Case Study: Future 3-D Information Search
Designing Something Completely New
Client Overview
Architect "Bucky" Fuller with a Dymaxian Globe illustrating the new connected world
Fortune 50 company
"Our employees are aging out and retiring. We need to attract to our workplace new employees just coming up. We want happy, playful, new and fun ways of visualizing and displaying information in ways that nobody has ever seen before," my client told me.
Digital natives expect such things as gamification in everyday use we agreed.
The old Enterprise Architecture stuff looks like a battle of forms, white and gray with little tiny text. You had to already know how to use it, and even take a class. Some selections are labyrinthine and the baffling results of successful searches could be even worse.
What they wanted is a new way to search and view information. This is a design step along the way.
Product
Existing EA Application
What is Enterprise Architecture?
A brief explanation is that is the stack of hardware and software at every company computer users desk, including internet and cloud access is termed "Enterprise Architecture". Your office laptop and software is that stack.
The key issues are that the software is first, Approved and Standard at the company and that it is second, interoperable with other corporate software and hardware. Non-standard software may be used with a users request for a waiver or variance.
Some corporations allow BYOD - Bring Your own Device as part of regular business needs by employees and to make the company an attractive employer.
Enterprise Architecture is the product that the users and corporate stakeholders computer needs are based upon.
Projects
Tag & Search for Enterprise Architecture Using a Tag Cube
4 projects concurrently
Imagine, design, and spec a unique 1st version search and data sorting by tags product for Enterprise Architecture software. The idea is an interface that digital natives will enjoy using, and that it may be naturally updated to an intuitive 3D imaging software for company-wide technology portfolio and software application portfolio searches.
- Enterprise Architecture Product Manager
"Show us something nobody has ever seen before. Show us the future, so we can build it."
Enterprise Architecture Tag Cube Search App -
a playful little idea with a big future...
Users
Selection of Enterprise Level Software
For Every Corporate User of a Fortune 50 Company
160,000 employees and contractors, many are highly educated with advanced degrees
Target users: digital natives, expect efficient software and on-demand usability, most are novices to Enterprise Architecture practices and procedures
The target users are young and just starting in the company. They expect consistent, well-designed or at least contemporary software. They are self-motivated, do-it-themselves users. They will want to set up their own stack themselves, don't want to fill out forms and wait to be told what to do.
While they may be new employees they easily understand how to use computers, devices, and software sites and apps. They are likely to have significant education and advanced degrees.
Other users are the stakeholder professional enterprise architects who test and evaluate software and hardware - and track it. There is a lot of software in the world and new apps every day that people in business wish to use.
Specifications
Outdoor lounge on campus
What are the key requirements?
Key requirements are:
collections
lifecycle (of the software)
business unit
project
capability
metadata
file type
software
The search dimensions filters are:
categories
segments
user story
role
location
searching by solutions
and other dimensions
Needs
4 projects concurrently, this one performs Tag & Search for Enterprise Architecture
Imagine, design, and spec a unique 1st version search and data sorting by tags product for Enterprise Architecture software. The idea is an interface that digital natives will enjoy using, and that it may be naturally updated to an intuitive 3D imaging software for company-wide technology portfolio and software application portfolio searches.