Customer: Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC), United States Space Force
Project Description: Workflow collaboration and management ecosystem with relational database and flat directory structure. Highlights include drag-and-drop modular interface.
My role: UX Designer, frontend developer, lastly promoted to Scrum product owner and then Technical Project Lead over the course of a couple of years.
ATHENA was my baby. This project started as a model repository for SWAC. I expanded the concept to a cloud repository of knowledge, with a strict version control system that was designed to solve The SharePoint Problem: multiple file versions, duplicated everywhere.
I designed the interface to be customizable and role-based, massively user-centric, and shareable. The user experience was informed by interviews with wargaming experts, space weather analysts, electromagnetic warfare subject matter experts, and more; it was also based on the everyday frustrations of the modern office worker, plagued by file sharing and tedium.
Developed features:
Home page with horizontally scrolling carousels, multiple navigation routes, site-wide search, and parallax vertical scrolling
Create Project launcher dialog with ability to build Work Groups, the foundational feature for more complex collaboration
Work Group management
Drag-and-drop user interface with a builder template on the left and workspace on the right, loading palettes of different database types
Models landing page with search and filter features
Undeveloped concept designs:
Messages grouped by context of project
Messages imported into a project as a palette in the workspace
Search and collect artifacts of different database types
Analysis of Alternatives user's home page screen
Above: Yes, I also produced this video, start to finish, and designed that logo.
Above: My concept for in-app collaboration for complex, multi-step, and sensitive teamed projects: Builders, Workspaces, and Working Groups.
I brought the concept of workspaces to ATHENA because they are one of my favorite features of creative software suites. I expanded the concept to become contextual for highly specialized roles. In my vision, Workspaces are a way to onboard new people to roles, especially when a SME (Subject Matter Expert) has created a custom workspace to perform a very structured task, which is common in highly scientific or military operations where a lot can go wrong.
Space operations in particular require very specific tasks to be completed, so Builders and Workspaces, designed to meet exacting requirements, are a good way to ensure accuracy, safety, and efficiency.
Or, in my example (wargames and Analysis of Alternatives exercises), save taxpayer money by streamlining a lot of steps.
Above: Tracing the data through a relational database be looking like...
