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WHAT
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
Research,
Design,
User testing
Team
1 Product Manager
6 Engineers
Duration
2018.7-2019.2
WHY
We generate revenue by selling SaaS products and related services to our partners (the bus operators). Our goal is to strengthen our long-term cooperative relationship by providing better services that help them reduce costs.
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However, Standalone ELD add-ons have been phased out, and many ELD products have shifted to mobile devices. In order to adapt to the changes in the market, we must move our ELD product to mobile application devices.
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In addition, our partners found it hard to use the platform because of the problems below.
Discover problems on previous ELD products
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.
How
to help bus drivers check/change duty status easily and keep safe driving with ELD installed?
Final 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.
Problem Framing
Drivers still had unsafe driving behaviors
even with ELD devices installed
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.
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 of 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."
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.
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 the first quadrant. We should put the most important features in the most obvious section.
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.
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.
UX Benchmarking
I left the company so I didn't know the usage metrics after it was launched. However, feedback from partners and less task completion time shows the new dashboard design is efficient.
Conclusion & Reflection
Learning from the users
1. 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.
2. Although I designed B2B products. Some bus drivers even expressed their appreciation toward user research because they felt their needs were finally being heard. I believe making the tools more intuitive to use can make a difference to the users' day-to-day work life! In addition, we also help enterprises indirectly reduce unnecessary expenses, demonstrating the importance of user-centric design.
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Copyright only belongs to Ting Zhao & UBT.