The Future of Optical Labs

‍How it started:

Mark V. Hurst, a pioneer in the Optical Lab industry, is on a mission: To streamline the technology Labs are currently using.

As of today, there are hundreds of Optical Finishing Labs in the US. Each of them are using their own legacy software system.

It gets more complicated when the optician in their local shop needs to send in edging orders to the lab. They need to use a 3rd party software to send over the orders. Insane!

After meeting with Mark in his studio office in NYC, we defined what the core challenges are:

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The challenges:

1. Optical stores need an easier way to submit orders
2. Labs are using very dates and legacy non-cloud systems
3. Lab operators have very little visibly on the production
4. There is no good communication between labs and the Opticians

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Project's Goals:

The goals for this project were very clear:

• Create a simple portal that Opticians can submit orders to labs easily
• Allow Optical Shops with multiple locations, share and sync jobs
• The Cloud-based app should connect to lab machine and scanning systems
• Labs should be able to manage the complete production out of one software

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The UX Process:

Market Research:
Together with the team, we research every existing solution on the Market. We saw the good, the bad and the ugly. We Interviewed multiple opticians and labs to see what's out there and what works.

Learning the Machine:‍

In order to create a seamless experience for our future customers, it needed to integrate with their in-shop edgers. We inspects and played with the edger and mapped out the User Journy in the spot!

Some early stage sketches:

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The Solution:

After compiling all the research and market data, our team set out to create a new solution. 

With the new Software - Opticians and labs will be able to operate more efficiently and it will change the landscape of the optical industry forever!

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Here are some shots of the final product: