Trane Total Design Assist (TDA)

Role

Lead UX Designer

Client

Trane

Year

2018

Scope

Discovery to UI

3 min read

Trane TDA design canvas with HVAC components placed from the component library

At a glance

Problem

HVAC engineers designed complex systems, then rebuilt them by hand as documents and CAD drawings for manufacturing.

Key decision

Built the tool around a visual canvas of connected components, with documentation generated as a byproduct of the design.

Result

A first-of-its-kind drag-and-drop HVAC design tool that generates four document types automatically, with 200+ active users.

Overview

HVAC engineers design systems with dozens of interdependent parts, then hand them off as technical documents and CAD drawings for manufacturing. Trane wanted a tool that made that work faster and less error-prone. The result was Trane Total Design Assist (TDA), a first-of-its-kind application where engineers build systems by dragging components onto a canvas, while the documentation generates itself in the background.

My role

Led discovery and helped shape product strategy: what TDA should be, who it was for, and what to build first
Planned and ran UX research with HVAC engineers and designers, and turned findings into design direction
Designed the core interaction model: the drag-and-drop canvas, component connections, and system-building flows
Owned visual and UI design across the application
Worked with engineering to shape how generated documents and CAD outputs surfaced in the experience

What I learned in discovery

Complexity lives in the connections

Engineers think in whole systems, not parts. A tool that only listed components would push the hard thinking back onto them.

The handoff is the bottleneck

Turning a design into a bill of materials, wiring diagrams, and CAD drawings was slow, manual, and error-prone.

Mobile wasn’t enough

An earlier mobile app proved the idea, but engineers needed a desktop tool for large projects.

What I designed

A visual design canvas. Engineers select components, place them on the canvas, and connect them to build out a full system. Each component is represented visually, so the system reads at a glance.
Connections that guide the work. I designed how components link and how the interface signals what fits where, so engineers spend their attention on system performance instead of technical bookkeeping.
Documentation as a byproduct. As users build, TDA generates the bill of materials, wiring diagrams, piping schematics, and full-scale CAD drawings. I designed how those outputs are previewed, reviewed, and exported, so they feel like part of the work, not a separate step.
Room to scale. The desktop layout gives large projects space for the canvas, component library, and properties while keeping the simplicity that made the mobile app work.

TDA point list showing control points and alarms for a cooling tower

Research and iteration

I kept engineers involved throughout. Early interviews and observation shaped the concept. Prototype testing of the canvas and connection flows showed where people got stuck, and I revised the designs before they went to build.

TDA project specification generated automatically from the system design

Outcome

TDA brought a drag-and-drop design approach to an industry used to spreadsheets and manual drafting. By making systems visual and automating documentation, it shortened the path from design to production and reduced the errors that come with manual handoff.

1st

A first-of-its-kind drag-and-drop tool for HVAC system design.

Document types generated automatically: BOM, wiring, piping, and CAD.

200+

Active users currently generating designs

For me, TDA showed how much a technical tool gains when research, strategy, and design sit with one person who can carry what engineers need all the way to the screen.

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