Classic glass bottle
Grip · shake · wait
Learning / UX at KB Signaling
People first. Then the interface.
Good experiences start
with better questions.
Explore UX, challenge assumptions and follow a fictional railway product from problem to prototype.
Understand
Explore
Try
Discuss
What is UX?
The experience people have while trying to accomplish something.
Find the right asset
Locate the information needed for the task.
Understand what matters
Make sense of the context, not just the screen.
Know what to do next
Complete the task and understand the result.
02 / The ketchup test
Same goal. Different experience.
Get the right amount of ketchup onto your food. What changes between these designs?
Cap-down squeeze bottle
Grip · squeeze · control
Which would you choose, for whom and under what conditions?
Both have UI and UX.
UI: the interface
Controls, labels, visual hierarchy and feedback. Here, the shape, grip, cap and opening influence the interaction.
UX: the whole experience
Accomplishing the goal in context: effort, control, waiting and cleanup, before, during and after use.
The squeeze bottle changes the trade-offs; it is not universally better for every person and situation. An audience vote is a discussion input, not user validation.
Where do our products make people “shake the bottle”?
03 / When to do UX
When should we do UX?
Whenever we need to understand a person, a task or a source of friction—not only before a new release.
New product
Who needs it, what problem deserves solving and what happens today?
Start with the uncertainty. Feedback may point to an interface problem, missing information or an underlying process. UX continues after release.
04 / The UX process
A process that loops
Learn something. Adjust. Repeat. These are useful questions, not a rigid series of gates.
Understand
Who is involved, what are they trying to do and what happens today?
Useful output: research questions, observed context and assumptions to investigate.
Learn ↻ Understand → Define → Explore → Prototype → Test
05 / Meet RailLens
Meet KB RailLens
Arrive prepared. Understand the site. Capture the findings.
Fictional product concept
An informational field companion.
Imagine a tablet experience that brings assignment context and asset information together, with an optional future augmented-reality view.
It does not control signaling equipment.
Illustrative concept / no live data
Next visit · Example Junction
- Assignment
- Review site context and document a finding
- Asset
- DEMO-102
- What needs attention?
- Preparation information is incomplete
The idea, users and capabilities are assumptions for this exercise—not a product announcement.
06 / Users & journeys
Whose experience are we designing?
Select a hypothesized user, then explore a journey stage and a working condition.
Hypotheses to investigate, not research findings.
Field technician
Goal: prepare for a visit and record a clear handoff.
A proposed journey
Change the conditions
Explore preparation downloads, information freshness and pending-work feedback. Validate the need and technical feasibility with users and engineering.
07 / Design & test
Explore before we polish
Compare approaches against the task, then test with representative users.
Choose an approach and explain why. This records a discussion preference, not a validated winner.
Completion
Can the person finish the task?
Friction
Where are wrong turns and requests for help?
Clarity
Do they understand the result and next step?
08 / Design system
Now bring in the design system
We know what the experience needs to support. Reuse reviewed components to express it consistently.
User goal
Journey
Screen structure
Shared components
09 / Build challenge
Build it together
Optional stretch goal: prompt a coding assistant in Visual Studio or your preferred editor, then evaluate the result against the task.
A brief before a prompt
- User
- Field technician
- Task
- Prepare and record a finding
- Use
- kb-design-standard skill
- Scope
- One screen, fictional local data
- Check
- Keyboard, states, light and dark
Read or select the full prompt
A prepared fallback
Try a small local prototype if the live build is unavailable. It is already prepared; it is not a coding tool running behind this page.
In-memory demo only. No real devices, backend storage or offline synchronization.
Fictional local prototype
My next visit
Example Junction · Asset DEMO-102
Preparation information is missing
Site-history attachment is not supplied in this fictional assignment. Confirm the information needed before the visit.
Findings exist only in this page session and are cleared when the page reloads.