Geminex: Metallurgical Digital Twin

Imagining a pioneering digital solution for monitoring and evaluating mining operations.

Goal

The mining industry is often seen as traditional and slow to change. However, Outotec's digital team was going to change that impression.

Their goal was to imagine a digital solution for monitoring and evaluating the full process flow of a mining operation. A 'digital twin' such as this could provide its users information about the impact of real and theoretical process changes on production, material streams and cost implications.

The first step was to design and develop a proof of concept.

To comply with non-disclosure agreements, I have omitted or altered any confidential information about the project.

CLIENT

Outotec

YEAR

2019

DEVELOPMENT TEAM

a solution owner, a designer and four developers

MY ROLE

service mapping, concept design, roadmapping, developer handoff, coordination

TOOLS

Sketch & Abstract, Atlassian, Miro, Teams

USERS

metallurgists, site and production managers, maintenance personnel

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The work

My role was to lead the design effort of Geminex. My role included:

Running workshops with process experts and decision makers to get a read on requirements and goals
Over many iterations and rounds of feedback, creating a proof-of-concept design for a digital twin that enables monitoring and simulation of a mining operation based on user inputs and expertise
Conducting interviews with metallurgists and site managers to continuously evaluate and validate the designs
Planning development milestones with our team and digital platforms director
Creating user interface specifications for development and coordinating development of key features

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Takeaways

This was the toughest design challenge I've faced. Even on the surface level, the logic for various metallurgical processes was very difficult to grasp, and almost every feature of the application - even as minimal version - required a complicated effort to design and develop. As a result, I grew a lot as a professional.

Especially beneficial were the social dynamics insights from facilitating workshops with subject matter experts, and the practice in planning error-proof information hierarchies and feedback mechanisms in the user experience.

As a pleasant bonus I got to know many great talents in both management and development, who spurred me on to constantly improve my design game.