Why We Design FM Go

Project Background

Mobile platform has always been at the margin of Meetoo’s product strategy.
But I have discovered its huge potential during user research with our clients.

Meetoo’s product strategy is framed around the technology of BIM+Iot, which largely relies on the desktop platform. Thus, product development on the mobile platform has never been the top priority.

According to my research with the clients, however, they value mobile features more due to their portability - approximately 80% of their work hours are spent on on-site tasks where they don’t have a laptop.

Furthermore, the other products they use at work are designed to be scalable and adaptable to mobile usage. This adaptability, combined with the clients' work habits, underscores the potential for growth in the mobile platform sector.

My Role

I covered the end-to-end product design process including user research, wireframing, user journey mapping, prototyping and UI design.

Timespan: 3 Years

Project Result

Reduced on-site inspection frequency.

Increased User Acquisition Rate & Daily Active User.

Increased Use Case Scalability.

Increased Upsell Conversion Rate.

Design Approach for FM Go

Balancing between user needs and business objectives

I initiated the project with small but crucial features at first.
Then our mobile app expanded after we saw benefits and revenue.

The features iterated from “bottom-up.” I initiated the project with small but crucial features based on my research insights with facility management staff.
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Once our team and clients saw users benefit from them (and we saw revenue coming in), we identified the interconnection among those features and more design opportunities in the future.

Check space and facility information,
anytime, anywhere.

The problem of facility managers——
Limited access to valuable information on-site

The original workflow in FM Go——
For medical staff to book for work order

What we are trying to build

How might we reduce the effort of searching for crucial information on-site?

MVP: How can we leverage the existing features to reduce development efforts?

The solution in Phase 1

Organizing the information architecture

The outcome in Phase 1

In-depth campus analysis
for senior campus managers

After launching Space Log and Facility Log, we realized that the finest granularity isn’t always the best solution.

We have drowned our managers in a sea of management details. While in an ideal state, we need problems to show themselves.

For high-level managers, they need:
1. Only the most crucial operational information.
2. Context - Historical trend, comparison with the average, proportion, etc.
3. Making data-informed management decisions.

So that’s when we integrate analysis features into FM Go.

Real-time status monitoring
for System & Machine Room Managers

High-value, top-priority facilities need constant attention.Yet most system managers cover multiple facility systems, leaving them with restricted time and resources for each system.

Therefore, we added real-time status and real-time surveillance footage into FM Go. Then, on-site patrols can be reduced in frequency while the security level remains the same or even enhanced.

Surveillance footage for real-time monitoring and historical playback

Identifying unhealthy facilities
to enhance management efficiency

On average, each system manager monitors 30 pieces of large and high-level equipment daily.

For each piece of equipment, there are 6 dimensions to evaluate the equipment's health, which leads to a minimum of 180 data points for one system manager to go through every day.

Therefore, we needed to find methods to rank and prioritize facilities so that users could efficiently locate unhealthy items.

Transforming insights into actions

Health analysis has two values to offer for system managers.

First, concisely visualize the status quo:

Combining multiple dimensions to provide a comprehensive view.
Indicating how severe the situation is (trend overview and comparing with other equipment within the same type)

Then, guide users to put charts into action.

Redesigning the information architecture

Looking back at the beginning, FM Go started bottom-up because we had to make little progress once at a time.

The bottom-up methodology has flaws - it has overlooked the interconnection between features, leaving users confused when navigating through the product.

We are at a point where all our features are validated, but they lack organization.

We have a list of features, but how would a user know when to use them?

My approach to redesigning the IA

First of all, redesigning the IA boils down to two parts:

The navigation bar at the bottom - Card sorting combined with user interviews to understand the user’s mental model.
Home page redesign - Leveraging data as CTAs rather than displaying feature names.

What I’ve found in card sorting

Our users can’t reach the same mental model for categorization, and they use these features differently.

The interpretation is that there are not enough features (which means no need) in FM Go to categorize for now, and we can keep the bottom nav as it is now.

Thus, we are in a dilemma - the features are too many to be jammed into one page, yet too few to be divided into different tabs. Plus, adding new tabs breaks the users’ old habit of looking for information on one page, thus adding a new learning curve to establish new habits.

My final decisions

Redesigning the homepage, utilizing operational data as CTA for users to get engaged.
Categorizing features by different roles - Campus manager, system manager and base-level staff.
Utilizing the existing Access Management System for each role to prevent information overload on the home page.

The outcome

Displaying different features for users in different roles

FM Go

Why We Design FM Go

My Role

Project Result

Design Approach for FM Go

Before & After

Phase 1

Check space and facility information,
anytime, anywhere.

The problem of facility managers——
Limited access to valuable information on-site

The original workflow in FM Go——
For medical staff to book for work order

What we are trying to build

The solution in Phase 1

Organizing the information architecture

The outcome in Phase 1

Phase 2

In-depth campus analysis
for senior campus managers

Real-time status monitoring
for System & Machine Room Managers

Surveillance footage for real-time monitoring and historical playback

Identifying unhealthy facilities
to enhance management efficiency

Transforming insights into actions

Phase 3

Redesigning the information architecture

My approach to redesigning the IA

What I’ve found in card sorting

My final decisions

The outcome

Let's work together 🎉

FM Go

Why We Design FM Go

My Role

Project Result

Design Approach for FM Go

Before & After

Phase 1

Check space and facility information,anytime, anywhere.

The problem of facility managers——Limited access to valuable information on-site

The original workflow in FM Go——For medical staff to book for work order

What we are trying to build

The solution in Phase 1

Organizing the information architecture

The outcome in Phase 1

Phase 2

In-depth campus analysisfor senior campus managers

Real-time status monitoringfor System & Machine Room Managers

Surveillance footage for real-time monitoring and historical playback

Identifying unhealthy facilitiesto enhance management efficiency

Transforming insights into actions

Phase 3

Redesigning the information architecture

My approach to redesigning the IA

What I’ve found in card sorting

My final decisions

The outcome

Let's work together 🎉

Check space and facility information,
anytime, anywhere.

The problem of facility managers——
Limited access to valuable information on-site

The original workflow in FM Go——
For medical staff to book for work order

In-depth campus analysis
for senior campus managers

Real-time status monitoring
for System & Machine Room Managers

Identifying unhealthy facilities
to enhance management efficiency