Appliance Management App

Streamlining UI Design for Enhanced Energy Management

Overview

Panasonic aimed to modernize appliance management for its commercial clients, especially within QSR environments. The solution needed to support both business operations and field service maintenance.

We designed a dual-platform app suite for franchise managers and technicians—streamlining workflows, improving energy insights, and reducing appliance downtime.

The Challenge

Panasonic needed a dual-platform solution that would:

Give franchise managers real-time insights into appliance health and power consumption
Help businesses reduce energy costs and improve operational efficiency
Equip technicians with remote diagnostic tools and step-by-step servicing workflows
Reduce appliance downtime with faster issue resolution
Maintain a consistent experience across mobile and desktop platforms

This required designing around constraints such as varying technical proficiency, mobile-only access in the field, and the operational urgency common in the QSR industry.

Our Approach

The app had to cater to a wide range of users, from franchise managers to equipment technicians. To accomplish this, we conducted extensive research and analysis of each user persona, their goals, and their operational context. This enabled us to develop optimized workflows tailored to their most common tasks. We streamlined these workflows by removing distracting or irrelevant UI components, allowing each user to operate at full efficiency.

Roles, and workflows and usage patterns:

Interviewed franchise managers, regional supervisors, and in-house service techs
Shadowed maintenance technicians during real-world appliance repairs
Analyzed power usage patterns and service logs across locations

Key insights included:

Managers needed at-a-glance dashboards that were readable on tablets and laptops
Techs required rugged, tap-friendly interfaces usable on the go, often with gloves
Notifications had to distinguish between critical alerts and low-priority events

Personas

To ensure the app was genuinely useful and usable across all user types, we identified and designed around four distinct personas. Each group had specific goals, operational contexts, and interaction patterns. By tailoring the UI and workflows to meet these unique needs, we created a more focused, efficient experience that supports users in making fast, informed decisions.

Franchise Owners

Focused on day-to-day operations and long-term business growth. Needed visibility into appliance performance, energy use, and efficiency trends across all their stores.

Location Managers

Tasked with maintaining smooth store operations and responding to staff and customer concerns. Required timely alerts and easy-to-follow summaries of equipment performance and incidents.

Technicians

Provided essential appliance maintenance and repairs. Needed real-time diagnostics, step-by-step servicing workflows, and alerts prioritized by urgency.

Manufacturers

Responsible for monitoring overall system performance and ensuring product reliability. Required access to aggregated performance metrics and error logs to support continuous improvement.Focused on efficiency and uptime. They required access to diagnostic workflows, error logs, part availability, and guided troubleshooting—all while working under time pressure in noisy, high-traffic environments.

The Solution Manager Dashboard & Technician App

We delivered two integrated apps—one for franchise managers, one for technicians—designed to reduce cognitive load through progressive disclosure and real-time data visualization. The interface adapts to user role, context, and device for maximum efficiency.

We also focused on clear, actionable dashboards designed to present the most important system data at a glance—even for users with little to no technical expertise. These dashboards prioritize key operational metrics like energy consumption, incident logs, and real-time appliance status. Items requiring action are highlighted with intuitive indicators and routed through alert mechanisms with clear guidance, empowering users to take swift, informed action.

Manager Dashboard

A centralized view of appliance health, energy consumption, and active issues. Users could filter by location, appliance type, or date range, and receive intelligent alerts based on custom thresholds. The system also monitors cooking temperatures, detects spikes in energy usage or electrical load, and highlights irregularities in appliance behavior. When applicable, it offers suggestions for optimization—helping operators reduce consumption, prevent waste, and maintain consistent cooking performance.

Technician Mobile App

Built with offline access and step-by-step diagnostics, this tool enabled faster issue resolution. Techs could scan appliance codes, view real-time system data, and follow troubleshooting paths optimized for service efficiency. The application actively monitors commercial appliance status and automatically records data from three minutes before and after any detected incident. It highlights the affected module, suggests possible causes, and provides step-by-step repair guidance along with a list of required parts—streamlining the diagnostic and maintenance process.

Role-Based Access Control

Secure authentication system tailored for managers, technicians, and manufacturers, with permissions aligned to each role’s responsibilities.

Real-Time Sync & Offline Support

Cloud integration with real-time data sync across web and mobile platforms, plus offline functionality for technicians in the field.

Intelligent Alerts & Notifications

Context-aware notifications that differentiate between critical and low-priority events, minimizing alert fatigue.

Incident Buffering & Analysis

Automatic logging of appliance behavior three minutes before and after an incident, with module-level diagnostics and repair guidance.

Usage & Efficiency Monitoring

Continuous monitoring of energy use, cooking temperatures, and electrical spikes, with data visualizations and optimization suggestions.

Simplified, Actionable Dashboards

Unified UI components that summarize status and highlight the most urgent or cost-impacting data points for fast decision-making.

Let's work together

Looking for a Streamlined, User-Centered App? Contact us today to create a custom application that delivers the information your users need—efficiently and intuitively.