Bridging Complex Engineering & UX/UI Design

Digital Control Inc. (DCI)

Project: Hired to rapidly support the internal UX Design team ahead of a critical product launch by taking over hardware UI design and usability testing.

Role: Freelance UX/UI Designer

Core Skills: Heuristic Usability Evaluation, Conversion Rate Optimization, Drop-off & Funnel Analysis, User Journey Mapping, Information Architecture, Conversion Flow Optimization, Responsive Web Design, Generative AI & LLMs, UX Writing & Microcopy, Data-Driven Design Iteration, Performance Metrics & Analytics

Designing for horizontal directional drilling requires an expert understanding of complex engineering constraints and rugged hardware-software integration. DCI was facing a tight, unyielding deadline for an upcoming product launch. They needed a strategic partner who could immediately parachute into the project, understand the specialized needs of HDD operators, and clear a massive design bottleneck so the engineering team could keep moving.

Strategic Execution

To eliminate friction and ensure the team hit their target dates, I functioned as a fully embedded, highly collaborative design partner.

Rapid Interface Design: Expedited the creation of hardware UI screens, optimizing touchscreen interactions for operators working in rugged, high-stakes environments.
Usability Testing: Rigorously tested user interfaces to identify usability flaws, simplify complex data visualizations, and reduce operator cognitive load.
Cross-Functional Handoffs: Collaborated seamlessly with cross-functional engineers to ensure all UI elements were technically viable and clearly documented.
Design Scaling: Scaled critical design assets rapidly, empowering the broader team to pull from a unified system without sacrificing visual quality.

Business Impact

By seamlessly embedding into DCI’s fast-paced environment, I successfully absorbed the excess design workload and accelerated the testing phase.

This direct support allowed the broader development and engineering teams to maintain their aggressive development timelines, ensuring the new product was launched on schedule with a highly intuitive, ruggedized user interface.

Maintained aggressive development timelines

Expedited hardware UI design and rigorously tested interfaces to ensure the broader team stayed on schedule for a critical product launch.

Freed up engineering resources

By absorbing the rigorous UI testing phase, development teams were freed to focus entirely on hitting their own aggressive testing schedules.

Accelerated UI execution with zero onboarding friction

Seamlessly parachuted into a fast-paced environment to immediately speed up interface design without slowing down the existing team's workflow.

Taylor Petrich

Whether you need to streamline a complex medical device interface or accelerate a software launch, I have the experience to hit the ground running.

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