Research and Discovery

The research and discovery work began with an interview with the business owner. I used that conversation to understand the technician’s task, clarify the meaning of plant-slot statuses, identify the required inventory fields, and determine how the information needed to be structured for the app.

A key part of discovery was making the data model understandable and usable for the business owner. I taught the business owner how to create and organize the Excel spreadsheet that would serve as the inventory foundation for building the application. This connected the business need, data structure, and future user experience before the interface was designed.

Key discovery considerations included:

• How technicians currently locate plant-slot information.
• Which slot states are most important to distinguish during field work
• What “available,” “empty,” and “blank” mean operationally and how those terms should be presented.
• What information technicians need before deciding whether a site visit or follow-up action is necessary.
• Where data ambiguity, outdated information, or inconsistent terminology can create avoidable effort.
• How the experience should support both quick status checks and deeper record review.
• What users need to view, update, or manage within the inventory workflow.

The research direction was to prioritize the technician’s decision-making process: identify the relevant plant slot, understand its status, and determine the next appropriate action with as little friction as possible.

Experience strategy and customer journey

The strategy was to make the application a clear operational tool centered on plant-slot status and actionability. Rather than presenting inventory as a dense data set, the experience should help users interpret the information quickly and confidently.

The strategy was guided by five principles:

1. Status clarity: Make the difference between available, empty, and blank slots easy to understand.
2. Decision support: Surface the information needed to determine whether further investigation, travel, or action is required.
3. Field efficiency: Minimize navigation and reduce the time required to confirm a slot’s condition (active, blank, empty, or available).
4. Consistent language: Use operational terminology consistently across labels, instructions, statuses, and records.
5. Maintainable inventory: Support accurate, usable information that can be managed as plant conditions change.

This strategy connected the operational objective to the user experience: clearer information should lead to faster decisions, less rework, and fewer avoidable service impacts.

Information architecture and content structure

A significant part of the UX work was deciding how to organize plant-slot information so the most important details could be understood quickly. The experience centers the inventory record and its status, with supporting information organized around the user’s primary task.

The content structure was designed to support the following journey:

• Locate the relevant plant, site, or inventory context.
• Identify the applicable slot or group of slots.
• Understand the current status and what that status means.
• Review supporting details needed for a field decision.
• Manage or update the inventory information when appropriate.
• Leave the experience with a clear next step.

The information architecture was intended to reduce cognitive load by separating status interpretation from secondary details. The most important signal—whether a slot is available, empty, or blank—should be recognizable before the user needs to read through the full record.

The uploaded screen set shows this structure through multiple complementary views: a site-location card grid for scanning, a structured site-location table for management, a site-inventory table for detailed records, a contact-selection modal, a site-location detail modal, and an add-inventory modal for entering different inventory categories.

UX/UI design and visual system

I designed every aspect of the application experience. This included the page structure, navigation, interaction patterns, screen layouts, cards, tables, modals, status treatments, form behavior, action placement, visual hierarchy, and branded visual system. The UI design translated the operational strategy into an interface that prioritizes scan-ability, status recognition, and confidence.

The visual system helps technicians distinguish important conditions at-a-glance while still providing access to the detail needed for accurate work. The uploaded screens make the design approach visible through several reusable patterns. The design work included:

• Establishing a card-based site-location view to help users scan locations and see high-level information quickly.
• Creating a structured table view for site-location management, with filters, editable fields, status controls, and row-level actions.
• Designing a dedicated inventory table for reviewing plant and equipment records in a denser operational format.
• Creating clear visual distinctions for availability and other inventory conditions, including status labels and color treatments.
• Using modal patterns for focused tasks such as reviewing site details, selecting FEO contacts, and adding new inventory entries.
• Supporting contact workflows with selectable people, profile information, and an email action for communicating with selected contacts.
• Organizing the add-inventory experience into separate entry categories so users can enter the appropriate type of inventory record without leaving the workflow.
• Balancing operational density with readability through consistent headers, table structure, spacing, action placement, and familiar controls.
• Aligning the experience with Cox Field Engineering & Operations branding while maintaining a focused, task-oriented identity.
• Considering accessibility, contrast, readability, responsive behavior, and reusable UI patterns.

The design intent was to make the app feel dependable and efficient. For a field-support tool, visual polish is valuable only when it improves comprehension, reduces uncertainty, and helps users act.

Copywriting and content design

I owned all copywriting and content design for the application. Copywriting was an important part of the UX because inventory terminology can be technical, abbreviated, and easy to interpret differently. The language needed to be concise for field use while still explaining what each status or action means.

I wrote and refined the labels, instructions, status definitions, button text, form guidance, modal content, confirmation language, empty states, and error guidance used throughout the experience. The content-design work included:

• Naming navigation areas and inventory views.
• Defining clear labels for plant-slot states.
• Writing concise descriptions and instructions for technicians.
• Establishing consistent terminology for plant, site, slot, availability, emptiness, and blank conditions.
• Using action-oriented language for updates, management tasks, and next steps.
• Reducing ambiguity in status descriptions and supporting information.
• Designing empty states, validation messages, confirmations, and error guidance.
• Ensuring that the copy supports both experienced technicians and users who may be less familiar with the inventory process.

The result is a content model in which language functions as part of the control system. Clear labels and status explanations help users interpret records correctly and make the right operational decision.

Development and design-to-build collaboration

The development phase required translating the experience I designed, the status model I defined, and the Excel data foundation I helped establish into a working Power App. I supported the business owner through the transition from an operational need to a structured spreadsheet and then from that spreadsheet into an implemented application (Power Apps) and also created the SharePoint lists.

The design-to-build process included:

• Communicating page structures, task flows, interaction expectations, and status behavior.
• Supporting decisions about how inventory data should be displayed and managed.
• Reviewing working screens to identify gaps between the intended experience and the implementation.
• Refining layouts, labels, field visibility, status treatments, and navigation based on build realities.
• Balancing the needs of a focused field workflow with maintainability and future inventory changes.
• Ensuring the product could evolve as additional plant-slot data, use cases, or operational requirements emerged.

The UX contribution extended beyond the initial mockup. It included ongoing translation between user needs, operational rules, content, data (SharePoint), and the implemented Power App and Power Automate flow.