Plugin + Website
Crown: Designing for autonomy at the intersection of digital and physical interaction
roles
UX Designer
Interaction Designer
tools
Figma
Figma AI
team
5 Interaction/UX Designers
2 Software Engineers
Me
overview
Interaction design + building user trust in new fields
In my 14 weeks at Crown, I worked with each part of an adaptive design process: creating user journey maps in Figjam, designing screens in Figma, researching interaction patterns for semi-/autonomous vehicles (AGVs), user testing for design systems, developing UX for multimodal communication, and anticipating error states.
Due to Crown's NDA policies on ongoing projects, I am able to provide a brief overview of my work below.
Context
Business Context and Aligned Design Goals
The intent of UX in this role flipped my typical design goals-- I didn't design to hold attention, but to deliver information succinctly, for minimal attention and operator safety.
There are no existing models of what autonomy looks like quite yet in design— how do I design without an established precedent? This was one of the most exciting challenges to understand during my time here.
1
Crown is a top 5 materials handling corporation in the world, based in US, Germany, China, Australia, and Singapore. We're over 86 years old.
2
Primary clients are Amazon, Walmart, Target, Pepsico, Costco, + more!
3
Forklifts have double the fatality rate cars do. Unlike cars, forklift users rely heavily on operator signaling in addition to the vehicle's lights and signals. So how can we design for a shift to autonomous systems without relying on this human operator?
Primary Work Summary
Figma-ing for autonomy, design systems, and new products!
A brief summary of what I did as an interaction and UX designer, anticipating use cases and designing to build trust between the physical + digital world:
1
Designed screens for autonomy in vehicles, anticipating where trust may break between users + AGVs
2
User journey mapped for edge cases in autonomy in vehicles, mapping out interactions in imperfect scenarios
3
Design system component library audits + restructuring, increasing efficiency by 15%, eliminating the need to detach components, and reducing component bloat by 37%
4
Developing animated UI for multimodal communication and error states, merging several different systems to follow a new standard paradigm
5
Researched AI methods for weekly meets + to share in team practice, developing several Figma AI plugins to assist with documentation and editing
If you'd like to learn more, reach out to me at joanaliuj@gmail.com to talk! :)
Hear From People I Worked With
Some Kind Words!
Special thanks to my team + manager, Justin! As I worked on several projects, I partnered with Industrial designers, Software Engineers, other Interaction Designers, and had several opportunities to share findings with upper management.
"Joana proved to have a thorough understanding of each project we gave her - the technology, the business objectives, the most suitable tools for the tasks, skillful prioritization of features and information architecture, a seemingly innate ability to understand the users’ needs and contexts, along with her enthusiastic, charismatic, and fact-backed way of communicating from peers to upper leadership. Can’t say enough good things about her. I would hire her back in a heartbeat!"
Justin Montan
Interaction Designer (My Manager)
“She immersed herself and adapted to designing for automation remarkably quickly. She showed a clear depth of understanding of the context she was designing for and communicated design intent very effectively. She exceeded expectations. Her work was fantastic; her process showed a strong understanding of appropriateness and rigor. She has a fantastic work ethic as well.”
Paul Magee
Head of Advanced & Emerging Technologies Department
Reflection
Designing for trust
Designing for interaction required me to think in systems and context before any button: what context would the operator work in? What dangers could there possibly be? What would their core goals be? Everything— physical, digital, or AI, boils down to creating structures to build trust.
It was fascinating to dive into designing a field I had no prior knowledge of, be it machines without human operators or forklifts :). It was incredible to observe how tackling the base components all the way up to screens illustrates how trust flows throughout an ecosystem.
