PDMS - DPM - FDA, Intern Experience Design
Fusion Makersite Plug-in
Empowering Designers with Real-Time Sustainability Insights
My Role
UX Designer on a cross-functional team with product managers, developers, and sustainability strategists at Autodesk.
Key Contributions
Workflow Design, UI/UX Design, Prototyping, Support User Testing
The Challenge
Up to 80% of a product's environmental impact is locked in during the design phase, yet designers lacked the tools to understand this impact without becoming sustainability experts. How might we integrate real-time carbon and cost data directly into the design environment to enable sustainable decision-making without compromising workflow?
So, What is “Makersite Plug-in for Fusion” ?
- Makersite is an Plug-in for Fusion and Inventor that allows designers to instantly calculate the carbon emissions and cost of their design.
- In Fusion Manage, the Makersite add-on can also help designers manage compliance requirements and regulations.
- With this information, manufacturing companies can accelerate product development, increase sustainability, or reduce costs.
01
The Problem & The Vision
The Sustainability Gap in Design
Autodesk's mission is to help customers design and make a better world. While tools like Fusion 360 are powerful for form and function, they historically provided little insight into a design's environmental footprint. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was a separate, manual, expert-led process done late in the development cycle—far too late to make meaningful changes.
The Opportunity
With 28 million CAD users globally, empowering them with these tools could capture up to 10.2 gigatons of CO2 equivalent per year.
Our Vision
To seamlessly integrate sustainability into the core design workflow. We aimed to provide real-time, trusted insights on carbon emissions and cost directly within Fusion 360, allowing designers to make high-conviction decisions early, when it matters most.
02
Understanding the User & The Workflow
Our User: The Impact-Driven Designer
Our primary user is a mechanical engineer or product designer who is under pressure to meet sustainability goals but lacks the specialized expertise or time to run complex analyses. They need answers, not more data to interpret.
- "I need to know the carbon footprint of this design now, not in 3 weeks."
- "I need to understand the cost implications of my material choices."
- "If it's bad, show me what to change without forcing me to leave my CAD software."
- "I need to document this analysis for compliance and reporting."
Manuela
Manufacturing Eng
Cameron
Product Designer
Massimo
Machine Operator
The Ideal Workflow
After the discovery, we mapped a new, streamlined journey where sustainability analysis becomes a natural step in the iteration process, not a roadblock.
03
Designing the Solution (Part 1: Core Function)
Seamless Integration & Instant Analysis
The core principle was non-disruption. The add-on lives within the Fusion 360 UI, accessible with one click. Designers can select an assembly and instantly receive a calculated Bill of Materials (BOM).
With a single button press, this BOM is sent to Makersite's powerful analytics engine. Within seconds, the results are returned and displayed in a clear, scannable table within Fusion.
Key UI Decisions
- A clean, familiar panel design that matches Fusion's UI language.
- A clear visual hierarchy presenting the two most critical metrics first: Total CO₂ eq and Should Cost.
- A tabbed interface to separate Environmental and Cost data, preventing information overload.
04
Designing the Solution (Part 2: Enabling Action)
From Insight to Action: Recommendations & Visualization
Providing data is only half the solution. We needed to empower users to make better decisions.
1. Intelligent Material Alternatives:
For each part, the system suggests alternative materials that can reduce environmental impact and/or cost. Users can easily review these suggestions and, crucially, apply them directly to their model without manual data entry.
2. Heatmap Visualization:
To quickly identify the "hot spots" in an assembly, we implemented a color-coded heatmap that visually highlights the parts with the highest environmental impact, guiding the designer's attention to the areas where changes will have the greatest effect.
05
Prototyping, Testing & Iteration
Validating with Users
We developed a functional prototype to test our assumptions and refine the user experience. We conducted testing sessions with target customers like Steelcase, TTI, and Trane Technologies.
Key Insights & Iterations:
- Insight: Users were confused by raw data. They wanted a clear summary of potential savings.
Iteration: We added the "equivalents saving" headline metric.
- Insight: The cost breakdown was initially unclear.
Iteration: We introduced the bar chart breakdown for "Material Cost" vs. "Manufacturing Cost."