N° 03 · Selected work

Gamified Onboarding for a factory simulation tool

Internship at Fraunhofer and Van Den Bos Robotics.

UI Design Iterative Design User Research

Role: UX Researcher (Intern)
Org: Fraunhofer / Van Den Bos Robotics
Duration: 4 months + thesis follow-on
Stack: Python (PyQt5) · Figma · Inkscape

Overview

During my internship at Fraunhofer, I built a factory simulation tool that let employees quickly mock up factory layouts to calculate where transport bottlenecks would form. The tool was designed for speed: drag-and-drop components, snap compatible components to one another, and modify properties of placed components — without sacrificing the precision an industrial planner needs.

For my thesis follow-on I built a second version of the same tool with a gamified onboarding process — progressive unlocks, mission objectives, sound, and a slightly different layout — to test whether gamification affected user engagement and cognitive load during first-time use.

Final design

The shipped tool.

The version that landed with internal users at Van Den Bos Robotics — refined layout, configured component snapping, and the properties side panel for fine-grained adjustments after placement.

The final design of the factory simulation tool, showing the polished layout editor with placed components and the configuration sidebar. — Fig. 01 · Final shipped design — internal release at Van Den Bos Robotics

Outcomes

What the work produced.

01: Studied the effect of gamified onboarding on engagement and cognitive load.
02: Built a progressive unlocking system, mission objectives, and sound for the simulation.
03: Conducted user research, interviews, and prototyping throughout the internship.
04: Designed, built, and shipped the tool to internal users at Van Den Bos.

Skills practised

User interviews Prototyping Wireframing Python · PyQt5 Figma Inkscape Iterative design