I was mentored on ways the recognition industry operates and the internal processes that we go through to ultimately design and manufacture pieces. Over the years I have gained experience by fulfilling many orders, setting up thousands of pieces, and have acquired knowledge of many of the inner workings for the art department at Cristaux.

There are too many daily projects to just focus on just one, so I chose to focus on a few innovative internal strides I have taken. Within the realm of UX, I have helped improve some internal processes by introducing new technologies and reducing pain points within existing processes.

The big two focuses are improvement of data merge processes and creating a proof of concept dashboard at the manufacturing hub. Both of these were part of my S.M.A.R.T. goals at the company that were self proposed and approved by management. Research was obtained by seeking online forums, tutorials, videos, internal feedback, and more to better inform my decisions moving foward.

Through using existing data merge files at the company over the years and being curious about data merge capabilities, I was able to formulate ideas of how to improve how we used them internally. This meant assessing, updating, and/or simplifying some of the current files. Some needed simple correcting of color swatches and layouts, while others needed dynamic text entry adjustments or introduction of dynamic image entries, and more.

For the dashboard, which I nicknamed "The Batcomputer," my ideas came out of a previous S.M.A.R.T. goal attempt at creating a recognition piece with integrated technology. I learned more about Raspberry Pi and the possibilities it opens up during my previous goal. I used that knowledge to create something focused on company specifics, which was a dashboard concept to display internal info and updates. It went through many iterations of layouts. icons, functionality, and more based on my knowledge of coding and access to the right tools to provide the intended features.

Due to the fast paced nature of the recognition field, the lines were blurred with the idea to launch steps. Some orders happened more methodically while others had these stages performed simultaneously. Each prototype and test depended on the information and imagery provided by clients. If there were varying logos it would utilize the dynamic image entry, if there was reoccurring text then it would be vectorized with proper typographic adjustments, leaving only the dynamic text to be further adjusted. I reduced pain points with some typographic issues by setting up certain functions to auto-adjust text entries for known font issues.

The dashboard's prototyping and testing went through multiple phases. It was initially meant to display basic internal information, however, "feature creep" from internal requests started to bloat things. This lead to issues with finding ways to perform the features wanted with limited coding knowledge and resources. There were also issues with API connections with third party companies that were initially thought to provide certain capabilities but were found to not to work as intended. Ultimately, this lead to drawing back the features  to the basics and returning some features to their previous states, which used other devices and software.

The data merge files ultimately improved overall efficiency on orders of large quantities and reduced human spelling errors from mishaps due to manually copying and pasting information. This was exhibited through internal data for the time spent on projects and how some that used to take a large chunk of time were cut with the right data merge flow added into its process. Templates to follow were created in this goal to optimize handling large quantity orders. However, the data merges will continually be improved on the go when new capabilities or issued are discovered for each unique project.

The dashboard ultimately became a multi-paging dashboard instead of one page as it was initially. This came about from internal feedback on needs, preferences, and more. The current iteration displays general day info, such as weather, time, news, and custom announcements that can be populated from an external app. This is followed by another page that shows company calendar info so that everyone is informed of special dates. Shipping info was returned to its previous device and app due to issues I could not resolve with my limited knowledge. Since this was a proof of concept project, it will probably be updated and improved in the future when someone who specializes in software development is brought on board.

Both of these projects gave me insight on some the internal processes at Cristaux and how to improve efficiency. Additionally, they allowed me to venture back into a bit of coding, which is a skill I have but have not been able to utilize much. I learned my limitations when it comes to coding and not having someone with that expertise to assess and assist with potential ideas. These were the more self-driven projects outside of the daily projects for clients, so mu leadership and organization skills were put to the test too. Both projects were successful in different ways but, as with most things, there is always room for continued improvement.

You can check out Cristaux and its custom recognition pieces - HERE