Project Overview
While working at Allegion, I collaborated with a team of developers to create a web application that would be used as a central hub for people to create and manage doors and openings. Allegion recognized that specifying door hardware (locks, closers, exit devices, etc.) is a complex process involving many stakeholders — architects, hardware specifiers, contractors, etc. Within the application, being able to collaborate on building plans in real-time was a major feature the team designed.
The goal of Overtur was to create a centralized environment for various roles in the building industry to collaborate on building projects.
The challenge was providing a good user experience for several differing roles of the building industry while designing an intuitive interface.
The Process
Understanding a fragmented workflow
The design process began with extensive user research involving architects, BIM managers, specification writers, and field inspectors.
Through interviews, workflow shadowing, and multiple multi-day usability workshop called Ascent Conferences, we uncovered consistent pain points:
- Hardware schedules were maintained manually and frequently fell out of sync across teams.
- Version control was a major source of rework and risk. Field inspections lacked a standardized digital process.
- Hardware specifications and orders were disconnected, creating duplicate effort.
- Communication between office and field teams was slow and unreliable.
This stage established a deep understanding of the current ecosystem and user base.
Turning insights into a clear problem statement
From research, we synthesized a focused set of design challenges with just a few problem statements as examples:
- How might we centralize hardware data so every stakeholder works from a single source of truth?
- How might we improve visibility into decisions and changes across the team?
We translated these into functional requirements for the web application.
Exploring solutions for collaboration and clarity
We facilitated cross-functional ideation sessions with product, development, and data science.
Together, we developed concept explorations in several areas:
- A cloud architecture for collaboration and data consistency.
- Visual change-tracking tools to show what changed, where, and when.
- A hardware set builder to organize hardware groups efficiently.
- Reporting structures for both office and field teams.
These explorations shaped the foundation for prototypes and future feature sets.
Prototyping and Ideating
We produced a range of prototypes—from low-fidelity flows to high-fidelity interactive screens:
Early UI concepts for desktop including change-tracking visualizations, early reporting formats for field documentation and a collaborative floor plan mode with a wide range of hardware specification tools.
Prototypes were shared with users and internal experts to validate assumptions before committing to development.
Validating with real users
We conducted multiple rounds of usability testing and pilot programs with hardware consultants and architects who tested the hardware set builder, reporting app and change-tracking tools.
Pilot projects then uncovered additional needs such as offline functionality, intuitive industry nomenclature and faster batch updates.
Feedback directly informed refinements to navigation, data structure, terminology, and the overall workflow.
Launching the Big Product
Overtur launched to the public as a cloud-first collaboration platform in late 2017 to much enthusiasm.
Each update release afterwards emphasized clarity, collaboration, and reducing rework for users across the building project lifecycle.
Continuous evolution through user feedback.
Post-launch, we maintained a continuous improvement loop by:
- Collecting feature requests and feedback through a public resource center.
- Improving UI elements, filtering, search, and reporting based on real usage.
- Enhancing architecture to increase performance and allow for future inspection types.
- Updating tools regularly to reflect new building standards and industry workflows.
Overtur became a central hub for door hardware coordination, bridging the gap between design, construction, and facility management.
By grounding the process in Design Thinking, we delivered a platform that reduced rework and improved collaboration while supporting a scalable, modular future.
Final Thoughts
When I first joined the team and project, I had limited knowledge of the door and hardware industry. Coming from a marketing background that emphasized “pixel-perfect” design and messaging, collaborating closely with developers and business leaders was a new—but exciting—experience for me.
Through ongoing communication among the design team, business leads, and user groups, we were able to conceptualize and iterate on application designs that were truly user-driven. Watching the application evolve through multiple design and development iterations before its initial launch was both challenging and deeply rewarding.
This project helped me discover something important about myself: I have a genuine passion for solving problems that create meaningful improvements for users. And, of course, I can now confidently say I know what a continuous hinge is!
