Green award | Mobile app

Green Award certifies ships that are extra clean and extra safe. Ships with a Green Award certificate reap various financial and non-financial benefits. By rewarding high safety and environmental standards in shipping, Green Award makes above standard ship operation economically more attractive. The Green Award certification scheme is open to oil tankers, chemical tankers and dry bulk carriers, LNG, LPG and container carriers and inland navigation vessels.

Stakeholder vision & problem space.

The inspectors at Green Award don’t have the resources or equipment to propagate the eco friendly look of the organisation. Currently they do the audits with pen and paper. This results in a wrong first impression at the clients and a not optimal inspection speed.

Ideal outcome
The inspectors at Green Award are able to fulfil a new inspection digitally and send these directly to Green Awards. This will result in a eco friendly look at the clients (by leaving out paper) and a higher inspection speed (no double work).

  • Increase speed of the audits.

  • Have a “greener” exposure towards clients

  • Become more modern

Organised a post it session with the stakeholders from Green Award. In this 2 hour session we discussed what is important to them and why. And explained what we thought was important to them and why.

Organised a post it session with the stakeholders from Green Award. In this 2 hour session we discussed what is important to them and why. And explained what we thought was important to them and why.

 

User research

User research was done to do identify the users needs & goals. Because of the small amount of future end users (3 inspectors for inland shipping at Green Award) we used a qualitative research method in form of contextual inquiries. Based on this research we made persona’s the represent the end users.

Following a routine check on-board a vessel to inspect the status of a ship and its components.

Following a routine check on-board a vessel to inspect the status of a ship and its components.

Contextual inquiry following a routine check on-board a vessel.

Contextual inquiry following a routine check on-board a vessel.

 

Analysing the data
Being able to observe the inspectors has provided me with valuable insights into who these users are, what they do and how they do it. During my research I’ve get to known the inspectors of Green Award and understand their daily lives.

In order to analyse the data, of my observations during contextual inquiries, I’ve made a customer journey map representing the inspectors audit session on an average day.

Pain points - User journey map
Based on this research we know the process the users go through now and the pain points we need to solve now and in the future. The next step is to prioritise problems/solutions and thus solutions/functionalities in order to establish the red routes for the app. Red routes will be the main and most important functionalities in the product and for the mvp (Most valuable product), these should remain clutter free for the best user experience and usability.

Contextual inquiry observation
During contextual inquiries you are able to see the users perform their task in their own environment. You notice things you can’t reveal with interviews or surveys. A very important observation was: The inspectors need to use both hand to manoeuvre around the ships (small stairs and cramped engine rooms). So I decided we need to product build for iPad mini and disable auto rotate as the use has to continuously put the iPads away while moving around.

Persona could be concluded to one. With only a team of 5 auditors the user group wasn’t big and varied for a need of multiple personas.

Persona could be concluded to one. With only a team of 5 auditors the user group wasn’t big and varied for a need of multiple personas.

Journey map created from several contextual inquiries and interviews. This gave me a good perspective of pain points and opportunities to improve the process.

Journey map created from several contextual inquiries and interviews. This gave me a good perspective of pain points and opportunities to improve the process.

 

Red routes

To establish the red routes we first identify the functionalities needed to solve the inspectors problems:

  • See information past inspection data of the ship if available.

  • Fill in the audit form digitally

  • Sending the data to Green Awards in Exel file

  • Add attachments (files, photo’s etc)

  • See the location of the ship

  • Add the information brochure next to the questions so the inspector can better inform the skipper.

  • Needs to save the audit locally on device Needs to be able to download the audit from device.

  • Receive incoming new audits

  • Send information to the skippers on the process after inspection by E-mail.

I then prioritise the most important functionalities as red routes through the following scheme.

Red route schematic to get a perspective on which features are vital and which are noise.

Red route schematic to get a perspective on which features are vital and which are noise.

 

Information design

In order for the Green Award inspectors to understand the design I need to know what they are using now. What documents they use, which systems they use but also the terminology used .

Example of documents used by organisation

Example of documents used by organisation

Example of documents used by organisation

Example of documents used by organisation

 

Low fidelity prototyping & usability testing
After the wire-framing I started to work on a low fidelity prototype. Cause of the working and living distance of the inspectors (users) I decided to make a low fidelity digital prototype which can be tested through online or face to face. Design is based on MVP, user research, and budget.

This is the home screen of the app. The inspector sees a list with all his previous audits, along with the status if the audit is submitted or not. And a new + audit button.

This is the home screen of the app. The inspector sees a list with all his previous audits, along with the status if the audit is submitted or not. And a new + audit button.

This is where to inspector fills in his contact information. This is a one time task as the app will remember this data after the first input, however it can still be changed.

This is where to inspector fills in his contact information. This is a one time task as the app will remember this data after the first input, however it can still be changed.

The audit question form in the same order as the paper form. It is categorised in tabs so the inspector can navigate easily between categories and questions. The info icon shows the extra info (information brochure “leeswijzer”)

The audit question form in the same order as the paper form. It is categorised in tabs so the inspector can navigate easily between categories and questions. The info icon shows the extra info (information brochure “leeswijzer”)

The total tab shows a summary for the audit. It shows the contact information of himself, the skipper and ship & the category scores. The inspector is able to add extra comments and information before sending it to Green Awards.

The total tab shows a summary for the audit. It shows the contact information of himself, the skipper and ship & the category scores. The inspector is able to add extra comments and information before sending it to Green Awards.

 

Usability testing high fidelity design

I performed usability test with the low fidelity prototype and the high fidelity prototype on all 3 inland shipping inspectors from Green Award. I used an online tool called Canvasflip. Canvasflip allows me to record these usability test. With these usability tests I van identify if there are any usability issues in the design. I tested on:

  • Effectiveness (Succes rate)

  • Efficiency (Time on task)

  • Errors made

The tool unfortunately is no longer available and test results therefor are missing from this design process summary.

 

Outcome & achievements
We now have a MVP product which will solve the basic and most important needs & goals for Green Awards as organisation and the end users (inspectors).
Statistic: resulted in a 40% shorter audits time.

The design of the simplified forms to speed up the inland shipping audits by 40%. The flexibility to fill in the data, take & add photo’s, and direct scoring results where a big success.

The design of the simplified forms to speed up the inland shipping audits by 40%. The flexibility to fill in the data, take & add photo’s, and direct scoring results where a big success.

 

Ideal outcome success
The inspectors at Green Award are able to see fulfil a new inspection digitally and send these directly to Green Awards. This will result in a eco friendly look at the clients (by leaving out paper) and a higher inspection speed (no double work).