Inspect Cam Assisted Reality App

2022 winner of the prestigious Cannes Lion Gold Award for Creative Business Transformation

I joined the product team after the initial design was complete.  After feedback from users, I changed the design to a more immersive experience.

My Role
UX Lead: Product Improvement

Deliverables
Wires, Mockups, Prototypes

Product Goal

Standardize the way structure photos are taken for later AI interpretation.

To allow artificial intelligence to evaluate photos for damage to electrical infrastructure, we needed a way to standardize the photos our inspectors take. 

Interviews & Field Observation

The team interviewed users, asking about their impressions of the initial design.  We also watched while they used the initial prototype.  The main things we learned:

• Inspectors can't always get close enough to take a good photo.
• They sometimes can't even see the pole or equipment at all.
• There were too many screens. "Why can't I just take the picture and go?"
  

Solution

Over several iterations of design and feedback, we made improvements that address the challenges and simplified the flow.

1.) Improving the flow

We agreed: the experience shouldn't take the user out of the camera interface.  Our nickname for the new version was AR1: "Assisted Reality First".  We went from a flow with several interstitial screens...

...to one required screen, which was the camera interface. If the user wanted to check the quality of their photo, they could do it at the end of the process, or at anytime they wanted to, instead of getting interupted after each photo.

I was able to replace the separate gallery page with thumbnail images on on the left side of the camera interface.  Tapping on any thumbnail allows the inspector to review the enlarged photo in a modal - without leaving the camera.

2.) Zoom Feature

Addressing the inability to get close enough, we added a zoom feature.

First Design: Static Zoom

At first the team used a simple, single zoom setting, on tap of the Zoom button.

But our inspectors wanted more control.

Refined Design: Variable Zoom

So we added a variable zoom.

And to save valuable screen space, it was designed such that the zoom affordance only displayed on tap of the zoom button.

The Result

We're in a constant evolution with this product.  And we're still testing some of the features. We're also still in the process of evaluating the quality of the photos.

But after using it, our inspectors found the guidance quite helpful.  

Michael Blaser

User Experience

mike@mikeblaser.com