Case study · Enterprise device management

WCD Platform

A cloud console for IT teams to update, manage and monitor every display, without walking to the room.

Client

Sharp

Product

Cloud management console

Focus

Features, IA, UI, illustration

Year

2019

Tablet on a dark desk showing an organization page with two blue display tiles
Overview

The platform, built under the name Nimble, lets admins and IT technicians control WCD displays through the cloud: remote updates, device management and device metrics.

It runs on Microsoft Azure managed services, so the team never had to run servers. Huy worked with a UX designer, a content strategist, a product manager and two developers, from feature list to final UI.

Challenge

Different people come to the same console for different jobs. Each type of user had to find their task fast, with the first release limited to what the team could build.

What we did
  • 01Defined features from research with UX and product
  • 02Prioritised three modules for the first release
  • 03Wireframed and set the information architecture
  • 04Designed the interface for desktop and tablet
  • 05Drew the illustrations
  • 06Animated the prototypes
Product designEnterprise UXInformation architectureIllustration

Three modules, one console.

Scope at a glance
3Core modules: organization, account and device management
6People in the product team
0Servers to run, thanks to Azure managed services

Scope as described in the case on phamhuyds.com.

Organization & devices

Every room on one map.

An organization page shows locations on a map and the displays in each room. Open one to see its status, apps and usage, and act on it from there.

Tablet showing a device page with a location map and installed apps

Device page: where it is, what runs on it, how it is used.

Hands on a laptop showing the device usage chart, with two more laptops beside it

Desk and hand

Same console, laptop or tablet.

The layout holds from a laptop at a desk to a tablet in hand, so a technician can check a display while standing next to it.

Grid of console screens: organization, device, apps and invite dialogs
Tablet with keyboard in an office showing a device page
Hands holding a tablet with the device usage view
Laptop on a lap showing the member list

Account management: members, roles and invites.

Components

Plain parts, clear status.

Buttons, inputs, tags and status colours were built once and reused across all three modules, so a new screen was mostly assembly.

Remote update

Update every room without walking to one.

Pick the displays, push the update, watch each one move from queued to done. Offline devices wait and retry when they come back.

Try the pattern

Browser sketch of the remote-update pattern. Device names are made up.

Silhouetted hand tapping a tablet showing the console

Impact

The quiet half of an award-winning product.

The console shipped alongside the WCD display, which went on to win two awards at ISE 2019.

Three colleagues laughing around a tablet at a café table
01

Updates without site visits

Updates, settings and health checks happen from the console, not in the room.

02

One console, many roles

Organization, account and device views give each type of user their own way in.

03

Shipped with the display

Part of the WCD launch at ISE, InfoComm, Computex and Microsoft Ignite.

04

Ready to extend

Shared components across all three modules made new screens fast to add.

Credits

Designed by Huy Pham as product designer at Soda Labs in Taipei, before founding PHAXIS Lab.

UI, IA & illustration

Huy Pham

Prototype motion

Huy Pham

UX & product

UX designer, product manager

Content

Content strategist

Engineering

Front-end and back-end developers

Cloud

Microsoft Azure

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