From Complexity to Great UX: Sciemetric's UX Transformation

How TARA Systems helped Sciemetric transform fragmented software applications into a customer-validated new product with a great user experience — trusted by Ford, John Deere, and Cummins.

Sciemetric’s in-process test and monitoring systems enable manufacturers to find defects as they occur during assembly on the production line. When Sciemetric set out to modernize its software platform, the goal wasn’t simply a redesigned interface.

Over the years, several applications including reporting, test execution, configuration, and custom tools had been added to the software, but together they left users with a fragmented experience. The interface was complex, with inconsistencies across these applications that made it challenging for users to maximize their usage of the system without training or additional effort.

Sciemetric partnered with TARA Systems in 2024 to establish a structured UX process and bring these capabilities together into one coherent, scalable interface for their new product. While Sciemetric retained ownership of product development and implementation, TARA Systems contributed UX and UI expertise, helping the team define workflows, validate concepts with users, and translate product ideas into interactive prototypes that guided the future development.

The UI concept mock-up allowed us to review new functionality with our customers and obtain key product feedback, ensuring the final product will meet their functional and reporting needs. The mock-up has saved Sciemetric many iterations of screen development and ensured we cover all of our users' expectations.

Starting with Understanding Users

Rather than jumping straight into visuals, the project began with an analysis of the existing software applications, competitor research, persona development, and mapping of the key user workflows. The focus was understanding how customers actually use the current products on the production floor, with the goal of a best-in-class experience that works across platforms, integrates with Sciemetric’s central data system, and requires minimal documentation to use. This early work gave stakeholders a shared foundation for the decisions that followed.

Turning Ideas into Usable Prototypes

Interactive Figma prototypes became the centerpiece of the collaboration. Working closely with Sciemetric’s product experts, our UX Design Expert Christiane Moser turned concepts and workflow ideas into realistic, explorable prototypes, long before a line of code was written. The team could experience complete workflows instead of discussing them abstractly.
The first focus was the reporting environment, refined through multiple design iterations into a comprehensive prototype. Attention then shifted to settings and configuration, where a growing number of system settings called for a new approach: a hierarchical tree navigation replacing traditional tabs. The result became the largest application prototype Sciemetric had built to date with more than 20 user flows and 285 Mock-ups.

Validation Through Continuous User Feedback

Prototypes were reviewed regularly with internal stakeholders and key external customers. These sessions surfaced real expectations, deviations in workflows, and usability issues early, before development resources were committed, turning the prototypes into a practical tool for discussion and decision-making.

Accelerating Development Through UX

The interactive prototype and the design mock-ups became a shared reference for product owners, stakeholders, and developers alike. Instead of revisiting interface decisions mid-implementation, the Sciemetric development team worked from a validated foundation, reducing uncertainty and design rework, and helping speed up delivery. As Sciemetric put it, the prototypes gave their development team a complete blueprint of the intended experience before implementation even began.

A Partnership Focused on Growth

As the project progressed, Sciemetric’s own team became increasingly involved in shaping concepts and driving UX discussions, with TARA Systems shifting from leading the design work to providing guidance, feedback, and UI expertise. What began as a UX engagement grew into a close partnership enabling Sciemetric on building both a better product and stronger in-house UX capabilities.

Results

The collaboration helped Sciemetric consolidate multiple applications into one unified experience, validate concepts directly with customers before development, and establish lasting UX practices within the organization, creating a scalable foundation the team continues to build on today.