Industry
Sustainability, B2B
Skills
UX Design
User research
Interactive Prototyping
Usability Testing
My role
UX/UI Design Intern
Timeline
Jun. 2022 - Sep. 2023
Team
May Chou
Chelsea Wang
Tracy Hsu
Background
Organizations in Taiwan plan to reach net zero emission by 2050
Advantech is a leading company in the fields of IoT intelligent systems and embedded platforms, holding the No.1 position in the Worldwide industrial PC market with a 41% share. Following the sustainability regulations of ISO-14064, Advantech sought out to help organizations in Taiwan achieve their sustainability goals by developing the Eco Enterprise System.
When I joined the project as one of two UX/UI design interns, the team had already completed a round of desktop research. I quickly scheduled a meeting with the project manager to understand the background and context of the GHG (Greenhouse Gas) inventory process and mapped out the project timeline. During the onboarding phase, it became clear that the enterprise needed an efficient tool and clear guidance to navigate the complex verification process.
Summary of current problems faced by enterprises under the design background
What did I do?
Help organizations adapt to the complex carbon verification process by lowering excessive communication and labor costs.
As one of the two UX/UI design intern on the Eco Enterprise Team, I leveraged my UX strategy skills and design skills to solve real world carbon emission tracking problems for enterprise-level organizations. I conducted extensive research outside my comfort zone, brainstormed and designed multiple versions of solutions, worked with Advantech design system and presented high-fidelity interactive prototypes to key stakeholders.
I also adapted flexibly to project plan changes by initiating meetings and communicating project timelines to team members, so that consensus is reached and max productivity is presented.
Who did I work with?
Collaborated with 5 different local and international teams
As one of the two UX/UI designers within this project team, I worked together with the project manager to organize collaborative schedules and presentations of the product's phasic results throughout the 3 month timeline.
Engineering
Team
Marketing
Team
Sustainability
Department
GHG
Consult
Engineering
Team
(China)
2022 Advantech Summer Internship and team mentors. We had such a fantastic summer working together!
Who are the users?
Sustainability department managers and Data Collectors
Sustainability Department Managers
Sustainability department managers are responsible for data regulation, insights finding, and generate reports on GHG inventory progress for internal/external audits.
Data Collectors
Data collectors are responsible for recording carbon emission data from meters in production areas or lines.
Project Goal
HMW design a streamlined workflow that enables users to collect and manage carbon emission data easily, while managing organizational carbon emission KPIs?
Key Insight
Current data collection process spend more time communicating than collecting.
We conducted 2 rounds of user interview with 3 main users to understand bottlenecks in the current carbon footprint verification process. Though which we mapped out the relationship and critical gaps between the ISO-14064 carbon verification process and actual verification process conducted within organizations. We realized that poor communication and lack of centralized data storage was adding weight on both collecting data and managing emission KPIs.
Major Problems
⌛
Calculating process is time-consuming and labor intensive
Many organizations have more than one factory units. Currently, most data collection are still done manually, which is even more troublesome when an error is detected and needs to be tracked.
🔍
Searching for historical data is like searching for a needle in hay
When generating annual data reports, it takes a lot of time to pull out specific historic data and/or insights.
📝
Complicated report standards
Managers need to search for data and customize into various forms of reports that meets the needs of different GHG protocols.
Final Design
A Unified front and back end management system
📋
Streamline data collection process
Simplify collection process through standardized user flow and centralized data library, reducing the communication costs between managers and data collectors.
📊
Robust dashboard
Implemented a robust dashboard that aggregates data collected, simplifying data management and personnel oversight for managers.
"As a manager, I want a clear picture of the energy performance across various units. Also, find critical data easily to generate internal and external reports."
Front-end data recording system
Visualize energy usage and fluctuation trends on individual factories, improve energy data transparency and management.
Dashboard overview
Breaking down complex carbon data into clear, actionable insights including history trends, scope emission data, and emission unit filters.
"As a data collector, I want to record data quickly and precisely without needing to go over complex sheets and graphs."
Back-end data recording system
Visualize energy usage and fluctuation trends on individual factories, improve energy data transparency and management
Task overview
See all data requests in a glance. Receive feedback from a centralized system that notifies collectors when a missing data is requested.
Carbon emission calculator
A simple calculator that breaks down the complex calculation process into simple input tasks, and automatically converts emission data into carbon footprint data.
Emission factor searcher
Allows data collectors can easily search for the right calculation factor to use by simply searching through the code or name of emission factors.
Emission factor library - Overview
A centralized emission factor library that allows users to customize according to their commonly used emission types.
Emission factor library - Create new factor
A centralized library allows data collectors can easily search for the right calculation factor to use by simply searching through the code or name of emission factors.
Competitive Analysis reveals the current interventions to break down the complex Carbon Inventory Process
Competitive analysis of 6 existing solutions tells us the most popular interventions in organizational carbon inventory process, which allows us to discuss with the project manager and high level executives on our product's potential positioning in the market.
Current popular interventions:
Scope 1, 2, 3 emission break downs
KPI tracking for sustainability goals
Automated carbon emission unit change
Supports multi country and metrics report generating
How is Eco-Enterprise different?
There is a unique emphasis on customizable calculation preferences and report generation templates, providing efficient assistance that fits under various industry needs.
Competitive analysis of existing solutions on GHG regulation
Research
User Interviews indicate that efficiency in data collection and report generation is the key
We conducted two rounds of interview, each with 3 critical stakeholders, 2 of who are managers in the sustainability team and 1 enterprise sustainability consultant. Findings showed that excessive manual operation procedures and communication gaps between collectors and managers makes report generation time consuming and complicated.
Design Iteration & Testing
3 Critical design reviews by actual users and consultants
To validate our solutions, we conducted 3 rounds of design critic reviews from actual managers and data collectors, which we revised on information structure and function alignment to better fit the real world carbon inventory process in organizations.
Iteration 1 : Prioritize core metrics on graphs
Based on user feedback, the decision was made to display only the organization's overall carbon emission intensity rather than breaking it down by individual operating areas. This change addresses the fact that not all operating areas have output values or revenue data, making the detailed breakdown less relevant and unnecessary for users.
Iteration 2 : User-centric function alignment
We refined the interface by adding essential components and removing unnecessary features to better align with real-world use cases. This user-centered approach bridges the gap between the ideal data collection process and practical implementation, ensuring the design meets actual user needs more effectively.
Impacts
From 3 days of work to under 3 hours!
📈
improved operational efficiency during pre-launch testing
🌐
in Taiwan headquarters and overseas branches are currently implementing the solution
Looking back
A Quick Recap
Pain Points
Complicated calculation process
Specific emission factors
Excessive communication cost
Complex report protocol
Solutions
Streamlined and automated calculation workflow
Customizable emission factor library
Centralized dashboard
Report generation template
Reflection
Empower the ability to tackle social challenges through design!
As my first UX/UI design internship, my time at Advantech taught me so much, especially in research and delivering skills on a complex topic like the carbon inventory process. Over the three-month internship, I became familiar with the intricate world of enterprise energy management. One of the key skills that I developed was to adapt and learn quickly in a team. Me and my partner Tracy mapped out a clear roadmap and database from the start to track our progress and consistently aligned with the project manager. This approach helped us quickly onboard to the product development process.
One of the highlights of this experience was connecting with an amazing group of interns from diverse backgrounds. I especially enjoyed exchanging ideas with my peers and receiving feedback from different perspectives—it was one of my favorite aspects of the internship!
Overall, this was a very rewarding experience and I’m so grateful to have spend the most amazing summer at Advantech!
Want to learn more?
Request a case study
Unfortunately, I can't get into any more detail about the work I did at Advantech, as it is under NDA. If you would like to learn more, feel free to reach out to me at yujie719@uw.edu.
Next Project
HTC
