THE PROBLEM
Client / Schneider Electric
Industry / IoT Device Management
Team / UX, Product, Engineering
Platform / Desktop
Role / UX Designer
Tools / Figma
Framework / .NET & Azure
Timeline / 3 months
MY ROLE
Led UX research and design for EcoStruxure subscription management — from activation mapping through wireframes and final UI.
WHAT I OWNED
Full scope — activation complexity mapping, subscription purchase logic, workflow dependency visualization, card-sort research, wireframes, development alignment, and final UI design for the subscription management interface.
HOW I WORKED
EcoStruxure runs on .NET Framework and Azure IoT infrastructure — the SmartConnector middleware layer handles subscription logic and feature activation in C# and .NET. I worked directly with engineering to understand how the backend model surfaced in the UI, so design specs accounted for real activation behavior, not assumed behavior. That alignment prevented logic gaps between design and build.
THE CONSTRAINT
Subscription features had hidden dependencies — one activation could silently affect others. The UI had to surface that complexity without overwhelming the user.
THE CORE TENSION
No one knew what their organization had, what had expired, or how to get more.
Subscription modules were scattered with no central place to see what was active, what was shared, and what needed renewal. Purchasing and updating lived in different places. The system knew. The users didn't.
RESEARCH OUTPUT - USER PERSONAS
Personas built from direct customer research.
Tomo and William weren't defined upfront — they emerged from interviews and workflow observations with Schneider customers recruited through internal Schneider channels. I led recruitment coordination with the Schneider team to ensure we observed real activation and renewal moments, not recalled ones. Facilities managers and maintenance technicians observed directly as they subscribed to new modules and managed existing ones — giving product and engineering a shared customer model before any design decisions were made.
RESEARCH - DISCOVERY ARTIFACTS
Mapping the problem before designing the solution.
Five artifacts produced directly from customer interviews and workflow observation sessions with Schneider facilities managers and maintenance technicians.
ARTIFACT 01 Field inquiry sketch
How activation actually worked — drawn in the field.
Customers had to manually copy a Subscription ID from an email into a field inside EEO. No customer discovered this on their own — every participant required explicit guidance to complete the step.
KEY FINDINGS
Customers had to manually copy a Subscription ID from an email into a field inside EEO. No customer discovered this on their own — every participant required explicit guidance to complete the step.
ARTIFACT 02 Module awareness process map
How users discovered new modules — and where the flow broke.
The new module awareness flow mapped the front-end and back-end touchpoints from login through to activation. The map revealed that the notification trigger existed in the back-end but had no corresponding front-end action that users could follow without guidance.
KEY FINDINGS
Users received a "New Module" notification but had no clear path to act on it. Discovery and purchase were separated across systems with no unified flow connecting them.
ARTIFACT 03 Service blueprint
The full activation journey mapped across every touchpoint.
The service blueprint documented user journeys, frontstage actions, and backstage system dependencies across the SE website, email messages, and the EEO platform. Three distinct user journey entry points mapped — each one revealing where users got lost or dropped off.
KEY FINDINGS
No single touchpoint owned the full activation experience. Users were expected to navigate between the SE website, email, and EEO with no handoff guidance between any of them.
ARTIFACT 04 Account activation flow
Tomo purchases two bundles and activates them for the first time.
Process map showing what happens immediately after Tomo purchases Bundle A and Bundle B and logs into Mindt for the first time. A modal surfaces the subscriptions purchased — each bundle with its modules listed and an Activate button. A confirmation dialog asks Tomo to confirm before activating for the Mindt Choc account.
KEY FINDINGS
Even the simplest activation scenario — one user, one account, two bundles — required a confirmation step that no customer knew to expect. The mechanism (modal vs inline) was still an open question during research.
Tomo switches accounts — Bundle A already activated, Bundle B available for a new account.
The same subscriptions purchased modal, but now Tomo is logged into the BurgerKing account. Bundle A shows as already activated for Mindt — greyed out. Bundle B can be activated for the Burger King account. A new Activation ID is generated. This is the multi-account complexity that was completely invisible in the existing UI and the root cause of most activation failures observed in research.
KEY FINDINGS
Customers managing multiple accounts had no way to see which bundles were already activated, for which account, or whether a new activation was possible. Every multi-account customer encountered this as a failure — not a feature.
DESIGN - ITERATIONS
Five iterations. Each one shaped by research.
Every design iteration started from a specific finding from customer interviews and workflow observations. I reviewed iteration outcomes with product and engineering at each stage — research-influenced improvements called out explicitly so decisions were traceable, not assumed. Nothing moved forward without team alignment on what changed and why.
ITERATION 01 Module Management & Retention
ITERATION 02 Upgrades and Module Discovery
ITERATION 03 Subscription Status
ITERATION 04 Subscriptions & Module Detail
ITERATION 05 Final Module List with Color Coding
OUTCOMES
A legible subscription management experience — built on a fully mapped activation model and validated against real user needs.
Full activation model documented
The first complete map of EcoStruxure's subscription logic, shared across design, product, and engineering as a single source of truth. Decisions that previously required back-and-forth with engineering could be made directly from the model.
Clear subscription visibility interface
Users could see what they owned, what was active, and what was shared without needing to understand the underlying .NET activation logic. Subscription confusion eliminated at the point of interaction, reducing support burden and renewal friction.
Module discovery moved in-app
Users no longer leave the platform to find and activate modules. Suggested and available modules surface directly in the subscription workflow — eliminating the broken handoff to a separate external interface that interrupted every upgrade decision.
Expiration surfaced before failure
Subscription expiration dates and "Expires Soon" warning states are visible in context — at the point where users manage modules, not discovered after access is already lost. Technicians see what's expiring, when, and can act before it affects the job.
PROJECT GALLERY
From activation complexity mapping to legible subscription UI
Subscription Activation
ID Entry Modal
Billing Tab Invoice History & Order Tracking
Modules Tab Status, Expiration & Utilization at a Glance
Final UI — Modules Tab with Activation State
Final UI — Upgrades Tab & Module Marketplace
Final UI — Billing Tab with Invoice History
What I'd do differently
Run the card interviews before completing the activation logic map. Mapping the technical model first was necessary for credibility, but the research revealed users had different mental models for concepts I'd already designed around. Running both in parallel would have let user language shape the map from the start.