GRIDLOCK
IRL TEAM COLLABORATION
ROLE
Product Designer
TOOLS & SKILLS
Figma
UXR
Communication
Task management
OBJECTIVE
Design a mobile tool that allows members of the repair team to know when and where lines are down and to work with dispatchers and each other.
Presentation deck→
PROBLEM HYPOTHESIS
By creating efficient collaboration flows and integrating AI to streamline decision-making, downed lines can be located and repaired with minimal delays.
MY APPROACH
For this design challenge, I chose to focus on Antigua, my home outside of the US. Power outages are a big problem there. A solution like this would benefit the country, so I wanted to use this opportunity as a jumping-off point for my design considerations going forward.
KEY ASSUMPTION: DIRECTIONS
Antigua has very little in terms of formal directions. However, most tradespeople know the island very well. This makes informal directions a superior and preferred method.
THE PERSONA
Time was a major constraint for this project. I decided to focus on a single, fleshed-out persona and user journey. When coming up with this persona, the best approach was to step into the shoes of a senior member of the repair team in order to understand the high-level objectives of the job.
JOHN
A seasoned electrician and power line repairman from St. Mary's, Antigua. Gridlock allows him to monitor the condition of his region's power grid and quickly communicate with the junior members of his team when something goes wrong.
INITIAL INVESTIGATIONS
Through creating the first white boxed iteration, I was beginning to understand the core functions that this tool had to possess. I started with the concept of an interactive map, supported by status markers above and below that could serve to break down the map's data into words.
LESS IS MORE
As I began to iterate through a user flow, I realized that this tool should function as just that: a tool. Not an assistant or a crutch, but an object that, in the right hands, allows for real work to be done efficiently. In the same way that a hammer or a drill are just tools, I wanted Gridlock to fall into that framework.
ITERATING: VIEWING A JOB
How can the user navigate from viewing the base map to a specific job, while being able to reference/contact the team?
ITERATING: JOBS HUB & DELEGATION
How can the intuitiveness of the map be preserved through the flow? At this point, the idea of delegating tasks to other team members came to mind.
VERSION 1
This initial version, while it laid important groundwork, was clunky, not standard, and felt a bit more like a video game mission than a true mobile tool experience.
SIMPLE NAVIGATION
I began to understand the strength of the nav bar in it's ability to allow for larger amounts of information the be accessed intuitively
A HELPING HAND
It was at this point that I reached out to my mentor for a bit of guidance. He suggested, on the map screen, that holding the jobs in a card carousel instead of a static tray would offer a smoother user experience.
INTERACTION
A conscious design decision was to keep all essential interactions to the bottom half of the screen. This lets repair people quickly grab and unlock the phone to address problems with one hand while the other may be busy holding tools, cables, etc.
GRID STATUS
Overview of the power grid status for an assigned region. View ongoing and waiting jobs as well as crew locations.
PERSISTENT HEADER
The status header provides a summary of the grid's current status and is visible at the top of the screen at all times for quick referencing.
DELEGATION
Delegate jobs to junior team members. This feature allows team leaders to assign work quickly and takes the pressure off of junior members who may not have as much experience in job prioritization.
SIDEKICK
Every hero needs a reliable sidekick. While viewing a job, tap to get an AI-powered breakdown of the situation and directions. Also, get details on nearby crew for potential delegation.
GETTING THERE
Once a job is accepted, a route is created. The user then has the option to request backup from their team if necessary.
NAVIGATION
Quick access the the Jobs and My Team hubs, as well as the Grid Map, is essential to this kind of workflow.
MEASURING SUCCESS
Metrics that could be used are the time between reported, accepted, and repaired jobs, screen time, as well as user surveys conducted over an initial introduction period.
FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
Some explorations that could be explored later on are integrating projected wind data, the ability to check in with and support other teams, and a dedicated night mode.
POTENTIAL BUILD STRUCTURE
For a project like this, a program/project manager and one or two engineers would be necessary. In addition, a small team of UX researchers would be essential for gathering the data that can lead to a successful implementation of this project.
LEARNINGS
This project taught me a lot about myself as a designer. The things that I care about in terms of UX, my own optimal workflows, prioritization, and how to avoid scope creep.