Redesign the experience of deploying AI/ML models
Edge Impulse is the leading development platform for machine learning on edge devices. The AI Platform helps developers build, train and optimize AI models easily.
All the content shown here designed by me, unless otherwise noted.
OVERVIEW
100,000+ Users, 25% time reduced deploying ML models to edge devices.
Launched version
CONTEXT
Edge Impulse, the developer-first edge ML platform.
Edge Impulse is the leading platform for developing machine learning models for edge devices. Their AI Platform enables developers to build, train, and optimize models. The platform is commonly used for data analysis with sensors, object detection in images, and audio classification.
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How does my iPhone recognize my cat miso via Edge Impulse?
This is Miso🐱, Detected and recognized as cat through my iPhone’s camera via Edge Impulse AI Platform. Here is how I did it in four steps: 1. Data Collection: I collected 50 pictures of Miso. 2. Design & Labeling: I used a pre-programmed object detection model and customized it, then labeled the cat pictures so the model could learn. 3. Train & Test: I trained and tested the model to ensure it correctly recognized all the cat pictures. 4. Deployment: I deployed the model to my phone, launched it in the browser, and used the iPhone camera to detect Miso.
RESEARCH
What’s not working with the current deployment flow?
After extensive interviews and research with users, engineers, and designers, I identified two main issues with the current deployment flow:
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Problem 01 - Lack of clear messaging
The deployment page lacked messaging to indicate that users could work with any hardware. Many users believed we only supported the small number of boards listed, since those were the only ones shown.
Problem 2 - Unclear “call to actions” in option selection feature
In some cases, users had difficulty understanding what they needed to select on the deployment page for their use case. This caused users to spend extra time deploying.
How might we redesign the deployment process to clearly guide our users and reduce time deploying to devices?
To address these issues, we aimed to accomplish four main goals with the redesign: 1. Clearly communicate the most relevant deployment options for each user's project. 2. Prioritize options based on project specifics and popular deployments. 3. Reduce overall options to minimize information overload. 4. Clearly explain any logic not readily apparent to users.
DESIGN
Approach 1 - Introducing hierarchy into deployment flow
Rather than having one long page for deployment, I separated the process into two pages to be completed step-by-step. This maintained the original user flow while preventing the deployment page from becoming overwhelmingly long. The new two-page concept provides users more flexibility to go back and forth and make adjustments easily.
Approach 2 - New ways to display device list
The original device list had too many call-to-action options which is overwhelming. With no guidance on which option to select, users were confused. The new design features a scrollable device list, search capability, and recommendations to assist new users.
PROTOTYPE
First round prototype
After multiple discussions with my mentor, the product director, and engineering teams, I created an interactive prototype within one week showcasing the two-page deployment flow. This prototype integrated all the redesigned features and allowed us to begin rapid testing sessions.
EVALUATION
What’s changed after rounds of user testings?
The answer is a lot! We made many iterations after the first round of prototyping, tweaking everything from flow issues to wording changes to interface redesigns. Here are two of the most important changes:
Iteration 1 - Rollback to the original version
The EON turner was one of our newest, highlighted features for optimizing the user's deployment experience. However, during testing we discovered users stopped playing with it because they thought it was an informational board, not something interactive. Thus, we reverted to the original, more interactive design. After that change, testing results improved - users began utilizing the EON turner again during deployment.
Iteration 2 - Still too much choices for users
The redesigned device list still had three main categories for users to choose from. Based on testing insights, users were still confused or spent extra time testing different options. As a result, we made another change - removing the three categories and providing only one search bar. With this, users can find everything they need in one list, whether searching for a board or library, streamlining the process.
Process through the journey of redesign
In closing, I'd like to give an overview of the end-to-end redesign process I went through. I had the opportunity to start from the very beginning with research and ideation, conduct rapid user testing on prototypes, and ultimately hand off final design specifications to our engineering team for implementation. This comprehensive experience allowed me to understand the full product development cycle.
IMPACT
25% deployment time reduced. Impacted 100,000+ users and 300,000+ projects. The overall average deployment time was reduced from 2 min to 1.5 min.
TAKEAWAY
Communication, Communication, Communication
Our product is a very complex platform with enterprise users, yet trusted by many individual developers. While facing various stakeholders, I realize that trying to satisfy every one is an impossible task😞. Thus, I learned to communicate, negotiate, understand the priority level of each need, then design multiple solutions, test them, and find one that works...for the time being.
Embrace the Imperfect
I have always wanted to craft a perfect product. However, I learned that in a fast-paced, growing startup, launching a product is much more important than spending time crafting a so-called "perfect product." There is no such thing as a perfect product, but a practical launched product with 10+ iterations and new versions incoming to fulfill user needs and reach short tranquility. (of course, the next round of revisions is always on the way.)
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