Near Me
ZTR Control Systems 2019
ABOUT THE DESIGN
ONE i3® Near Me™ is a mobile application that allows service technicians to locate their equipment, monitor the performance health and complete maintenance checks.
MY ROLE
I was the Lead Designer, working tightly with a Director of WMS Product, a Product Manager, and multiple Developers.
It was my role to bring a design thinking approach to this project and implement best practices in regards to mobile app design, user research, and testing.
PROBLEM
There were three key problems that I faced when re-designing this application:
There was no design for the first time experience
The login screen was a different experience than the mobile application
The mobile application was not solving the MVP which was for a user to locate assets near them
ORIGINAL DESIGN
RESEARCH
We engaged with customers to understand their needs and pain points, to better inform our product strategy.
We discovered that the majority of users were confused on how to change the radius settings of the current mobile application. Further research showed that it was even more confusing for new users to understand the benefits of Near Me and how the application worked, as most new users had no background knowledge of the ONE i3 platform.
SOLUTION #1 COACH SCREENS
Brand new users (primarily service technicians) were instructed to download the Near Me application by their Fleet Managers who would have logins to the ONE i3 fleet management system. However most service technicians would have no prior knowledge of the ONE i3 system and were given little information about the Near Me application and how it would help them with their duties. With this research gathered, I wanted to create an on-boarding experience that would instil confidence and familiarity between the mobile application and their world. I wanted the system to speak the user’s language and be mindful of the user’s time. The service technicians were always on a short time limit and would need this application to respect that. I was able to keep the coach screens short and clear with the option of being able to skip completely. This gave the user control and freedom either to review the abilities of the application or to skip right to the login.
SOLUTION #2 - CONSISTENT USER EXPERIENCE
As seen below, the original login screen was a completely different experience than the rest of the application. This was because the Near Me application based the user login off of the ONE i3 software credentials and the development team was pulling the same login screen for the ONE i3 platform for Near Me. However, most users of this mobile application would have no idea what ONE i3 was and honestly did not care. They would be service technicians using this mobile application to check the status of their equipment. Most users would be provided with their own company login for use of Near Me and would download the mobile application and see a ONE i3 branded login screen. This caused great confusion and users were questioning if they downloaded the correct application in the first place. To resolve the confusion I redesigned the login screen to be branded according to the Near Me brand guidelines instead of using the ONE i3 login screen.
SOLUTION #3 - ACHIEVING THE MVP
The MVP (minimum viable product) for Near Me was for a user to locate equipment closest to them. The original design of Near Me made that goal extremely difficult, as the equipment shown by default was not always the equipment the user determined closest to them. In addition, if the user wished to change that default, they would have to click on the gear icon and then update the “Radius” setting which proved to be almost impossible for new users to accomplish. By default, the equipment location radius was set at 200 km from the user’s point of location. After more in depth user research, it was found to be too difficult to have a set defaulted radius. Because this radius was so personal to the user, I wanted to allow the user to determine that value right after downloading the application. By allowing the user to set the equipment location radius, they would instantly be shown the equipment closest to them. Therefore accomplishing the MVP.
CONCLUSION
With the new updates to the Near Me application, we instantly received positive feedback from our beta users and are projected to have a company record setting IOS launch. A couple of other quick wins I was able to achieve with the redesign of the Near Me application was to update the language to be more user friendly, increase the font and target hit size and overall design aesthetic. This achieved a more user-friendly mobile application that abides by the IOS Human Interface Guidelines and met the Neilson Norman Group Usability Heuristics.