01 — Project Overview
Manufacturing at
Unprecedented Scale
GE Vernova manufactures highly engineered wind turbine components through complex, multi-stage industrial processes involving quality checks, specialized equipment, and multiple operational teams.
One of these workflows—the Unibody Coating Process—contains numerous sequential activities distributed across operators, coating specialists, process quality engineers, laboratory teams, and digital monitoring systems. While the manufacturing process itself is standardized, the supporting documentation was largely static. This made it difficult for employees to quickly understand task ownership, process dependencies, quality checkpoints, and phase transitions.
"The objective of this project was to redesign this documentation as an interactive digital manufacturing experience, allowing users to explore each stage of the coating workflow through contextual information panels, stakeholder mapping, and visual explanations."
02 — Business Context
The Problem with
Static Standardization
Modern manufacturing organizations operate through highly standardized procedures that ensure consistency, safety, and quality. However, these procedures often exist as lengthy documentation, manuals, spreadsheets, or static process diagrams. Although technically comprehensive, these formats present severe usability challenges.
The Unibody Coating Process consists of three interconnected manufacturing stages:
03 — Problem Statement
Information Silos &
Hidden Dependencies
Although the manufacturing process itself was well documented, the information was difficult to consume because it was presented in static formats that prioritized documentation over usability. Employees frequently struggled to understand:
Who owns what?
Difficulty tracking which stakeholder group owns which specific manufacturing task.
What comes first?
Prerequisites and dependencies before progressing to secondary coating layers were unclear.
Where is the info?
Operators and engineers had to navigate separate SOPs, engineering manuals, and quality checklists.
04 — Business Objectives
Primary Goals for
Digital Transformation
05 — Interactive Workflow
Unibody Coating
Process Flow
Select a stakeholder in the left legend to filter responsibilities, or click any step card to expand SOP detail instructions.
06 — Responsibilities
My Design Responsibilities
As the Product Designer, I was responsible for translating a technically dense manufacturing process into a user-centered digital experience:
UX Research
Info Architecture
Interaction Design
Prototyping
"Rather than redesigning the manufacturing process itself, my focus was on redesigning how users understand and interact with the process."
07 — Target Users
Primary Stakeholders
We identified five core stakeholder groups involved throughout the coating workflow:
08 — Success Metrics
Measuring UX Success
The redesign was considered successful if users could achieve the following metrics:
09 — Discovery Goals
Research & Discovery
Before redesigning the experience, I analyzed how manufacturing process documentation was structured and consumed by different stakeholders. Discovery goals focused on understanding:
- How different teams navigate static process documentation.
- Where users lose context during complex procedures.
- How manufacturing information can be layered without overwhelming users.
- Which content should be immediately visible versus progressively revealed.
10 — Research Insights
Key Research Findings
Five recurring usability issues became apparent in the discovery phase:
11 — Opportunity
The Opportunity Statement
"How might we transform a complex manufacturing workflow into an interactive knowledge experience that helps engineers, operators, and quality teams understand manufacturing procedures faster while creating a scalable foundation for future digital learning?"
12 — Design Strategy
Three Core UX Principles
1. Progressive Disclosure
Level 1 (Process Flow) → Level 2 (Step Overview) → Level 3 (Detailed Info) → Level 4 (SOPs) → Level 5 (Videos). Keeps layout approachable.
2. Visual Chunking
Divided the workflow into three natural cognitive boundary containers: Pre-Coating, Coating, and Post-Coating phases.
3. Role-Based Understanding
Surfaces responsible stakeholder group badges on every card, answering the user's question: "What am I responsible for?"
13 — Product Ecosystem
Information Architecture
The platform is built on a structured hierarchy from entry points to deep assets:
14 — Design Decisions
Key Design Decisions
Card-Based Steps
Individual cards improve visual scan rates and support modular extensions for new line processes.
Phase Containers
Dedicated sections visually group steps, reinforcing sequential manufacturing progression.
Stakeholder Badges
Clear, color-coded badges on every card communicate task ownership immediately.
Context Panels
Drawer overlays prevent context-switching, keeping operators oriented within the main flow.
15 — Design Challenges
Challenges Overcome
Precision vs. Simplicity
Prevented information overload while preserving the critical engineering accuracy required in aerospace/wind manufacturing.
Multiple Persona Support
Served both experienced engineers needing fast reference and new operators requiring guided SOP training.
16 — Solution
The Final Solution
The resulting platform transforms traditional static engineering flowcharts into a centralized gateway to manufacturing knowledge. Users can map responsibilities, explore stages, view quality parameters, and access contextual video tutorials on the factory floor, significantly reducing dependency on static paper documentation.
17 — Business Impact
Measured Impact
18 — Future Roadmap
Future Roadmap
The platform is designed for long-term expansion:
19 — Reflections & Summary
Key Learnings
Working on the GE Vernova Interactive Process Flow reinforced that enterprise UX is not merely about designing software, but about designing how knowledge is discovered, understood, and applied. Manufacturing documentation should not just list raw tasks; it must support decision-making, quality checks, and cross-functional team collaboration.