Konecranes is a global company that manufactures and services lifting equipment for heavy duty use. Most products already have connected sensor capabilities and several digital services to make efficient use of these assets. The problem with this is that most of these services have not been integrated in the customer's workflow. We decided to create a contextual dashboard that collects the relevant information the person viewing it needs to know or do right now. To establish a user-centered design studio for the project the first order of business was to define the end users. Current key customers globally were sourced as participants for a especially commenced Early Access Program, totalling 20 customers from 9 countries. Their roles and needs guided the first weeks of our Lean UX cycles, when we built the foundation for the upcoming concept and design work. What we set out to deliver was a world class user experience, something that supports the user’s work flow and is smart, contextual and situationally aware. Remote monitoring and sensor technologies combined with behaviour analytics seen through the lens of understandable UX enables a shift from preventive to real-time maintenance. This enhances safety and productivity, differentiates Konecranes from competitors and warrants a price premium.

The industrial internet, or the internet of things, is today’s buzz word. It’s sometimes also referred to as the second wave of digitalization. There are still very few examples of projects that have succeeded in building a solid experience in such a complex environment. We leveraged the best balance of business and technology for the now primary interaction platform for Konecranes customers.