Fall 2021
I joined the Pathfinder team shortly after they had been given the green light to take the initial hackathon idea and make it a consumer product. The next step was to create an Alpha version of the product for release to internal JLL employees. From the hackathon, we had a rough interactive prototype site that was essentially a basic proof-of-concept. There were quite a few outstanding questions such as:
• Which audience(s) might use Pathfinder?How does Pathfinder fit into the broader narrative of sustainability and commercial real estate?
• How do sustainability consultants currently create predictive models?
• What specific tools and techniques do they use?
Starting with these questions and the proof of concept prototype, I worked closely with my project manager and one of JLL’s senior sustainability consultants to unpack the in’s and out’s of commercial-scale modeling. Over the course of several weeks and many interviews with the consulting teams at JLL, we learned that consultants primarily created complex models in Excel. The challenge with data-intensive analysis in UI is incorporating the power of Excel, without forcing the user into spreadsheets. We wanted to maintain the easy of use and calculation that Excel gave consultants, but make the UI more usable by a less technical user type.
A few months into the Pathfinder alpha project, a larger initiative was introduced to create a design system across JLL/T’s Revenue division products. I volunteered Carbon Pathfinder as the guinea pig product. As a result, a near complete overhaul of the visual design was needed. I worked closely with several Revenue designers to apply the new design system principles to Pathfinder, while also providing feedback and inspiration for new elements.
The result was a much cleaner and more functional UI. Some of the notable changes included: new typography, colors, formalizing spacing grids, and considering tablet-sizing responsiveness. In addition, this overhaul provided a great opportunity to establish new working pattens with the front-end development team. Through the process of several key meetings and regular check-in's, we were to hone in on a system of design, hand-off, and implementation that improved the working relationship for all.