ge transportation
digital studio

The Problem

Every tool in the GE Transportation product suite used different patterns for the same components, which caused friction between systems and increased time necessary to upgrade. Maps, trains, yards, cranes, and alerts all had different styles across the GE suite of products.

the goal

Create a unified Design System for the GE suite of transportation software solutions to increase communication, visibility, and align experiences across products.

GE Transportation product suite prior to redesign

The process

To understand the current state, I collaborated with our UX researcher to run a two-day stakeholder workshop. We conducted interviews with users and compiled existing research across tools, grouping common themes as we came across topics from various users.

We assembled hundreds of screenshots in an audit of over 30 of our products. Through this process, we were able to identify opportunity areas. Mapping and iconography quickly emerged as components of our product suite that would have a major impact on our products. By starting with these elements, we were able to create geographic track abstractions and transportation iconography that could be reused across our entire product suite. Trains, tracks, railcars, cranes, drivers, switches, and signals were the main components that we focused on for the first release of our design system.

Examples of existing products from audit

Through this process, we aligned on four core values for the GE Transportation Digital Studio. Our design system needed to be:

Scalable • Flexible • Actionable • Evergreen

We used the Predix Design System as our foundation for the core interface components – principles and basics such as buttons, form fields, error messaging, etc. – and we touched base with the Predix design team throughout our design process to ensure that our vision was aligned to the overall GE vision.