For my Bachelor's thesis, I designed and developed an IoT sensor management portal for the Maintenance Lab at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). I took on a designer and full-stack developer role for the creation of the portal, while focusing on researching the requirements for the thesis.
The Need for a Portal
The Maintenance Lab at the HvA has a lot of sensors used for scientific research into the maintenance of machines and buildings. Before the portal was developed, these sensors needed to be programmed individually for every research project. This was a time-consuming process that required a lot of technical knowledge. Students spent most of their time on programming instead of researching. It could take weeks before they had all the necessary knowledge and code, with some students discovering certain sensors weren't suitable for their research only after spending all that time. The intention was for the portal to simplify and speed up this process, as well as create a central point of access.
User Experience Research
Two phases of research were conducted to determine the requirements for the portal. The first phase consisted of interviews with students and staff from the Maintenance Lab. The second phase consisted of a usability test with a prototype of the portal. The results of the research were used to create a list of requirements for the portal. Between the two phases of research, various designs were wireframed and tested. The final design was created in Figma and implemented in a functional prototype.
Many surprising insights were gained from the research. For example, one of the biggest pain points for students was the lack of documentation for the sensors. The documentation that was available was oftentimes only available in Chinese. What students wanted most was very simple: the ability to pick up a sensor and collect some testing data. This would help them quickly get started and determine if the sensor was suitable for their research. That is one of many insights that transformed into requirements for the portal.
Development
The portal was one of three components, with the project also consisting of a gateway communicating with the sensors and the sensors itself. The portal prototype was developed using React and MUI in the front-end, Express in the back-end, with MongoDB for the database.
The functional prototype was tested with students and staff from the Maintenance Lab. The feedback was positive, with users finding the portal generally easy to use. The results also validated the requirements that were determined in the previous research phase.
Conclusion
A clear set of requirements were determined through the interviews and validated through user testing. The portal will have a positive impact on the research process at the Maintenance Lab, as it will significantly reduce the time spent on preparing sensors for research. Instead of weeks of trial and error, students can now start their research within minutes. To read more about this project, please view the full thesis below.