Bronze A' Design Award in Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design Goes to AI Auto Assignment Interface by Vijay Shankar Balijaypalli

The Work

Project

AI Auto Assignment Interface

Function

Interface

Category

Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design

Discipline

Communication Design

Industry

Software

Colors

Lavender, Light Gray, Sky Blue, Medium Aquamarine and Light Steel Blue

Images

5

The Recognition

Laureate

Vijay Shankar Balijaypalli

Recognition

Bronze A' Design Award

Edition

2025 - 2026

Design ID

#181496

Design Details

Unique Properties

The Lumina Auto Assign interface redefines how maintenance operations are visualized and managed. Built on a Kanban-inspired framework, the design presents a living, real-time board where unassigned tasks queue up alongside individual technician columns — each displaying availability, workload, and priority at a glance. What sets this apart is the seamless marriage of human control and AI intelligence; managers can either drag and drop tasks manually or let Lumina's AI auto-assign with a single click — making it one of the most intuitive and decisive maintenance workflow tools in the industry.

Inspiration

Having worked closely with the multifamily property management industry, we witnessed firsthand how property managers and maintenance managers were constantly overwhelmed by the logistical puzzle of task assignment. Watching them juggle spreadsheets, phone calls, and manual schedules — all while trying to match the right technician to the right job based on skill, expertise, availability, and location — made it clear that there was a significant gap between the complexity of their daily operations and the tools available to support them.

Research

We conducted two rounds of research — preliminary discovery research to uncover real pain points, followed by usability testing to validate our design decisions. Our objective was simple: understand how maintenance teams currently assign tasks, where the process breaks down, and whether our design genuinely made it easier. We interviewed property managers and maintenance supervisors, observing their workflows firsthand before translating those findings into design concepts. Usability testing was then conducted using UserTesting, where real users interacted with the prototype and completed task assignment scenarios while we measured ease, speed, and confidence.

Challenge

The greatest creative challenge was designing for trust — convincing experienced managers to hand decision-making authority to an AI system. Historically, task assignment has been a deeply human, relationship-driven process built on institutional knowledge and personal judgment. Convincing users to trust an algorithm required us to design transparency into every interaction, ensuring the AI's reasoning felt visible and override-able rather than mysterious. On the technical side, balancing automation with human control without overwhelming the interface was a constant tension.

Realization and Technology

Lumina Auto Assign was designed using a user-centered design methodology, beginning with in-depth discovery sessions with property managers and maintenance teams to map real pain points. From there, we moved through iterative wireframing and prototyping stages, stress-testing task assignment flows before arriving at the final UI. The Kanban framework was deliberately adapted — not adopted — to suit the unique demands of property operations. AI assignment logic was woven into the interface as a natural interaction rather than a feature bolt-on, ensuring the experience felt intuitive, purposeful, and production-ready.

Operation and Interaction

Lumina Auto Assign works like a smart notice board for maintenance teams. Tasks come in, and instead of a manager scrambling to figure out who handles what, the AI instantly reads each job's urgency, location, and skill requirement — then assigns it to the right technician automatically. Managers can also drag and drop tasks themselves if needed. The board updates in real time, making it immediately clear who is busy, who is available, and what needs urgent attention — turning a chaotic process into a calm, controlled workflow.

Project Duration and Location

6 months. July 2025 - Jan 2026

Specifications

Lumina Auto Assign was designed entirely in Figma, built on a 1440px wide desktop frame following standard web UI specifications. Components were constructed using Figma's Auto Layout system, ensuring responsive behavior and design consistency across the interface. Interactive prototypes were brought to life using Figma Make AI, simulating real user flows including drag-and-drop task assignment and AI auto-assignment interactions. The design utilizes an 8pt grid system, structured component libraries, and clearly defined typography and color token hierarchies.

Keywords

AI, Auto Assignment, Task Management, Technician Management, Efficiency