Athena Dashboard

Helping facility managers monitor energy and occupancy levels on a comprehensive platform with data-rich visual and metrics.

Project Background

The Athena Dashboard is a SaaS solution for facility managers that enables operating a flexible, productive, and energy-efficient environment for a space and can easily scale from a single room to an entire building or campus.

My Role

Lead UI Designer

Timeline

Summer 2021 - Fall 2022

Problem Statement

Facility managers that utilize Lutron lighting and occupancy systems needed a way to monitor and compare lighting energy usage, identify under utilized spaces as well as troubleshoot.

Through research, user interviews and testing, we learned that there was significant value in the ability to get extremely granular, as well as higher level data. In order to create a great experience for the user, it was imperative that data was shown clearly and concisely from every angle.

Compare Areas

Occupancy by Area

Campus view

The Goal

Improve the user experience of facility mangers so they can easily monitor energy and occupancy of their facility.

Understanding the User

Before designing a solution, it was critical to understand who the user is. Through a series of User interviews, we were able to create a User Persona.

Dashboard requirements

Based on user interviews and competitive analyses, we learned elements are needed to make the dashboard successful for our users.

"I need a graphic of the floor plan. super-visual, high-level type of dashboard."

- Facility Manager 1

"I need it to be user friendly. I need it to show me where to go to service things, like give a map to the location."

- Facility Manager 8

"It has to be user-friendly and scale from managing the whole building to managing a specific office or unit somewhere in the space."

- Facility Manager 3

Energy Utilization

Energy Usage Jobs to be Done

In order to understand what aspects of energy usage are most important to our user, we interviewed several users and synthesized our findings. This helped to shape the experience for our users and informed us of what features matter most.

Regular energy usage monitoring

View energy consumption over time and pull historical reports

Comparing Areas

Allow Users to select specific areas to compare energy consumption

Understand Utilization

Ability to drill down to the smallest level of a space and be able to quickly view consumption in different parts of a building.

User jobs to be done: Energy usage

“Daily energy and comparison over time are most impactful for me. I think I'd most like to see comparisons from my building day-to-day, and to similar buildings. that's really interesting data for us to learn how to be most efficient.

- FM 2

Lighting Energy Requirements

We needed to keep in mind multiple user flows and needs, including visualizing lighting energy usage on a campus level all the way down to a sub area. Part of our solution was utilizing a heatmap to quickly identify high energy areas as well as a metrics overview of the collective space.
Facility managers also need the ability to compare lighting energy usage across multiple spaces. So I designed a feature that allowed users to compare energy patterns for multiple spaces.

Track facility consumption

Track energy consumption
Dashboard with info overlays and system status information
Adjust time period of utilization data
Comparative view of energy saved vs. energy used

Understand Utilization

Summary view of consumption
Drill down to smallest room level
Info overlays on a floorplan
Comparative reports

Fulfill building information requests

Easy quick convenient downloading capability
View reports for different times and different areas for both energy and space consumption
View comparative reports for energy

Occupancy

Jobs to be done

In order to understand what aspects of Occupancy are most important to our user, we interviewed several users and synthesized our findings. This helped to shape the experience for our users and informed us of what features matter most.

Based on our Jobs to be Done for Occupancy, we discovered that Occupancy was measured in two distinct ways: Occupancy by Time and Occupancy by Area

View real time occupancy of an area

Avoid disturbing occupants in the room during maintenance

Identify the under/over utilized spaces

Optimize space utilization in the facility

Use occupancy data for trouble shooting

Problem solving, keep building functioning well

User jobs to be done: Energy usage

Measuring Occupancy

Users needed to be able to measure occupancy by time and by area. This created additional challenges with simplifying data visualization as to not overwhelm the user. I designed large, at a glance metrics panels to solve for this. That way the user is getting the highlights that matter most upfront.

In order to create meaningful data that could be tailored to the user's needs, I designed multiple features within the occupancy portion of the platform. I started by splitting occupancy into two sections the user could toggle between depending on their needs. I increased the user's autonomy and reduced visual distractions by designing responsive panels.

Trends

By offering multiple metrics and comparative data on a space's occupancy levels, we were able to communicate a lot of information to the user in a digestible format. This also allows the user to determine if there is an issue with the space that requires further investigation.

Highlights by Time

A lot of facility managers want to optimize the buildings energy efficiency, by offering information on when the building is most active and least active, the facility manager can determine a better lighting schedule for the building based on these patterns.

Highlights by Area

Giving comparative data on occupancy levels of different areas allows facility managers to determine if some spaces are being under utilized. From there, they are able to take steps to repurpose under utilized spaces or reduce congestion in high occupancy spaces.