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Designing a new ELD (Electronic Logging Device) APP for commercial bus drivers
I work at United Bus Technology providing design solutions for our clients——bus operators. We designed an ELD (Electronic Logging Device) application to make it easy for commercial bus drivers to electronically record their duty hours.
My Role
Design Research,
UI/UX Design,
Branding Design.
Duration
2018.7-2019.2
Tools
Figma,
Sketch,
Miro,
Photoshop,
Principle,
Premiere
THE COMPANY: UNITED BUS TECHNOLOGY
A new ELD platform for logging duty hours
THE CHALLENGE
How might we help bus drivers check/change duty status easily and keep safe driving with ELD installed?
What is ELD? An ELD synchronizes with a vehicle engine to automatically record driving time, for easier, more accurate hours of service (HOS) recording.
Initial Problem Discovery: Even ELD device installed. Bus drivers still break rules while driving.
PROBLEM DISCOVERY
Discover problems on previous ELD products and make improvements
Our old ELD system was a standalone device, and the problems were:
1. The user interface was unfriendly, and drivers were hard to find the information they wanted.
2. Unreadable: all data are presented in numbers. There is no priority on important information.
3. Drivers often ignore information on ELD even when they know what the data means.
4. The duty hour data isn’t accurate. Because ELD can’t track when the device lost network connection.
Design Solution
Key features
I designed high-fidelity prototypes by creating a style guide for the user interface and finally designed the major screen of the app which is shown below.
Welcome & Login Page
Dashboard
The friendly interface and clear HOS
(hour of service) violation reminders are straightforward to show duty status and keep the driver’s mind on the road.
Solved pain point: Drivers will no longer feel confused about these complicated time data, but they will clearly understand their work and vehicle status.
Welcome Pages lead bus drivers to fill out related bus info and login
Alert
Commercial drivers receive real-time alerts when nearing violation to help make sure they stay compliant during their shifts.
Unidentified driver logs, if any are under the selected vehicle, will appear as a prompt to the
driver as soon as the connection succeeds.
Password protection for roadside inspection
This is the scene for roadside inspection mainly. The driver clicks the “DOT” button, and all the information is presented to the policeman in tabular and graphic form. If the policeman wants to do more, he must enter a password to return to the other interface.
Solved pain point: The driver doesn’t worry about roadside inspection anymore. It saves the time of roadside inspection and protects the driver’s data.
E-driving log data is transferred
The drivers click the “SEND LOG” button and send the driving logs to the person who needs them in three ways, Web Service, Email and PDF individually.
Solved pain point: It solves the problem for older and non-technical drivers. They don’t worry about spending more time transmitting data (E.g. Bluetooth and USB).
DESIGN PROCESS
Problem Framing
Drivers still had unsafe driving behaviors even with ELD devices installed
In order to help us to define a product design problem or opportunity, we conducted 10+ quick Q&A with drivers from our client's companies. We asked the question: "What problems do drivers meet when long driving?". Then we created a mind map by categorizing different factors that impact drivers' record habits.
We followed up with the previous Q&A interviewees and asked if they faced any difficulties in the task related to long-term driving and if there were any roadblocks along the way.
Then we created three early hypotheses based on the responses:
1.
Situation: The standards of ELD equipment in the market are not uniform, and bus drivers have to learn how to use different ELD equipment when serving bus companies.
2.
Observations: The drivers always ignore data from the ELD device. The digital data information on the ELD seems to have little significance for bus drivers.
3.
Opportunities: Design a new application that helps drivers know the meaning of the data and keep safe driving.
Competitive Analysis
Current market situation of ELD products
To better understand the current ELD applications market and each of their strengths and weakness, we experienced, analyzed, and read through user reviews of 5+ ELD product apps. The SWOT analysis helps us to know where our opportunities are.
Existing ELD App: incomplete functions and unfriendly user interface. There are a lot of good products out there, but they're not good enough. For example, novice drivers still need time to understand the data on the page. In addition, too much data is placed on the main page, and the driver does not know which information is the most important, resulting in the driver still cannot understand the data at a glance.
Persona
The defined target user is commercial bus drivers
USER INTERVIEW & KEY FINDINGS
Drivers always overlook information from ELD devices.
I interviewed 5 drivers about their experience of long driving.
Number format data
≈
Invalid information
"Driving is a job that requires concentration, We often overlook data that is in a number format."
Nobody reminds drivers inappropriate driving behaviours
"I realized I might have made mistakes until I saw the roadside inspector."
Old/Non-technical drivers
face to more struggles
"Exporting a driving log through USB flash disk or Bluetooth is a complicated process for me."
What drivers's emotion during a long trip?
Dull
Tired
Cautious
Stressed
Focused
JOB TO BE DONE
User Needs
There are various methods available to solve this problem. For example, displaying the working status through various types of chart visualizations for different data types such as line charts, pie charts, etc.
We tested which type of chart is the cheapest way to understand the driving scenario.
These thoughts inspired me to embed effective strategies that I learned from the interviews into the product.
User Flow
Based on our persona to further define our solution scope for an MVP.
Then I mapped out how a driver can utilize the SHIELD application to check duty status easily and manage duty shift.
Brainstorming & Wireframing
Determine interaction flow
I wireframed a couple of concepts, playing with ways of showing the manage duty status.
Based on our platform's main features and task flow, I created initial sketches & wireframes of our prototype with the following user flows User Onboarding, Dashboard, Daily log, DVIR(Driver Vehicle Inspection Report), DOT, and User Center 6 main parts.
Feature Prioritisation
Limited resources forced us to re-prioritize our features based on task frequency of use and importance.
So first priority design part focused on functions in first quadrant.
IDEATION
What about making duty status function with a count down?
Visualization progress bar
Compare progresses of more tasks
My first attempt was a progress bar!
Mimic the progress bar: the progress display according to Hours of Service required by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). The visual progress bar shows the completion of different tasks at a glance.
ELD Main Page
Driver change duty status manually
Driver select vehicle manually
When vehicle is moving, the page change to locked status automatically
When vehicle is stationary, a friendly remind and change driving status automatically if no any responds.
VALIDATE & TEST
But it didn't work out well :(
I finalized the UI design. I was happy about it until I showed it to other designers for feedback. They said it looks like a project management tool, although people feel it is easy to understand and use. I also heard a lot of feedbacks.
Are you sure more than three progress bars will not still make drivers ignore the important info?
Do drivers need to know all statuses simultaneously while driving?
The progress bar is meant to indicate how long the car has been driven. What if I want to know how long it's gonna take to get off work? Do I need to estimate the time by myself?
Improvements based on feedback
Emotional needs
Drivers prefer to know how long they have left work, not how long they have already worked.
Proposal Strategy
To let others buy in the idea, it's better to propose a small change rather than a major leap.
Match user cognition
The most popular products mimic the way what people subconsciously have known.
DESIGN DETAILS
How to meet drivers with different time-counting habits.
Leave both options and set the one most needed by the user as the default
Default interface: Drive Left
Tap to switch: Drive Remaining
Drive Left
Non-driving Duty Left
Break Remaining
Drive Remaining
Non-driving Duty Remaining
Break Remaining
ITERATIONS
Mimics the most familiar timekeeping methods——Timer
We choose a more intuitive way to reduce the understanding cost of users. Whether clockwise or counterclockwise, drivers can understand the meaning of the illustrations more quickly with fewer distractions while driving.
Drivers just need to know the most significant information when driving——driving time remains or left.
Two shortcuts for higher frequency use
Keep other duty information in text and number format
Optimise the whole page in revised design solutions
Tap to reverse
user interface
Remind driver there are uncertified driving logs.
Based on feedback, fueling is a few frequent uses. And it is required by IFTA(International Fuel Tax Agreement). So add a fueling record in the dashboard.
Branding
Logo Concept
In order to satisfy the tedious mood of the bus driver during the long journey, we chose a vivid cartoon image as the logo. Merging an owl and a shield shape we have created a strong visual icon that represents long-time protection.
Owl Shield
Grids
To guide usage in screen and print, we developed grids to cover all aspects of the logotype, including spacing and clearance rules for in-product treatments.
Color Scheme
The colors reflect our vision. SHIELD is simple, handy, intelligent, and cares about all bus drivers.
Icons
CONCLUSION & REFLECTION
Learning from the users
In this project, I was challenged to set aside my assumptions and quarrels with the platform and seek feedback from all types of users. This project allowed me to learn the value of user research techniques like surveys and interviews to gain a deeper understanding of all users. With users participating in my design process, I have gained a more comprehensive knowledge of the problem's different factors to reduce design bias.
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Copyright only belongs to Ting Zhao & UBT.
UX Benchmarking
Measure success by using the Google Heart Framework.
Adoption
• Download Rate
• Registration Rate
How many bus drivers keep using SHIELD for a long period? Adoption is measured by the number of new users over a period of time or by the percentage of customers using a new feature.
Rentention
• Churn Rate
What percentage of bus operators would like to pay for our product? We measure customer retention through the churn rate.
How many bus drivers like to keep using SHIELD?
Task success
• Search Exit Rate
• Crash Rate
Can bus drivers achieve their goals or tasks such as checking their driving status quickly and easily?
Task success is measured by factors such as efficiency (how long it takes users to complete a task), effectiveness (percentage of tasks completed), and error rate.