HIVE is a tool for PCs and Laptops that increases efficiency for UI Developers.
As a UI Developer, everyday I have multiple windows open on my computer while I work and the only way that I am able to efficiently control this is by using a monitor. The problem arises when using only my laptop for UI Development if I'm working from home or on the go. My aim was to conduct user research and conceptualize a tool that would help to solve this issue.
I know that as a UI Developer I face this challege every day when I have my four main windows open for research, design, devlelopment and tests. But I had to undertake further research to confirm that I wasn't the only UI Developer experiencing this problem. My research method consisted of User Interviews and Camera Study: user interviews to see what people did and didn't realize about their process and then camera study to analyze their processes. I conducted research with eight UI Developers who work on my team or work in a similar role outside of the company. As a few of the participants work remotely, I had them screen record their typical work process from only their laptop for one hour, as well as answering some of the following questions.
From the user interviews and camera studies I concluded these main points that were key indicators to the problem:
I needed to further investigate the last two points as they present the real problem. 100% of UI Developers believe they multi-task. But are they really multitasking or is this an assumption? And if the windows they have open are categorized by Research, Design, Development, Testing and Communication then how does their workflow really look? I went back to the screen recordings for each research participant in order to track their Interaction Flow as seen below. 90% of partipants predominately had two windows up at the one time, with a 75% focus on one of them at the one time. They "multitask" by switching between multiple windows, but they are only focused on the interaction between two screens at once. For example, they would constantly switch between their local testing environment and their code editor.
I aimed to explore all the possible solutions for that the UI Developer would use.
The actions that UI Developers undertake is clear. They pivot when shifting quickly from one set of actions to another set of relevant actions. They add in communication - communication doesnt replace a window. They spend more time on some actions over others. The following wireframes explore how users will: add their windows in the controller pivot between windows include communication as an actions focus on one window over the other in an action.
I rapidly prototyped the interaction flows in Invision to show how a user could navigate between all five options from only one tool. They will never have to close windows and resizing windows only takes one click. They can work more efficiently as they group their windows based on the action they're undertaking.
Testing is currently being undertaken with UI Developers to test whether this tool actually helps with efficiency.