Rebuild the Dispatchr mobile app to support additional utility clients and increase productivity in the field.
Background
Dispatchr is the world’s most sophisticated grid resilience software, providing predictive analytics, mobile fleet management, and integrated weather, vegetation and grid impact analysis for the electrical utility industry.
Role
Lead designer working alongside 1 PM and 6 engineers from 2015-2017
Defining key objectives
Shortly after we kicked off work for the web platform, we also began diving into what we could do to push the mobile platform forward.
Few key areas we defined as pain points based on user feedback in the field were things like
Increasing hit targets & readability in the field. For workers in the field, they need to be able to quickly mark a action without having to scan and read small print to see if what they are tapping is what they meant to tap.
Improving overall IA for faster mobile creation and retrieval. Workers in the field especially newly onboarded ones, have had a hard time finding specific actions in the app. As a result it was decreasing productivity and increasing room for error.
Create a modular app that can support various utility company needs. App currently has been tacking on features base on the request of first customer. However every utility company has different needs and need to build infrastructure to support this.
Auditing and setting the foundation
With a few key problem area's defined and feedback sessions in progress, began to then auditing the exisitng application and outlining the IA in order to map things accordingly
Exploring Mobile form ease of U=use
One of the biggest experience areas looking to improve was the mobile workorder/form that is used for both tree crews and inspectors. After several research sessions with workers and clients, We defined that the current structure wasn't addressing readability and scalability issues as new clients wanted to change what was shown or add new requirements. As a result when to the drawing board to see how we can improve this core part of the app.
Building a Modular App
Another core design problem we needed to solve for this revamp, was architecting the app in a way we can easily allow clients to add/remove modules base on there workflow. For example if PG&E wanted to define species of trees while Alliant Energy didn't really care about species, the app should allow for toggling state without having to make an app for each client. As a result, started to define a system that we could label each module and specify its parent.
Outcome
After several rounds of iterations, we landed on a more robust and modular system that can not only work for inspectors and crew members, but any other type of user and company wishing to use the dispatchr service.
Rebuilt experience for tree crews
The Dispatchr mobile app is split to serve both tree crew members and inspectors. Tree crew members are the workers in the field that are executing work orders while Inspectors are the ones in front of the line defining the requirements for each work order.
For Tree crew workers, the app needed to serve a more "Read only" approach that made it easy to scan what needs to be done and the order it needs to be done in.
Rebuilt experience for inspectors
The Dispatchr mobile app is split to serve both tree crew members and inspectors. Tree crew members are the workers in the field that are executing work orders while Inspectors are the ones in front of the line defining the requirements for each work order.
For inspectors the app needs to function as a frictonless form creator that they can quickly review work and assign what needs to be done with minimal digging around. This also needs to not be densly covered interface but needed to support bold and easy to read actions given enviroment will be used in.
