Drill Application Design 2015

Products : In-cab Drill control and monitoring application (Terrain for Drilling) and autonomous multi-drill application (Command for Drilling)

Audience : Drill operators (ex: MD6250) in various context

  • In-cab Operator (user control the drill from the cab)
  • Remote Controlled (remote control drilling for hazardous context)
  • Semi Autonomous (single row drilling program)
  • Fully Autonomous (full grid drilling program with site awareness)

User-Centred Design Process

  1. Heuristic evaluation of legacy system
  2. In Situ expert interviews and cognitive task analysis
  3. Card sorting, dotmocracy and design thinking workshops
  4. UX community of practice (for consistent ecosystem app)
  5. User tests (tasked-based user test conducted by fellow)

User Research

Key findings : operators look out the window, they feel and hear the machine more than they look at the display. We translate this by creating bolder gauges, visible in the peripherals. Based on the rock hardness, we added different bit animation to mimic the vibrations.

User Journey Map
Remote operator MVP in action

Additional Research: in-context gauge usability audit

cat-gauges-benchmark

Early Design Concept

Drill animation provides pseudo-sensory feedback for remote operator familiar with the noise and vibration of the machine.

Tile layout allow focus for different task and prominent views.

What is Drilling?

This video demonstrate a HIL simulator (hardware in the loop) and the view from a supervisor station selecting a hole series to perform drilling semi-autonomously. A real drill moves to the hole location, setup the jack and start drilling.

“We didn’t know how much we needed UX and UCD before we worked with JP. He opened our mind to a different way of developing our product with the user at the heart of everything.”

– Eric Alarie, Engineering Manager at Caterpillar

Learn more on Caterpillar’s website