Overview

Product Information

There are two scrum teams involved in this project. I was the sole UX designer in the Revit scrum team. Our team worked with the Formlt scrum team on this project. The new design was released to the public in 2017.

High Level Goal

Improve the connected experience between FormIt and Revit.

Define the Problem

Existing Formlt + Revit Workflow Analysis

As a designer working on Revit and had never used FormIt before, to improve the cross-product workflow, my first step was to get familiar with FormIt and thoroughly understand the current workflow between the two products. Then I did the analysis based on my first-hand experience.

Research Approach

I used different research methods to understand users’ current workflows and their pain-points in the workflows to validate my hypothesis and prioritized their needs.

Online Survey

34 responses collected from Autodesk AEC panel users

On-Site Interview

Research goals:

• Understand the workflow of transferring data between SketchUp (FormIt’s biggest competitive product) and Revit.

• Identify pain-points.

I had on-site interview with 4 architects in a local architecture firm. Each session took about 60 mins.

Group Discussion + Voting Session

A breakout session with 16 users was run in the Inside the Factory event to collect their feedback. 

Research Findings

Top use cases 

Top pain points

Tier 1

• Lost materials in both directions (FormIt←→Revit)

• The two products are not compatible. Users cannot edit models in each other’s environment. They use dwg, sis, fbx file formats as bridges.

• Lack of visibility control: there is much cleanup work to do when transfer data between FormIt and Revit.

Tier 2

• Cannot export a common base point.

• It took too much time to import all geometries at once. Have to do it in sections, like import one category at a time.

Other insights

Through the on-site user interviews, the four participants use SketchUp not only as a conceptual modeling tool, but also as a detailed 3D modeling and rendering tool. Maintaining visual fidelity is one of the most important features in the workflow.

Collaboration and Ideation

Boulder Visit + Research

Our whole scrum team visited Boulder office to meet with the AEC Generative Design Formlt team and a few Formlt users in person. We shared our research findings, and ran a series of LUMA activities to brainstorm ideas.

We came up with ideas of creating a connected experience for our customers in three ways:

• Create a long-term shared vision of the workflow between FormIt and Revit;

• Transfer materials that were defined in FormIt into Revit;

• Improve the geometric fidelity of the imported model; this wasn’t part of our initial work, but the teams agreed that our work put more stress on the import code and needed to be rebuilt in order to deliver a great customer experience.

Brainstorm Workshop with Stakeholders

Collaboration + Communication = Co-creation

After the Boulder visit. We came up with a concept design. In this workshop, first, I presented the design to the Boston stakeholders and used Rose, Thorn, Bud (LUMA method) to collect their feedback. And I asked the stakeholders to brainstorm their ideal workflow individually. Then, I separated people into groups and asked each group to create a concept poster for this project. I received many good ideas and inspirations in this workshop.

Collect feedback on the proposed workflow

Workflow brainstorm & concept poster design

Design Solutions

Vision

Improve the way people transfer data in a data-centric workflow.

• Preserve geometric fidelity

• No wasted remodeling in Revit

• Painless phase transitions

• 1-click round-trip data sharing

• Better team coordination

Storyboard

The New Workflow

Family Editor

Send to Revit

Next to the File button is a ‘Send to Revit’ or ‘Send to RFA’ button.

• Provide the flexibility in the settings dialog: Send All / Visible / Selected Only.

• No nesting – all Groups become top level Families.

• Maintain defined categories and use Direct Shape to edit in Revit.

Transition to Revit

Revit starts automatically or gets focus if already open

• All / Visible / Selected Geometry appears

• No files were created / any temp files are deleted

• Customer must save Revit file for future use

“I’m From FormIt” metadata attached to geometry

Selected Elements with FormIt metadata gets Ribbon icon to Edit

Edit in FormIt

Open a FormIt session with the geometry and materials intact

• Just like the Revit Family Editor

• Wrapped in a group, category with the same name

Reload / Resend to Revit

When customer ‘Sends to Revit’

• Replace original selection

• Update any instances of that Group

• Update Revit walls / curtain systems / floors associated with Masses

• FormIt parameter is schedulable / filterable / isolatable

Linked File

Link FormIt to Revit

Revit starts automatically or gets focus if already open

• All / Visible / Selected Geometry appears

• No files were created / any temp files were deleted

• Customer must save Revit file for future use

“I’m From FormIt” metadata attached to geometry

- Selected Elements with FormIt metadata get Ribbon icon to Edit

Synced Elements

Flux Project: Canvas + Keys

Navigate back to Flux project and users have the Flux canvas – the Site Context data keys (property sets in Quantum terminology) appear on the left.

Drag and drop the keys to visualize in the canvas.

So now users have the context data in Flux.

Send to Flux: SketchUp

Users model a building in SketchUp on top of the existing building / contours…

Select ‘Send to Flux’ (data push) and set this data on a data key.

Then in the Flux project users can drag, drop and see their design aggregated.

This feature scored high in the with customers in the pre-release usability test (CSAT score: 4). And it released to the public in 2017.

Customer feedback in Revit Pre-Release Forum:

“I can export materials. It’s phenomenal! It saves me a ton of time.”

“It’s a huge step forward, works very well!”

“Conceptual to … design phase, this is really great!”

What I learned

Collaboration ensures a connected experience for our customers.

The Revit team was based in Boston, the FormIt team was based in Boulder. The teams had never worked together before (had never met in person!), had no experience working in each other’s code. The key to our success was the people. Everyone involved from both teams maintained an attitude of “How can I help?”.

Feedback creates opportunity.

A lot of the insights gained through the research sessions with the internal stakeholders and the external users. As I grow up as a designer, I’ll remember to keep asking feedback from users and people around me, whether it’s on my design, or on my way of leading design activities.