Streamline corrosion
testing
Objective
Provide a solution for the corrosion inspection technicians to perform periodic leak surveys and corrosion inspections.
Problem Statement
The current methods of data capture and inspections are heavily reliant on paperwork, which is prone to human error. These outdated practices increase the risk of non-compliance and delays, making it difficult to stay on track with regulatory requirements.
Key Goals
Streamline corrosion management workflows to enhance efficiency.
Reduce reliance on paper-based data capture to minimize errors and delays in compliance.
Improve data accessibility for past readings, remarks, and testpoint locations.
Enable technicians to schedule work efficiently and perform tasks on time.
Enhance user experience with intuitive tools and progressive disclosure design.
Business Opportunities
Achieve operational efficiency through digitized workflows, saving time and reducing errors.
Introduce a scalable solution for managing inspections and data capture.
Increase compliance with regulatory requirements by maintaining accurate, centralized records.
Impact
By replacing paper-based methods, data capture efficiency is improved by 8%, while eliminating the need for back-office data entry. This shift significantly streamlines operations and reduces the potential for errors.
Solution
Tablet application to capture inspection data and provide remediation and supervisor dashboard to assign work to technicians and review incoming reports and WO's.
Key features
My jobs to be done
A scannable list of tasks to be completed by the technician.
Enter the reading
Technicians are able to capture data from the inspection directly in the app.
Submit inspection
Replace paper methods to submit the entire inspection with readings and required questions.
Perform remediations
Provided needed support for the technicians such as past readings and documents to perform remediation with confidence.
Assign work and review past work
Supervisor dashboard solution provides them with a list of incoming complete work to be reviewed and a list of incoming requests that need to assigned to the technicians.
Understand the users
Persona: Inspection technicians
Needs:
Know what inspections need to be done
Perform their work on time
Easily find testpoints to perform inspections
Have enough information to perform inspections
Frictions:
Testpoints not always accessible
Hard to find testpoints
Data about past readings, remarks not always accessible
Data about test points not always accurate
Manually entering data into the system after inspections
Not always being able to schedule my work efficiently
Corrosion monitoring
Data requirements
One of the early challenges we faced was to organize information about how the testing happens and data is being used and captured. Through the user interviews we were able to create a framework for inspection data and start matching it with the early wireframes created to see what will be the information flow.
User research
Understanding their environment involves actively learning about the surroundings and context in which the work is being carried out. Building relationships and providing relevant context are essential to aligning efforts and fostering collaboration. Additionally, documenting artifacts ensures valuable insights and information can be shared effectively later on, supporting continuity and collective progress.
Engaging in the process involves active participation, seeking feedback, and encouraging others to demonstrate how they perform their work. Usability should be approached as a co-creation effort, fostering collaboration and shared ownership to ensure effective and user-centered outcomes.
Collaborating with users through ideation and seeking their direct feedback ensures that solutions are not only creative but also aligned with their needs and expectations.
Print wireframes on a large scale and display them on the wall to encourage team collaboration. Mark areas for improvement directly on the prints, fostering a shared effort in refining the designs. Additionally, create new wireframes to address any missing steps in the user flow, ensuring a seamless and complete experience.
After user research, set up the main themes in a collaborative tool like Miro, inviting everyone involved in the research to participate. Collaboratively synthesize insights and translate them into actionable calls to action, ensuring alignment and shared understanding.
Research synthesis
Post-testing synthesis should be a collaborative team effort, categorizing findings into four groups: validated, invalidated, questions requiring more information, and new ideas. Share these insights with the broader team using Miro, ensuring transparency and alignment. Use the findings to refine user flows and focus on UX/UI redesign based on invalidated elements, followed by iterative prototyping to address identified gaps and improve the overall experience.
Evolution of the flows - part 1
Evolution of the flows - part 2
Leveraging existing design system
Because there was some prior work done on this suite of products we had a design system to work with. Alongside me there was another product being built also leveraging the same design system. Not all components were fitting the context of the features I was building so I had to retro fit them. Not only that I also had to create new instances that would align what another worm stream was doing.
Here are few principles that were guiding me along the way:
- Finding the elements that will fit our context
- Creating component that will fit both workstream
- Reusing the component and iterating extra use cases
- Presenting the iteration to another workstream
Collaborating with another workstream
As we were developing two products at the same time leveraging the same design system we had to be mindful of the efficiencies and scalability of our efforts. My goal was to minimize the amount of difference and lack of knowledge in both work streams. My main point of contact was a lead designer and the daily checkins that we had.
Finding common ground
I had to establish a process for finding a common ground between the components that both workstreams were creating. These are some of the principles guiding me:
Create a list of the components needing alignment
Set up a meeting
Lay out components side by side in miro
Decide on the common treatment for both applications
Make those alignments as early as possible!
Advocating for different paradigm
As a lead designer on a project my role was to advocate for better solutioning when building two products. It was greta to work with constraints because we had to be more creative when it comes to aligning on one approach. There were few instances where we had to make decisions about the experiences and they are presented below.
Getting lenses on design
I tried to involve other team members into the process of design, if some features I felt needed more opinions. For example empty states i wanted validation from the business side to see how it is done in reporting. For the comments section I wanted our Strategic Designer to be involved to give ethnographic research perspective on this.
Simplicity vs. reducing no. of clicks
We wanted to reduce the amount of steps and clicks around the experience of data capture. We prepared the variants and tested them with the users. It turned out that imitating the multimeter itself was the best experience for the users.
Usability testing results
Highlights of the pilot:
Validation of fluid user experience throughout data hierarchy (sections; testpoints and readings)
Tangible design and functionality feedback (e.g. font sizes, keyboard behavior, button placement, terminology changes)
Initial results show 8% efficiency improvement for data capture (and removed the need for back office data entry)
Measure time spent:
Completing a job with no discoveries
Travelling and planning work
3
Days of testing with the crew
40
Inspections conducted in 20+ hours of testing
3
Pilot technicians participated
8%
Efficiency improvement for data capture
Detailed feedback
While doing the pilot there were people on the ground capturing detailed feedback while the technicians were completing their day to day tasks and using our already built app.
Time and motion studies
In order to understand the efficiencies gained we had to measure how much time is taken to complete each step.
Final designs
Lessons Learned
Balance user needs with efficiency, compromising where impact is minimal to save engineering effort (e.g., confirmation popups).
Involve engineers early when planning changes to gain their buy-in and provide clarity before handover.
Push critical features as far as possible, balancing user and business priorities to deliver the best experience within constraints.
Address comments in Figma by meeting to gather context and decide on proper implementation.
Record and share user research findings to educate the team and provide valuable insights.
Proactively communicate what the design team needs to progress, using standups or meetings as needed.
Align on component structure early to avoid last-minute changes during the sprint.
Facilitate collaboration by organizing meetings, preparing assets, and simplifying complex processes to create effective solutions.