System concept
William
I create the system concept and make sure every required component is specified correctly.
Case study · 03
Configuration, in three steps.
The client’s Configuration Tool, rebuilt as a guided engineering workflow. Engineers configure a full Cartesian handling system — CAD model, commissioning file, and net price — in about 20 minutes.
Redrawn for confidentiality
20min
Application data to full configuration
3
Steps, start to order
~65%
Shorter design-to-delivery cycle
01 / What the tool does
One guided workflow, three steps.
The tool configures complete Cartesian handling systems — single-axis, 2D gantry, planar, and 3D gantry. The flow is built around three steps, and it can produce a configuration, CAD model, commissioning file, and net price in about 20 minutes.
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01
Enter application data
Describe the task — working space, payload, environment.
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02
Review system suggestions
The tool returns suitable systems to compare and refine.
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03
Configure & order
Configure the chosen solution — then order it, CAD and price included.
Systems it configures
- Single-axis
- 2D gantry
- Planar
- 3D gantry
02 / The challenge
An important tool that felt like hard work.
It was a critical engineering tool, but the experience was dense, dated, and hard to navigate. People worked through a complex configurator with little feedback and a layout that never made the process feel approachable.
At the same time, the tool had to fit inside a larger System Configuration environment — which raised the bar for consistency, structure, and scale.
01
Make a dense configurator feel guided.
02
Do it without losing the depth engineers rely on.
The old tool
03 / Research
How other configurators tame complexity.
I studied industrial configurators to see how they guide users through technical decisions.
Emerson stood out: a simplified flow and a visual motion representation let users make precise choices with less effort. That shaped the tool’s direction — more guidance, a clearer flow, better decision support for technical users.
04 / Personas
Two engineers, two jobs.
The tool serves different responsibilities along the configuration journey. The redesign had to support both without making the tool more complex.
Detailed planning
Henry
I work out the detail and build the full product list, ready for purchase.
05 / Goals
Three goals for the redesign.
Modernize the UI.
A clean, responsive interface that makes a complex tool feel approachable.
Improve exploration.
Better filtering, and a results view people can compare and refine in place.
Ready for System Config.
Structure the tool so it fits the larger configuration environment it has to live in.
06 / Design direction
Built to stand alone — and to plug in.
The hard part wasn’t only redesigning the tool. It had to work inside the broader System Configuration environment too. So I gave it a structure that works both ways.
- 01Open as a sidebar inside System Configuration.
- 02Work as a standalone tool.
- 03Transfer configured results back into System Configuration.
- 04Follow the visual language of the client’s robotic suite.
- 05Establish a filtering logic future tools can reuse.
Motion-cycle visualization was out of scope for the MVP — but I designed the foundation so it could be introduced later.
07 / Final design
A dense configurator, now a guided flow.
A complex engineering tool, made to look and feel simple — a clean, minimal interface over a guided, scalable workflow, with less clutter, better exploration, and a foundation for the client’s larger configuration ecosystem.
08 / Loading states
When the math takes a moment.
Calculations can take time. Instead of a blank wait, the loading screen explains what’s happening in the background — so the pause reads as progress, not a stall.
- 01 Calculation starts — the system reads the inputs.
- 02 Suitable solutions are found and ranked.
- 03 Results are prepared for review.
09 / Motion-cycle concept
A look at motion, for later.
Visualization matters in system design, so I explored motion-cycle customization and a default-path view. It wasn’t part of the MVP — but it set a strong direction for a future enhancement of the tool.
The full project
Interested in the full project?
Additional screens and project materials are available during interviews.