Dennis Crothers is a Product Designer based in San Francisco.
PurView
information architecture, wireframes, interaction and visual design, data visualization, user testing
UL's PurView Platform enables companies to share information about products, materials and suppliers up and down the supply chain. Purchasers can convey their specifications to manufacturers while manufacturers can optimize their products to better meet purchaser requirements. PurView brings everyone along the supply chain together — easing the flow of information and accelerating the development of more sustainable products.
CLIENTS:
Scaleable Platform Design
Customizable dashboards were designed to give different users, from managers to data entry persons, direct access to the data they needed. Data visualization was utilized in summarizing complex, multi-faceted views, while allowing users to dive deeper into areas where they needed greater understanding.
Product data, from chemical ingredients to information about the packaging process, was entered by various partners along the supply chain. Tools were designed to allow many-to-many relationships between these users and a client's products.
Managers could view scores across their entire product catalog.
Client Solutions
The PurView Platform was designed with infinite flexibility in mind. We often worked with a range clients , from retailers to suppliers to organizations, who had specific needs — safety, sustainability, healthfulness, environmental impact, ethical standards, ingredient transparency.
This tool for McDonald’s, analyzed Happy Meal toy components, materials and chemicals, from a myriad of suppliers, to pinpoint breakdowns along the supply chain.
PurView provided CVS with high level reporting on which brands were passing or failing industry standards — and why.
Method requested a tool and visualization to score ingredients against their own standard for health, environment toxicity and sustainability.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) requested software for fashion designers to compare clothing designs, and their fabrics and materials, against various metrics.
UX Process
Concept maps were integral in visualizing the PurView platform's flexibility and the relationships between entities. These visualizations helped reel in any complexity, providing a clear communication tool between UX, product managers, subject matter experts and engineers.
Concept map designed for PurView. (PDF)
User stories were used to document the various roles — from purchasers to managers, from retailers to suppliers — and each of their needs. Building a platform for this many roles required identifying commonalities, deviations, and prioritizing user stories.
Userflow diagrams were created for all userflows, providing guidance for UI wireframes and engineering requirements. These were helpful tools in discovering unpredicted corner cases, identifying all points of validation, as well as providing a map for iterative product releases.
Sitemap developed for PurView. (PDF)
Userflow designed for batch editing products. (PDF)
Data Visualization
Dozens of data visualization patterns were explored for various features of PurView, or for different clients. Often times, a data set was charted in more than one way — allowing users to get a comprehensive picture, not only understanding the story that we were trying to tell, but also being able to possibly compare data in ways that we hadn't expected.
Selection of data visualization explorations for PurView.