Discovery: SID
For introductory information about the Discovery Project, go to Ansys Discovery: UX Manager. For the information about my role as a designer for the Discovery Project, go to Ansys Discovery: UX Design.
In many Ansys products, a “simulation” represents a single definition of a problem that the user wants to solve for using the software. An example of a simulation would be defining the material used for a picture hook that is nailed into a wall, and creating the loads that present the wall supporting the hook, and the weight of the picture the hook is holding up. Many of our products support the definitions of multiple simulations within a single session, with the user having the ability (thought it depends on the product) to share information between these simulation instances.
Research on our customers using previous products indicated a general understanding of the Simulation concept, but there was a desire to provide a visual summary of what the simulation is solving, so the user wouldn’t be confronted with the details of the simulation all of the time. The determination was that the space could be saved by providing this visual summary for the users, along with the ability for them to get more detail about the Simulation if desired.
From this initial idea, requirements were further developed to determine what type of information should be included. At a minimum, this display needed to show the user the
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The physics type used to solve the problem (e.g. fluid dynamics or structural mechanics)
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The way the simulation is calculated (e.g. a time-based problem or a steady-static problem)
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The Simulation name
Also, there was an interest to attempt the use of hexagonal shapes for the components of the control, to create a unique control. From this foundation, initial ideas were generated by a designer before I became directly involved as a designer.
Upon reviewing those designs, I discussed additional requirements and learned of a desire to incorporate additional information: simulation steps and design variations. The former represented a way to divide a simulation into sub-steps (e.g. simulation the process of tightening bolts on a structure, with each sub-step representing the tightening of an individual bolt) and the later a way to explore changes of a specific property/characteristic (e.g. the magnitude of a force) defined in a simulation. We also discussed that users wanted to have an overall idea of the status of their simulation, for example does my simulation currently have a problem that is preventing it from getting solved, and once a simulation solve began, to show the user the overall progress.
Above are image of some of the first explorations of the idea, trying to incorporate the agreed upon design requirements
After sharing some initial ideas, with stakeholders, I received feedback that we we also needed to consider how users would receive notifications and messages related to their simulation from the system. My next set of brainstorming included imagining different ways to represent the status and progress information to the user.
Above are images of the SID after incorporating access to notifications, which shares the same hexagon as the status information. Progress is illustrated through the outline around the middle hexagon.
At this point the requirements didn’t change, but I went through a number of iterations of various ideas, making tweaks based on feedback from stakeholders, which included other designers, product managers, development leads, developers, testers, and documentation specialists.
Exploring placing the physics icons in the same position, like a dashboard
Above are images of the SID where the central hexagon containing the icons representing the physics used in the simulation has been changed to a larger hexagon rather than just a wider one. During these iterations the Variations and Step panels are revised with a different look.
As I continued to collect feedback from the stakeholders, it was clear to me that the design concept had a lot of support to move forward. The next step was to focus on determining the details of the layout and interactions, particularly for opening up the panels from the SID.
The above images show the breakdown of the different components of the SID control
The above image gives details the interaction design for opening the notifications panel in the SID
The above image gives more details the interaction design for opening the notifications panel in the SID
I could have continued iterating through ideas, but we came to the conclusion that design had received enough feedback buy-in from the appropriate stakeholders, that we should start to implement the design to see how it would work within the Discovery environment. Before we did this, we presented the design to a larger group of stakeholders, including internal proxy users, to get additional buy-in and make sure there wasn't anything we overlooked before the development work began.
From this point forward, I worked closely with the development team, receiving constant updates about the progress of the control, which allowed me to further modify the design based on new technical challenges and/or limitations to the design that we only identified once the implementation began.
At this point, I worked with the developer and testers to validate the behavior, which then led me to the next step of working closely with the Discovery developers to integrate the SID control that was built into the Discovery product to represent the simulation that a user would create.
Above are screenshots from our Test Harness that show the implemented SID control that was then brought into the Discovery product
Once the SID control was integrated into Discovery, and was given a dedicated portion of the interface, we considered the potential of utilizing the SID control and/or the close vicinity to incorporate additional widgets and components we were designing for Discovery. We continuously weighed the pros and cons of exposing additional features in this area, and incorporated new features only when we saw a clear benefit for the user. A few of the these components that were embedded into the SID were the
We felt the design of the SID was in a very good place to enhance the experience for Discovery users in our first release in July 2020, but we still listen for feedback from customers and stakeholders to look for ways to improve the SID.
The above screenshot showing the SID control implemented in the Discovery product, showing that
Simulation 1 is a structural simulation in a "ready" state
The above screenshot shows the SID control with Simulation 1 in an error state, with the
messages flyout/panel open to show the user error/warning/informational messages
The above screenshot shows another panel opening from the SID control allowing
the user to toggle on/off a couple of settings for Simulation 1