Selective Download Feature

PROFESSIONAL WORK

PROJECT TYPE
Interaction Design

SECTOR
Construction Tech

PLATFORM
Web Page, Mobile: iOS, Android

TIMELINE
4 months

ABOUT PRODUCT

This feature is a part of enterprise application in construction tech sector. The product platform offers a variety of tools and features to help digitize manual forms and construction paper work to boost efficiency and manage resources. 
The Selective Download Feature was designed to manage device memory and time consumed to download a site project. This feature also enables users to sort, filter, select, and download checklists to their mobile devices that are relevant to them at that time—there by improving overall experience.

MY RESPONSIBILITIES

I led the discovery, research, design, and user testing for the tools (checklists) in the enterprise product, under the mentorship of my design manager. I collaborated with cross functional team (Product, Design, Engineering) to design and implement solution.

CONTEXT

Uncovering Critical Field Limitations

Construction's Documentation Challenge

After technical investigation it was discovered that users were downloading large projects that contained 5k+ checklists—documentation related to construction site containing images, videos, meta-data and questions—locally to their mobile devices that they used on field.

Since the construction site often did not have network and the checklists needed to be stored locally on the device.

These large projects occupied a lot of storage space causing lag and consequently causing failure in synchronization of the data to the mobile device creating interruptions in the user workflow.

Field Workers' Connectivity Dilemma

ROOT OF THE PROBLEM

When 5,000 Checklists Crash Mobile Devices

We discovered the direct correlation between large project sizes (5,000+ checklists) and app performance degradation.

Construction companies rely heavily on documentation and checklists to ensure safety, quality, and compliance.
As the industry digitizes these traditionally paper-based processes, new challenges emerge in managing the vast amount of data generated across construction sites.

Field workers at construction sites frequently operate in environments with limited or no network connectivity. They depend on mobile devices to access critical documentation, complete inspections, and record site information.
These professionals need reliable access to relevant checklists regarding connectivity status.

User-Centered Priority:
Facilitating Seamless On-Site Inspections

The main purpose of this application is to seamlessly integrate into the workflow of the user who is doing the inspection at the construction site.

The user’s goals are to complete the inspection of the construction site and update the checklist and the job of the application is to aid the user to be able to achieve their goal by aiding to complete the task successfully.

Identifying Storage and Sync Bottlenecks

DISCOVERY PHASE

Mining Support Data for User Needs

As this was an enterprise application in a B2B space, direct user access was limited. I adapted my research approach by:

  • Collaborating with the product manager to obtain
    existing insights

  • Conducting detailed interviews with customer support managers who interacted directly with clients

DESIGN OPPORTUNITY

Lightweight Access to Heavy Documentation

The discovery process, despite the limitations of direct user access, pointed to a clear opportunity:

creating a reliable selective download system that would allow users to filter and choose only the checklists relevant to their immediate needs, dramatically reducing local storage requirements there by improved the application performance while maintaining essential offline functionality.

HOW?

Reimagining Data Access for Field Workers

Based on our insights, we developed a solution concept that fundamentally changed how checklists were downloaded and stored. Instead of downloading entire projects with all checklists, the new approach would:

  1. Download only project metadata initially

  2. Enable users to filter, select and download specific checklists relevant to their current tasks

  3. Allow on-demand downloading of selected checklists

  4. Provide management capabilities to delete completed checklists from local storage

Cross-Functional Validation:
Engineering Feasibility and Business Value

Before finalizing the design, I collaborated with developers to validate technical feasibility:

  • Confirmed that selective downloading would substantially reduce storage requirements

  • Verified that synchronization processes would improve with smaller data packages

  • Ensured the solution was implementable within project constraints

From Concept to UI

Parallel to working on the details of the interaction, we also iterated and created the low fidelity prototypes that would support the concept.

After a couple of iterations, the design team selected the 2 concepts that worked the best and presented it to developers to understand the scope of work required on the front end. After technical analysis the design direction was finalised. We decided to go ahead with option B: Tab Design.

DECISION TASK ANALYSIS

Refining the Selection Experience

Once the engineering team did technical analysis, the design team went back to the concept and refined the details of workflow to address the edge cases.

Efficient Selection System: Empowering User Control of Critical Documentation

The final design solution featured:

  • A filtering interface allowing selection by date, category, status, and assignment

  • Clear visual indicators of download status

  • Batch selection capabilities for efficient workflow

  • Simple management tools to remove unnecessary checklists from local storage

Before: All-or-nothing Approach

Users were forced to download entire projects containing thousands of checklists, resulting in excessive storage usage, poor app performance, and frequent synchronization failures. The all-or-nothing approach meant field workers often struggled with overcrowded devices and sluggish interfaces while trying to complete critical documentation.

The new selective download feature empowers users to choose exactly which checklists they need. By downloading only project metadata initially and then selecting specific relevant checklists, users now experience faster performance, reliable synchronization, and efficient use of device storage.

Now: Selective and Efficient

OUR SOLUTION

Optimize the workflow

From this…

To this

Feature enables the user to

For iOS and ANDROID APPLICATIONS

Impact Assessment: Performance Metrics

This design-led solution by our team stood out not only for our tool but it was subsequently showcased to other Centers of Excellence working on different tools within the organization, serving as a model approach for addressing similar challenges related to sync issues across multiple product lines.

THE DESIGN PROCESS

The journey to develop this feature was anything but straightforward. Behind this documentation lies a complex process filled with ongoing discussions, multiple iterations, and several approaches that we had to eventually pivot from.

Proper technical analysis was necessary to validate the feature's viability and as a designer it was my responsibiltiy to justify the allocation of time and resources that went into this. This project represents a pivotal moment in my design career, as it highlighted the realities of design practice in industry and the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration.

REFLECTIONS

Retro-fitting aspect of Design

Working on this enterprise construction application taught me a crucial lesson:

I learned that when modifying core workflows in established products, maintaining design consistency is essential. I learnt how to carefully balance introducing new functionality while ensuring the interface remained familiar and avoided creating dependencies that might complicate future development. This project reinforced my commitment to thoughtful design that considers all touchpoints in the user journey while solving both technical constraints and user experience challenges simultaneously.
My takeaway from this project was that, Design does not happen in vaccum and an efficient designer needs to learn how to introduce solutions while recognizing and maintaining the things that already work.

TOOLS USED

Figma and Adobe Illustrator

Claude AI tool was used for the
documentation of this project.

All illustrations are made using Procreate
and owned by Anushree Joshi.