Mijn Unica [2.0]

Interaction design

Mijn Unica (My Unica) is a step from separate products towards a unified building management platform. Unica's Building Insight ([1.0] in this portfolio, Unica) is merged with older tools used by building managers and their Unica consultants. In my journey with the product it is kinda 'version 2.0': much more than data collection and visualization, but not yet the 'full package' (tools organized by users' tasks and combined in one platform). The below displays not a single complete product but a series of approaches, layouts and explorations meant to be tested with specific client(s).

Tools and layouts

Here the whole Building Insight becomes a tool alongside five other tools based on legacy solutions:

  • Map - all facilities and their policies
  • Sight - Building Insight, all the stats
  • Costs - all the finance
  • Care - sustainability
  • Docs - documentation archive
  • Fix - maintenance requests

Tools will be presented below in 3 layouts tested on different stages, one layout per tool to save my time and your cognitive effort:

  • In crystal: Sight, Care
  • In dark: Map, Costs, Fix
  • In light: Docs

Sight

Sight (ex Building Insight) didn't change its functionality much, but is supposed to provide a cleared view of main parameters. Here's energy consupmtion & building structure made in crystal layout for Booking.com HQ in Amsterdam.

Care

Unica Care tool is dedicated to sustainability matters. The platform in whole is designed first and foremost for the Dutch market, facing constantly evolving sustainability regulations. The regulations mostly target environmental impact or occupants' health. Let's focus on one impact category - energy consumption.

A managing company may take various actions to reduce energy consumption of a building (voluntarily or to comply with a regulation). For example, install solar panels or run an awarness campaign among occupants. In Unica Care we call those Care Actions. A Care Action is a plan which includes timeframe, costs and ROI, impact figures, etc.

Unica Care main features:

  • Manage Care Actions
  • Organize all Care Actions into a long-term development plan
  • Detect all governmental regulations a facility must complain with (more about it below)
  • Generate and manage reports (as sepcified in the regulations)
  • Later on: recommend Care Actions

Now, governmental regulations - let's pick a related one. To monitor and control energy consumption of a building Dutch government require the managing company to use an EBS, Energieregistratie- en bewakingssysteem (Energy registration and monitoring system).

The governmental policy specifies which energy consumption data an EBS collects and which reports it generates (architecture, tech stack, etc - up to developer). It takes some sweating to translate a governmental policy into a product, but the very fact we managed makes me proud of the Netherlands and ourselves - in many countries it's a mission impossible.

Here comes the EBS report editing form, as colossal as the policy demands, and probably the longest form I ever designed. The only relief is that the report is autogenerated. So user deals with the form only to make minor edits. All unique steps are shown below - with some dummy scroll.

You may ask, why not in-context editing, i.e. previewing the whole report itself and having all the controls and such within it. Personally, I would prefer that solution - kinda my favorite 'match between the system and the real world'. However there was too little preference among clients to justify front-end development hours.

Map

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