Safety Systems Designer
A new planning tool for configuring and managing fire alarm systems in complex buildings
Year: 2018
Company: Bosch Safety & Security Systems
Role: UX working student
Duration: A few years, I was involved for 8 months
Domain: Fire alarm systems
Team: Product manager, developers, external design agency
The challenges
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A new tool was required for planners to configure complex fire alarm systems across large buildings.
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It had to be aligned with the company-wide style guide.
My role
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I was the internal UX contact for the product team
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Collaborated with an external design agency and on the evolving UI, new icons and graphics
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Exchanged with central design department of Bosch to keep aligned with the newly developed style guide
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Created interactive prototypes and animations and refined the interaction concept
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Conducted regular online feedback-sessions with planners
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Defined a concept for general error handling in the software
Project context
When I joined the project, the overall concept of the software had already been defined. Development was in its early stages, and an external design agency had been commissioned to deliver the visual design of the main screens and graphics.
Design Process
Bridging design and development
My role was to bridge the gap between the static design deliverables from the agency and the functional prototype being developed by the internal team. While the agency provided high-fidelity screen designs, their deliverables did not specify interaction behaviour or user flows.
To address this, I worked closely with developers and the product manager to translate the visual designs into usable interaction concepts that could be implemented in the prototype.
Prototyping complex interactions
I created animated and interactive prototypes to clarify user flows and visualise interaction patterns. These prototypes helped define how the system should behave in different states and edge cases, and served as a shared reference for both design and development.
One example is the user flow for adding a new module to a loop. This task involves several steps: selecting a position within the loop, choosing the desired module, adjusting its specifications and receiving immediate feedback on whether the configuration is compatible with the existing setup. The prototypes made these multi-step interactions easier to understand and discuss.
Validation and iteration
Every two weeks, we held feedback sessions with planners from different regions around the world. During these calls, we reviewed the running prototype alongside the agency’s designs to gather early feedback and identify major usability issues.
This iterative approach allowed us to quickly address pain points, refine interaction details and align the design with real user needs before features were fully implemented.
The tool: Safety Systems Designer
Safety Systems Designer homepage. Overview of a fire alarm system, where one module of the system is currently selected in the UI and can be edited.
The software was released after my working student time ended, the final Safety Systems Designer can be explored and downloaded here.
As a working student at Bosch Safety and Security Systems
Between 2017 and 2018, I worked at Bosch Safety and Security Systems while completing my Master’s degree.
As member of the Central UX department, I supported multiple product teams for four months as an intern by running design thinking workshops, reviewing UI/UX across existing products, and helping different teams to implement the new company-wide style guide to their products.
In the Fire Alarm Systems department, I worked as a UX working student for the following 8 months, collaborating with an international development team. I contributed to the new planning tool "Safety Systems Designer" by creating mockups, interactive prototypes and UI components, as well as conducting user tests with international participants.
