Fab Alert · Semiconductor operations · 2024
Turn a factory alert into a clear response.
A factory overview shows many equipment states, but a responder needs one narrow, actionable view.
My role: I owned the information hierarchy, large-screen and mobile interaction design, and prototype. I compared layout directions and refined the response flow with the team.
Key decision: Use the wall to prioritise location, severity and alert volume, then progressively disclose fab, zone, equipment and machine detail. Carry the same alert context into a six-screen mobile response flow.
What happened: The work became an interactive monitoring-wall and mobile concept for a customer demonstration.
Preserve the alert context from detection to response.
A factory overview can show many equipment states at once, while a technician responding to one alert needs a narrow, actionable view. Repeating the same dashboard on a phone would bury the decision; stripping away too much context would make the alert hard to trust.
Separate monitoring from responding.
Domain input → information needs → surface responsibilities
I combined domain-expert input with a review of semiconductor monitoring conventions. The monitoring team needs to scan broadly and decide where attention is needed. A responder needs enough context to investigate a specific machine. Those tasks require different information hierarchies.
Monitoring wall
Operators need to spot where an issue sits, how severe it is and which facility needs attention.
Mobile response
Once an alert is selected, the responder needs the affected equipment, its state and a clear path to investigate.
One alert, different hierarchies
Preserve alert identity across surfaces while changing the density of information for the task at hand.
Prioritise before asking people to investigate.
Prioritisation before investigation
The wall foregrounds location, severity and alert volume. Progressive disclosure narrows the view from the regional overview to the affected fab and zone. Equipment and machine details appear as the investigation becomes more specific.
Why this hierarchy: keep the regional view scannable, then reveal the facility and zone detail when the operator commits to investigating an alert.
Preserve the incident as the detail increases.
From highlighted zone to machine state
I compared layouts against the customer-demonstration task: locate an alert, identify the affected equipment and inspect its history. The selected sequence retains alert context across those steps. The responder should not have to reconstruct the incident when moving between views.
Design trade-off: the wall can show more parallel states; equipment detail gives one responder a focused view. The layouts are related, rather than duplicated.
Carry the same alert into mobile response.
A portable sequence for field review
The six-screen mobile flow moves through overview, fab selection, facility status, zone equipment, alert list and machine detail. Each screen answers a more focused question. The phone carries the alert’s location, severity and equipment context without reproducing the monitoring wall’s density.
Six mobile screens · Swipe or use the arrows to follow the response.
Connect factory-wide awareness with an equipment-level response.
The concept connected factory-wide awareness with an equipment-level response. The central design decision was to change the information hierarchy for each task while preserving the identity of the alert.
What I would test next: time from alert to action in a live operations trial.
Not yet measured: production impact, since this was a customer-demonstration concept.