industry
Heavy machinery industry
year
2021
TOOLS & METHODS
Workshop facilitation, user flows,
UI redesign
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO SOLVE?
After discussions with stakeholders, we began the project by preparing a discovery workshop. I used the method of empathy mapping alongside the steps of how the application for scanning the heat exchanger looked like in this initial stage.
The goal for this workshop was:
• Getting aligned with stakeholders regarding the needs for the app
• Checking if we are solving the right problem
• Seeing how can we integrate third party app into our flow.
The image below represents the outcome of the work. I started the workshop by explaining the process and then we had an open discussion, while I took notes of participants' ideas.
The major outcome of the workshop were the following:
• We can integrate this service into the existing Alfa Laval page (which is a PWA app)
• Identifying serial numbers of older heat exchangers that might not be in the central database anymore (15 years+) will be a challenge
• There is a need for elegant guidance for technicians on how to use a thermal camera on their phones
• Customer support should be a strong fallback solution
• Notifications in the profile about upcoming maintenance schedules
OUR GOAL
Now that we had a clear vision of how our product should look like, I designed a user flow from entering into the Alfa Laval page all the way to generating a report and contacting customer support.
In the latter stage, we introduced a "traffic light approach" scenario with three options: that the heat exchanger works properly, that it might need help soon, and that it is completely malfunctioning.
The client provided us with their five employees from customer support who had time to participate in user testing of the newly created flow.
Findings:
• Notifications of maintenance schedules would be very beneficial for customers
• The overall flow was good
• We need to guide the technicians even more on how to use a thermal camera. What to do if the thermal camera is not working?
• Guidance on how to take a photo with thermal camera - should technicians be redirected to the camera app or should they first take the picture and later upload it?
Customer or a service technician can now enter the serial number directly into the PWA application.
On the products page, the customer would receive notifications of already completed checkups or would be prompted to schedule one if necessary. There is also a fallback solution in case the system does not find the serial number in the database.
A simplified flow of unit verification, where the customer needs to answer a few questions and upload images taken by the thermal camera.
The project was then taken over by Alfa Laval's internal engineering team, who continued to develop this solution with the help of Microsoft consultants.