Mining worksite

GroundProbe

GroundProbe is a global technology leader specialising in real-time solutions for measuring and monitoring geohazards. 

How We Helped:

Who We Helped:

The challenge

Luminary and GroundProbe partnered on a discovery project to design a new application experience for GroundProbe engineers to analyse and monitor risks on site. The project's key objectives were to improve the usability and design of the company’s current technology (MonitorIQ), review the existing user flows and have Luminary’s UX team propose recommendations based on its research. Additionally, GroundProbe wanted to enhance the visual design of the app through developing a robust style guide that could be used on other applications in development.

MonitorIQ on a tablet

What we did

MonitorIQ is the technology that GroundProbe uses daily, which is essentially a radar that inspects the walls of an open-cut mine and looks for defamation (movement in the wall) that could pose a threat. This data is communicated to engineers and teams working in and around mines, identifying and reporting movement as small as 0.1 of a millimetre. Through this data, decisions can be made in real-time whether to evacuate the mine or explore engineering interventions. As the software was built in the mid-2000s, it was due for an upgrade. 

Multiple screens of MonitorIQ

Luminary’s research began with a recruitment phase to find people using MonitorIQ in order to gain insights into its use. This target audience included people who did and did not work for GroundProbe. Due to the highly specialist audience required and the limited pool of participants available, recruitment presented a challenge. The research also included a competitor review and a UX heuristic review. 

Using an iterative approach, the Luminary and Ground Probe teams gradually built on each other’s ideas and feedback to form critical conceptual design principles and MonitorIQ’s new layout. The sessions also allowed for opportunities to sketch new feature ideas. The Luminary design team each sketched ideas based on a ‘jobs-to-be-done framework’, ideating potential solutions for a feature where geotechnical engineers could rapidly identify and access unknown problem areas. 

The research findings were categorised into three key areas:

  • Locating and monitoring information - ‘Help me know what’s happening on site’
  • Analysing change - ‘Help me understand an issue’s severity’, and
  • Communicating findings - ‘Help me share information with others’.
MonitorIQ data

The result

The result was a simpler, easier to use MonitorIQ software with the following conceptual changes:

  • Going from fixed views for analysis to modular, customisable views 
  • Easier to understand language and concepts
  • Defining the software alarms and areas 
  • Showing events on a timeline for relevance.

We created a prototype in Figma of the newly designed MonitorIQ software that brought it to life and showcased the new design system, new user experience, and interface.  


MonitorIQ in use

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