Two days observing users both with the software and in their day to day activities proved to be very insightful.
When I was with Edwin, a driver arrived late to work on the second day:
" Imagine if this guy walking there was paid per hour, he'd probably do less! Even now (7 am) he is leaving to the port, with traffic and waiting times he is not leaving the port till 11 am."
"He's going far today, at least a 3 hour drive, plus an hour unloading the cargo, and 3 hours back. He already messed up!"
"He won't be able to pickup another load until tomorrow, because the port will already be closed by the time he gets back, thats another load that could have been parked here and ready to deliver tomorrow."
After spending some time with the assistant dispatchers the following insights where discovered:
"... often we are asked on the spot about what a particular driver is doing, and we have only a few seconds to reply.."
In an interview with a Subject Matter Expert, they mentioned that most companies in the area have been using the same software for over 20 years.
It is a software that is very technical in nature and looks like a series of spreadsheets. It tracks containers and you can assign a driver to it.
As a standard it was necessary to design the Logistics App in a way that would be familiar.
I found multiple opportunities to improve the usability and experience of the app, along with bugs that where occurring.
" I prefer to use Ctrl+F to find what im looking for, if i do it through the app it takes too long"
As well as observed that the Kanban UI in a small freight company with 50 containers shown as cards on a board was becoming difficult to track. Rolling out to companies with much more would see this issue at a larger scale.
