.
Reports
Know-all from one place
Data Extraction Reports
Listing all reports
Is a module to solve data feed and syncing with other integrated system, such as billing or workforce systems, to be read and translated to insights helps our client's users to take make decisions around their business or assets management.
Report creation
Report Capabilities.
The user is able to create a very customised report to extract some of statistics to be received and collected in another system they are integrate with trough APIs or directly to FTP, otherwise they can save the data extracted as a CSV file or get it in a JSON formate.
Report execution
User can easily excute any static report by configure some of preferences to be extracted manually or occur reports according to schedule to integrate with FTP or send dynamic statistics through APIs.
Design Hand-off
Developer Guide
User interface Abstraction & Knowledge Transfer.
We handed off features through abstracting visual design to comopnents, we clustered guide in 3 groups, Exist components; which is already coded in our design system and simply we can refer it to be used, New components need to be developed, and generic style guide.
Documenting
Feature Catalogue
Feature catalogue is a new innovative method for documenting every feature from early stages to after development and iterations. It designed to document and track changes along features to reduce time, avoid rework and understand the journey of creating every single feature.
Sections
01- Summary.
02- Problem Definition.
03- Targeted Persona.
04- Solution.
05- Value.
06- Validation.
07- Description.
09- How it works.
10- Scenarios.
11-Post & Prerequisites.
12-Acceptance Criteria.
13- API Documentation.
Iterations
Every iteration is documented as a thread in one document to deduce technical rework of designing and coding.
Finally, I spent most stressful, exciting and delightful days while I am doing what I love. Despite the hardships and frustrated people around, I am very proud of what I have achieved with this product.
Thanks to your visit.
Buyer
Persona
User
Persona
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