JuNI
Why
Objective
Reduce operational costs by making data-backed decisions about resource requirements
Juniper Networks has 83 campuses around the world - each with different resource utilization patterns. Using internal network logs, the company could reduce operational costs and make smarter decisions about new campuses.
Activities such as booking a conference room, using a badge to gain access to a building, an employee connecting remotely through VPN etc all pass through the internal network. Capturing this information can help Juniper identify patterns such as which conference rooms are used frequently/infrequently, on what days employees are most likely to work from home etc. Leveraging this data, Juniper can realign its resources to reduce costs and also plan requirements for new offices based on current usage patterns.
Challenges
- Ever-growing data set - There will be large amounts of data being generated every single day. Users should be able to filter and sort the data easily to make sense of it.
- Unique requirements of target users - Depending on the type of user accessing the data, the interface would have to change to provide them with the relevant tools or options. For example, the requirements of the real estate team would be different from the security team.
Juniper Networks' HQ in Sunnyvale, CA
Who
Target Audience
The different data points collected through the network will be useful to the security, real estate and infrastructure teams within Juniper. However, for the proof-of-concept, we decided to focus only on the real estate team. Going forward, each team will get access to a dedicated application with relevant data, but they will all be consistent in terms of styling and layout.
Research - Interviews
We identified 2 colleagues within the real estate team with knowledge about facility-related requirements. I conducted multiple semi-structured interviews to find out how they currently tracked relevant data, what they had done so far to improve their process and what they were expecting out of the new tool.
Both participants were appreciative that they were given a chance to provide inputs on the design of a tool that they would eventually use.
Insights from Interviews
- Old-school approach to data management - The team uses Excel spreadsheets and manual work to manage large data sets. A tool that automates most of the work would be useful to them.
- Intermediate levels of technical skills - Most of the users in the real estate team are not advanced users, so the tool would have to be relatively simple to use.
- Open to change - The users seemed to be receptive to change and have an open mind towards new tools that would help them.
What
The Concept
JuNI is a web application that aggregates and visualizes resource utilization
JuNI (short for Juniper Network Intelligence) will empower internal real estate, security and infrastructure teams to make sense of resource utilization data from all 83 campuses in a single place
Wireframe - Dashboard
The dashboard provides a quick overview of data from all campuses. Using the interactive map on the desktop verison, users can zoom into specific locations to see detailed information.
Visual Design - Dashboard
Wireframe - Building
The building view provides detailed information about each building inside a Juniper campus. Data points cover 3 areas: seats, conference rooms and energy consumption.
Visual Design - Building
Wireframe - Conference Room
Visual Design - Conference Room
Screens for detailed information about seats and energy consumption are similar to the conference room screen shown above.
Visual Design - Networking App
The networking-dedicated app would look similar to the real estate app, but with a different color scheme
How
The Prototype
The prototype was built using HTML, CSS and Javascript. Here's a screencast which shows the dashboard map in use.