Transforming nuclear operations

Revolutionizing and future-proofing nuclear plant operations through Digital Transformation

Designed, developed and launched a modern, scalable ecosystem to replace outdated platforms, ensuring the ongoing evaluation and excellence in the operation of commercial nuclear power plants.

Digital Transformation, Industrial / Manufacturing, Innovate

overview

INPO (Institute of Nuclear Power Operations) came to us with a 20 year old platform that is creating an incredible amount of technical debt and risk for their users as they work to evaluate nuclear plants across the globe.

INPO conducts plant evaluations at nuclear stations and identifies both strengths and areas for improvement to ensure ongoing performance of nuclear energy plants.

industries

Nuclear power
Nonprofit organization

services

Alignment workshop report
UX Analysis
Product strategy
UX research design
Design system
Functional prototype
Agile team development
MVP deliverable

The challenge

INPO’s existing observation and evaluation applications were not only inefficient but also hindered critical cross-operational work and collaboration both internally and externally. The outdated platform struggled with maintainability, security, and functionality, posing significant challenges:

To provide one place for observation and collaboration capture
Seamless and simple user experience for INPO team members and plant employees
Ease of use for the industry to collaborate
Product built in way to ensure interoperability and future integrations

Our process

Deliver a concept prototype

After gaining a deeper understanding of the users process and needs, we were able to define a vision for the product’s UX redesign and create a clickable prototype.

Validate with real users

With the prototype in hand, INPO had a tangible product to validate with their users and get insights.

Development set up for success

Once we gained product validation from both users and stakeholders, we were able to define and document the solution architecture.

“Digital Scientists has been a strong partner of INPO, providing continued communication with our users who have been waiting a long time for this platform. Digital Scientists designed and developed efficient products for us that allow our busy evaluators to focus on what matters most.”

Chameka Amerson

Director, Information Technology

user research

Defining the user needs

Through stakeholder interviews, alignment workshops and co-creation sessions, we began our efforts with the users in mind. We were informed by INPO leadership the measure for success for these applications depended entirely on user adoption. We took that to heart for every step of this ongoing engagement.

We didn’t rely solely on interviews in the beginning of our process, we relief on user feedback every step of the way.

The following are the research activities:

Distill previously completed internal interviews and processes
On-site user interviews with number of different users and stakeholders
Alignment workshop in order to ensure product vision and goals
Co-creation sessions to work through team priorities across the organization
Executive bi-monthly updates, with sprint reports, velocity, and aligned goals

clickable prototype

Bringing vision to life with a clickable prototype

Through client documentation, demos, and workshops, we defined a strategy and user flow prioritization. We created wireframes that showed the user experience, designed a visual direction, followed by a clickable prototype.

The value of the clickable prototype is that they now have something tangible to drive internal discussions. It brings their vision to life and shows how it could improve their process and collaboration.

Information architecture
Wireframes
Visual design
Customized design system
Scalable design

Before: Scattered, dated tools created a bottleneck for completing tasks and a security risk

Separate platforms for evaluations and reports, with many manual steps and broken communication flow.

After: Integrated platform makes for a more efficient and valuable experience

Simplified, integrated platform with enhanced organization and collaboration capabilities for both internal and external users.

INPO Evaluators will now be able to efficiently share and receive feedback from the Station Counterpart. An added activity component provides transparency and dialogue.

Previously, much of this was done manually and in-person using multiple systems.

design system deliverable

Custom design system & component library

Another valuable deliverable was a customized design system, which provides a library of styles and components to efficiently and consistently scale their products. This library was then developed by our internal and nearshore development team, allowing our client to easily access these design elements across many different internal products, creating consistency, as well as saving their internal developers time and resources.

agile approach to development

Continual development, validation with stakeholders and application refinement

The internal and external stakeholders had eagerly anticipated this transformative update for years. Recognizing the urgency, our primary objective was to deliver a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to users as swiftly as possible.

By employing agile development methodologies and continuously refining our backlog, we enabled rapid, iterative testing and feedback from users. This approach not only allowed us to swiftly adapt to user priorities but also ensured that we were consistently aligned with their needs, delivering a solution that truly met their expectations.

The results

The collaboration with INPO yielded impressive results.

Operational efficiency

Streamlined processes reduced task completion times by over 30%, significantly enhancing productivity.

User adoption

Feedback from INPO team members highlighted improved ease of use and effectiveness in daily operations.

Enhanced security

Updated systems met modern security standards, mitigating previous risks.

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