Maximising Efficiency Through Digital Work Flows

OVERVIEW

Our client found that many times when consignments arrive at another port, products inside the containers are damaged. However, the actual events that unfold between the loading and unloading of products at both ports of departure and arrival are unclear. Therefore, it was neither possible to track accountability of the different parties involved nor effectively prevent further damage.

It was critical for our client to identify the key events and needs of everyone involved during these shipments to design an effective workflow and system that would enable staff to better manage the consignments without adding to their existing workload. With this in mind, they approached Heist to run a 5-day design sprint aimed at understanding key user needs, identify opportunity areas and build (+ test) a prospective solution.

After a productive design sprint with our client’s cross-functional teams, we worked with them to generate concepts and shortlist the ideas for prototyping. These prototypes were tested with users and went through a round of refinement before being handed over to our client for further development.

PROCESS

Using a mixed-method research approach of in-depth and intercept interviews, we sought to understand the environment of the shipping port in order to design a smarter solution. We conducted 7 in-depth interviews, some via conference calls with the company’s staff in overseas offices. We also did intercept interviews with the customer service team, which as a liaison between customers, the sales team and the back office, provided great insights on the needs of each team.

From these insights, the Heist team developed 5 opportunities areas. During the sprint, we walked members of the client’s team through two exercises to develop concept ideas for the selected opportunity. From the 25 concepts generated during the sprint, participants were asked to prioritise and select the ones with the best potential for further development.

The winning concept was a combination of several ideas with 4 key design principles. Our designers were faithful to these design principles when prototyping the wireframes to ensure that the new app met the core needs of users on the ground at the shipping site. A comprehensive workflow chart was also created to ensure that every event and touchpoint had been captured and addressed by the app design.

Key screens were prototyped and presented to users during user testing sessions. Based on their feedback, the team completed a round of refinement before handing over the app to the client for further development.