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Getting Started

The application is a tool that technicians use during flood repair to track the drying of rooms/areas. It's a complex tool for a complex job. Any moisture left behind can turn into mold, so it's important to track its removal correctly and efficiently. There is a desktop application that is used for more of the paperwork features (billing, employee tracking, etc..) that goes along with this mobile tool.

The Problem

The Challenge: How can we simplify the currently complex application to make it easier and increase adoption rate?

Most users would use a combination of the complex desktop app and pen & paper in the field. The older mobile application had all of the features of the desktop application which made it bloated and difficult to use as a tool for data collection.

Interacting with the original mobile application was extremely difficult. The app was on a slow framework and didn't take UX into consideration when it came to a mobile app vs a web app. (Things like how large a tappable area should be, scalable font sizes and basic contrasts.) Users weren't able to properly target what they wanted to interact with. They also weren't able to read/see everything that they wanted to due to a failed layout and lack of scaling.

The Process

I reviewed the existing application and was able to speak to a handful of users (approx. 7-10). Our users range in age from mid 20's to late 50s. Most of the users that wanted to use the mobile app were in the 20-30s range. The 30s-50s range were more content to use paper and input data on the desktop app after they got out of the field. The users I spoke to were mainly in their 20s, with 3 in their 40s. We spoke about pain points, slowness, and missing functionality mainly.

There were 2 key issues noted

Finding what they needed to do their work
Interacting with the app itself

The Layouts

The app was kept close to the original to allow users to maintain that similar workflow. I worked with the same customers we interviewed again to see if the changes made sense.
I did a few sketches and lo-fi wireframes to show the new optimized and easier to use concepts. Focusing on streamlining and overall UX,

Some updates were good

Better layouts for the jobs made for an improved flow
New icons and colors to better see and classify work
Larger and scalable fonts, buttons and icons to make the app more usable

Some updates were neutral

Overall color/palette update didn't improve visual hierarchy or navigation
Removal of a lot of the desktop features (some people wanted some of them back)

None of the updates were worse, which was a big win. I also relied on our sales and customer support departments that shared customer feedback (good and bad) to help direct changes. We would take in customer feedback and work in those comments and questions for future updates or research.

Takeaways

The outcome was an application that was well received by our users. It was easier to use and more intuitive. This led to an adoption rate increase of 9%. (Most were still using pen and paper and transcribing to the desktop app or not using that feature with us at all.)

This project started a new in house process of meeting with users, getting feedback and using them as part of our research as well as beta testing new features.