Design time for white-label products
Better positioning of the brand
Users’ time on task
The product is part of a logistic management web platform that allow users to track their actives, fleets and employees using GPS/GPRS technology. This product includes around of 54 different modules and features, also hundreds of active devices reporting data all the time. Before the project, it was a hybrid app launched in 2005 to provide users real time data from their mobile phones and facilitate the fleet manager’s decision-making.
We tried to resolve the user experience struggles within the app, such as usability issues, visual and brand inconsistencies in the user interface, and some weaknesses in the actions that users needed to do. At the same time, we thought of other tech alternatives to develop the app because maintenance of the hybrid version was becoming untenable. We knew users were resistant to change, but at the same time the product needed to highlight their benefits, to show it’s a vanguard technological product and to be outstanding in the market
After we got the bit picture with stakeholders and some of desktop research analyzing competitors, we were ready to deepen in users world through observation, interviews and surveys, because we wanted to determine how our users manage their operation. Some pain points are listed below.
Look and feel
Features
Usability
Reliability
It’s time to collate data from the previous stage to define the design problems and challenges. Our problem statement:
Juan is a busy fleet manager who needs a faster, more reliable and usable tool to view and manage their fleet events, because he needs to stay on top about those and able to make informed decisions on the go.
At this moment, I need to make the process organized to translate ideas in better form. The visuals & features of ideation tools bring clarity to the bumbled-up ideas.
We needed to prioritize, and we used the Moscow method, a prioritization technique used to reach a common understanding with stakeholders on the importance they place on the delivery of each requirement.
After data analysis, it is helpful to put the ideas on paper to make connections in a visual form and notice new things that I didn’t see before.
Also, I learned about the brand, origin, meaning, spirit and values to help to build a consistent product across the mediums. As a result, it was necessary to suggest some changes to help the brand communicate better and adapt it better to the different mediums.
I didn’t want to change the logo, only adjust it to the current needs. Basically, I changed the color palette a little to make it more brilliant, I rearranged symbol’s elements to improve readability in small formats, I polished the endings and symmetry and kept the typography.
For the home screen, we thought about immediacy and different ways to show relevant data to know what’s going on. Clear buttons to go to details about vehicles.
Another critical part in the operation is the visualization of the status and location of the vehicles in real time, this can be as complex as needed and that is why the use of symbols and expandable menus is suggested to see the details.
Also, we considered main indicators about the operation to put them in the home screen. We proposed three tabs with summary information.
I created wireframes, a simple and clear representation of the product that help users to have an idea about the final product, sections, buttons, main features, so in this way we can test the product before invest more time on it.
Usability study summary and findings, early test.
Study type: unmoderated
Location: Colombia, remote
Participants: 10
Length: 20-30 min.
Tabs are not clear enough. 7 of 10 users couldn’t understand the tab’s navigation bar.
Maps options are hidden. Most of the users couldn’t find options like ‘send command’ because they weren’t obvious.
Vehicle detail is confusing. “Fleet and vehicle look similar, I couldn’t see the difference”.
It’s time to refine the design, adding more details to getting closer to the real product, besides, I added interaction to test with users again.
This is the core product of the company, was established a system of transversal design to the devices to be able to visually and functionally guide the other products and no longer look disconnected from each other.
Finally, it’s time to refine the design, I added details, and apply the defined design system to build a more real version of the final product.
Time to innovate, thanks to the insights of the research, we included sections of interest, such as the top 5, filters and we were able to improve the way to represent and find others like speed markers and paths.
Here is a quote from one of the Company’s consultants:
“I’m sure that this new app will put us a step ahead of the competition, because it is simple, beautiful and cover all the user needs”
Uno de los retos de este proyecto fue el tratar de equilibrar los cambios, ya que mientras unos usuarios requerían mejoras en los flujos de tareas otros estaban muy acostumbrados al modo de funcionar de esta app con más de 10 años en sus dispositivos prácticamente sin cambios.
Algunos de los cambios fueron iconografía, estableciendo un sistema de colores con una paleta más luminosa pero conservando algunas de las significancias de los anteriores, renovando el estilo de la marca y la respectiva documentación para su uso y divulgación.
Otro reto importante es la posibilidad de utilizar esta misma app base para los aliados de la marca, que son otras marcas, y exigen la personalización de la app, por lo que en el sistema de diseño se definen también las pautas para el diseño de las apps hijas.
Ya a nivel técnico se recomienda el desarrollo de apps nativas para mejorar el rendimiento y permitir la escalabilidad.
It was great to consider not only the user’s opinion but to take into account the business perspective and the traditional customer care, to innovate while taking it into account.
Managing all the actors in the company, it was enriching to have so many people interested in building such an important product for the company, its different requirements, expectations, and points of view.
I had the opportunity to collaborate with all the Business Technology team, leaders, developers, consultants and as this project is the star-product of the company, I had to be open to listen and manage expectations, frustrations and likes from users, colleagues and interested people in general.
Continue with the learning process, analyzing the users’ behavior within the app.
Meetings with the app team, to analyze the next priorities to include in the app.
There is something that I would like to explore, people don’t asked me for a reports’ builder module, but I could see them downloading an Excel document and then editing the columns to eliminate irrelevant data for their operation, and building totally new reports to be their job done.