Rockwell Automation
At Rockwell Automation, I worked as UX designer and accessibility consultant on software for configuring, programming and monitoring industrial production plants, designed not for casual users, but for deeply experienced automation professionals. The challenge was twofold: creating a low-friction migration path for users attached to legacy versions, and rethinking accessibility from the ground up for a niche where standard web guidelines are simply not enough.
Role
UX Designer, Accessibility consultant
Outcome
A new software created for and with expert users
Designing for a Highly Specialized User Base
This project stood apart because of who the end users were: not casual visitors to an app, but professionals with deep expertise in industrial automation, configuring and programming entire production plants through the software we were designing. Understanding their day-to-day interaction with such a specific, niche platform was one of the biggest challenges of the project.
On top of that came the human side of the problem: many users were comfortable with earlier versions of the software and had little interest in migrating. Our job was to design an interface simple and intuitive enough to remove that friction, making the transition feel like an improvement, not a disruption, for people who already knew exactly what they needed from their tools.
Redefining Accessibility for Industrial Software
The part of this project I enjoyed most was tackling accessibility from a completely different angle. Accessibility for industrial automation software isn't the same conversation as accessibility for a website or an app, it demanded a different set of conditions altogether, built around how these specific users program and monitor processes on a production floor.
To get it right, I had to research the space in depth and talk directly with real users, working to define the accessibility conditions that actually applied to this context. That meant identifying the exact barriers automation professionals could face while configuring or monitoring plant processes, and translating those findings into standards the software could realistically be designed around.