Connected
Laundry
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Project TItle
Experience Design to optimize laundry interface and its interaction with branded App.
Project Overview
Business & Products
The project aims to expand the business by integrating the Smart Access Ecosystem and Products. This involves redesigning the premium Whirlpool and Maytag Top Load HMI and its connected features with the branded Apps, targeting the North American market while also exploring global expansion opportunities.
Purpose
The goal is to creates an intuitive and cost-effective experience by refreshing the Top Load Laundry premium-lineup HMIs and key interactive components, connecting the physical HMI with mobile app features.
Users & Aundience
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Households mainly responsible for laundry responsibilities in North America (Canada, the United States, Mexico).
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Executive leadership team and the board of directors.
COnstraints
Technical
Capability
Safety & Legal
Requirements
Marketing Feature Requirement
Design Project Communication
Stakeholder
Management
MY RESPONSIBILITY
As the Product UX Designer and Usability Researcher assigned to the project, I took the main role in the below tasks:
Team Leadership
& Strategy
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Directed UX strategy by synthesizing user and business needs into actionable design roadmaps for global categories.
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Managed end-to-end delivery of all UX artifacts, ensuring high-quality handoffs were executed in scope and on schedule.
Process & Innovation
Cross-Functional Collaboration
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Established methodological rigor through scalable research protocols and workshops that accelerated innovation cycles.
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Optimized interaction quality by developing standardized design patterns for complex hardware and software platforms.
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Orchestrated strategic alignment between engineering, product, and marketing to unify goals across matrixed teams.
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Facilitated synchronization to evaluate ecosystem impact and ensure seamless execution from concept to global launch.
Stakeholder
Managerment
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Influenced stakeholders across organizations by translating research into strategic recommendations that secured project buy-in.
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Partnered with executive leadership to communicate design strategy, driving user-informed decision-making for long-term roadmaps.
DESIGN PROCESS
Iteration
Objectives
& Scope
Define & Ideate
Cross-team
Collaboration
Iteration
Design &
Prototype
Launch
Cross-team
Collaboration
Impact & Measurable Results
Test &
Deliver
Discovery & Research
UX Deliverables
The deliverables can be categorized into four groups as follows:
Strategic alignment between engineering, product, and marketing.
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Project Management: Project planning, stakeholder management and budget alignment
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User Journey Map: Visualizations of the smart access ecosystem, showing how hardware, software, and services interact across the user journey.
1. ObjectiveS & Scope
A: Business Needs
At the request of the stakeholders, the project was initiated to specifically meet the following business needs.
1
Enhancing Development Efficiency
The team is required to develop two separate HMI hardware using the same software to optimize cost and time efficiency
2
Drive Connected Product Adoption
Leveraging latest BLE connectivity technology to create seamless interactions between the mobile app and the product HMI. Developing a connected appliance framework for future data updating and utilization
3
Activate Global Business Advantages
Allow global marketing access for additional regional production capabilities.
Enable multi-languages application for product software updates.
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B: Project Scoping Workshops
To align with the broader roadmap and identify the project plan, scope, constraints, resources, and other relevant details, we organized and actively participated in multiple collaborative workshops with both internal and external stakeholders.
Marketing Strategy
Platform Roadmap
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Industrial Trends
Consumer Insights
Technology Roadmap
Design Guidelines
We’ve clarified the Project Objectives as follows:
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Design the HMI for the TopLoad Premium Lineup of both Whirlpool and Maytag (Washer & Dryer pairs).
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Integrate the connectivity and interactions between the products and the branded app
With the project objective communicated to the UX team and leadership, we can now focus on the design strategy, resources planning and the next steps.
C: Scope Challenge and Proposed Solution
After the workshop discussions, I organized a meeting to share information with the UX design team and leadership. I identified the challenge for the project and shared the hypothesis to streamline the UX project development, communication, and handoffs.
CHALLENGE
Based on the project development process, hardware development follows the Waterfall process, while software development employs Agile. This difference in methodologies can make it difficult to streamline deliverables and maintain effective stakeholder communication during the design phase.
PROPOSED SOLUTION
I have requested the necessary resources and collaborated with leadership to establish a “Milestone-Sync” development framework.
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Integrated Roadmapping
Align software “Epics” with hardware “Gates” to finalize the user interface before the hardware freezes.
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Tiered Design System
Develop a sprint plan with the development team, setting strict specifications for hardware-dependent elements while ensuring the software features’ flexibility.
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Dual-Track Communication
Pair the Design & Project steering meetings with daily stand-ups to bridge long-term and agile goals.
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Research Plan SYNC with Development Progress
Handoff the research plan to the development team and collaborate with stakeholders to build and test the prototype from low fidelity with customers, minimizing development timeline impact while ensuring UX design quality.
With leadership alignment on the hypothesis and project success criteria, the team move into the next phase.
2. Discovery & Research
A: Competitive Analysis
Technology Roadmap
Industrial
Trend
Marketing
Strategy
We conducted the Competitive Research focused on analyzing user preferences regarding competitor products. By leveraging data that aligns with Industry Trends, Marketing Strategy and the Technology Roadmap from project partners, we were able to refine our design directions.
B: User Persona and Mental Model
Through the analysis of research data and user personas, our team obtained valuable insights to strategically distinguish the experiences for Whirlpool and Maytag brands.
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We have assessed and aligned the user interaction mental model using relevant data, ensuring that each aspect aligns with the brand's marketing strategy and user preferences.
C: User Problem Identification
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Consumer Laundry Room
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Laundry User Journey
Primary Design Focused Area
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Laundry Room Renovation Trend
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Product Ratings and Service Call Center Data
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Through the analysis of current data on the laundry machine HMI usage environment, user journeys, and user feedback on key use cases we have identified both pain points and design directions.
Pain Points
Lack of organizing information makes it visually crusted
Design Direction
Left-to-Right navigation, clear information hierarchy and logic
Complicated - sometimes need to read manual to know how to use (Product HMI)
Straightforward interaction indication and feature name
Unclear touch zone that leads to misinterpretation of programs (Product HMI)
Utilizing material, form and graphics to provide clear touch target on the interface
Inconvenient to monitor and control the machine remotely (Product & App HMI)
Provide consistency among different hardware & software interfaces. Integrate smart technology to enable automated interactions.
The settings are not easy to read (Product HMI)
Improve visibility and accessibility of the HMI regardless the laundry usage environment
3. Define & Ideate
Through the analysis of current data on the laundry machine HMI usage environment, user journeys, and user feedback on key use cases we have identified both pain points and design directions.
A: Hardware Development
Comply with the defined Interaction Principles.
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Utilize the Ergonomic & Technical Interaction Design Requirement
Collaborate with Industrial Design, Graphic Design, Brand Design, CMF Design, as well as the external design stakeholders to IDEATE and REFINE the hardware design.
