Case study

Blue Ridge Numerics · CFdesign

Early-career product design for CFdesign at Blue Ridge Numerics — then the fastest-growing CFD software company in the world — through its acquisition by Autodesk.

Role: Support → QA → Product Designer
Client: Blue Ridge Numerics
Timeframe: 2008-2011
Disciplines: UX, Interaction Design, Visual Design, User Research, Testing, Support

Key outcomes

Acquired by Autodesk, March 2011
Fastest growing CFD software company in the world

CFdesign was the sole product offering of Blue Ridge Numerics Inc which was acquired by Autodesk (March 2011). This software package enabled engineers to simulate fluid flow, heat transfer, and electronics cooling. At the time, Blue Ridge Numerics was one of the 500 fastest growing companies in North America and the fastest growing CFD software company in the world.

Simulation visualization of fluid flow through a valve using CFdesign — Simulation visualization of fluid flow through a valve generated with CFdesign

I held roles as Technical Support Engineer, Quality Assurance Engineer, and Product Designer.

I designed features for CFdesign 2010 and 2011 major versions, and various improvements to quarterly minor releases including:

Contextual, “model-centric” workflows
Rules engine for automating setup and model import
Features for simplifying complex, fully-detailed designs to be simulation ready
Tools for comparing performance results between different designs & operating conditions

Mockup of "model centric" interactions, January 2010 — Mockup of "model centric" interactions in the results environment, January 2010; previously interactions were all via a top menubar or side panel list/tree views

CFdesign was further developed as Autodesk CFD after being acquired and I transitioned over as a UX Designer.