Tomoni Power Plant Voice Assistant
CLIENT
FOCUS
ROLE
TIMEFRAME
Senior Designer
1.5 Years
UX, UI, ID
Mitsubishi Power
Project overview
MP (Mitsubishi Power) asked Vectorform to design and engineer a vision of the future for power plants across the globe. Tomoni, which means "together" in Japanese, is a device created to help plant engineers and executives interface with critical plant data. Tomoni is a voice-driven experience that lives on a detachable tablet, residing on a custom-built dock that houses speakers, microphones, and status lights. The pyramid shape of the device is influenced heavily by the MP logo, which represents the customer, society, and MP working closely together.
Challenge
Our objective with MP was to create a physical voice assistant that could be placed anywhere in a power plant setting and could easily be used by a technician with no prior knowledge of the platform. While the core of the experience would be the voice assistant, this package would need to be wrapped up in a custom hardware solution, and have a robust touch-driven interface for when voice interaction was not an option.
Solution
Tomoni is able to access digital and mechanical equipment states, conversationalize complex plant data points, fetch plant documentation and presenting it to the user, and ultimately influence the future of plant maintenance by delivering key insights and trends to those who need it most. Tomoni is the first of its kind, with ambitious plans to make it into power plants all over the world as MP continues to innovate the power plant sector.
System Architecture
User personas, research, and working sessions with the client gave us the information we needed to begin laying out the foundation of the experience. An architecture map and wireframes allowed us to quickly get our ideas down. A second team was working on laying out the voice design portion of the project. Both teams worked closely making sure voice and visual design were 1:1.
Inspiration Research
I created three mood-boards which we presented to the client. A minimal and light theme complimented an equally minimal yet dark theme. A third option was focused on a more playful approach with a colorful and bold energy, while still retaining some of the restrained and minimal trends from the first two boards. The client chose option #3.
Stylistic Exploration
Once the client had selected a preferred style, I began bringing the wireframes to life. Merging the bold colorful aesthetic, and the informationally complex app architecture, we arrived at a handful of concepts ready to present. The client made the final selection and was very happy with the results. Design iterations progressed visually below from top left to bottom right.
Plant Dashboard Interface
The dashboard serves as the main landing page of the experience. Here technicians can get a detailed look into how the power plant is operating. They can see things like the overall power output of the whole plant, and all of the individual turbines. Tapping on block cards reveals more detailed metrics on each specific turbine. Any errors or malfunctions would also be visible here.
In addition to the dashboard view, we also designed 'readings' which serve to visualize a voice request. Users can ask things like "what is the current bearing temperature in turbine 2" and be shown a reading with primary and secondary data related to the request. Users can also access weather info, settings screens, request PDF documents, and browse google search results.
Motion design
A dedication motion design sprint was scoped to bring the interface to life. UI motion, Tomoni assistant visuals, and hardware light animations all came together to give the device a sense of personality.
Tapping on a Block expands the card into a detail view with rich data points.
Error toast pops up from the bottom when a critical error occurs.
Swiping to the right reveals additional turbine data.
Micro interactions serve to prompt the user when other commands can be said.
A menu expands from the top right to reach additional system-level actions.
Setting cards expand to display nested controls.
Tapping on Blocks from the detail screen fetches new data and needs a loading state.
Creating a Scalable System
A design system was created to organize assets, make it easier to build comps, and align with developers for a smooth handoff transition. Everything was meticulously organized and documented, and all components and screens were made from symbols that were pulled from a global library file. Future designers will be able to pick up the system and easily create new designs for future phases.
Dock Design
Early in the design process, the client had the request that the dock should bear a resemblance to the Tomoni logo (3 sided pyramid). With this constraint in mind, I set out designing rough iterative concepts, creating scale mockups, testing ergonomics with the screen recline angle, and modeling the final concept in Fusion360. The final design featured an LED ring around the base paired with an apex light. Both lights were used in conjunction to signal device status and voice feedback. Inside the dock, there is a microphone array, a powerful speaker, and some advanced tech that was brought to life by our talented hardware team. The removable tablet docks to the base through a magnetic charging mechanism and can be remotely operated away from the dock.
Outcomes and lessons learned
By the end of the engagement with this client, we had successfully built 10 functional Tomoni units. These v1 devices are in power plants being used, tested, and gaining valuable feedback from plant technicians.
Throughout the year and a half of working with MP, many valuable lessons were learned. Lessons like including how to interface with power plant data architecture, and what it means to form a partnership with a product development team that specialized in manufacturing prototype designs. Tomoni is the first of its kind, with ambitious plans to make it into power plants all over the world as MP continues to innovate the power plant sector for years to come.