Electricity Utility UX Design (SAP Fiori)
Overview
UX Design (and Product Owner) to help an electricity network provider transition their field technicians from paper forms to a digital test results app.
My contribution
UX Designer Product Owner
The team
Year
2016
The tools
Sketch SAP Splash SAP BUILD Office supplies
The activities
Contextual enquiry User co-design User interviews Persona definition Wireframe design Prototyping Usability testing Writing User Stories
Challenge
Digitizing collection of meter test results
A large Australian electricity distribution network needed assistance to design a power meter results collection app for their new power asset management system.
The client was required by power regulators to assess the accuracy of devices on its electrical network. The clients had a workforce of technicians visit customer sites and perform tests to ensure devices remained accurate recording the test results on paper forms.
Recording test results was a paper-based process that created isolated and lost test results. The technicians recorded the results of tests and uploaded test data from test machines into a power asset management system to create an archive that provided the client with visibility of power assets on the network.
Approach
Sprint to innovation
I designed an application for the technicians that would assist new digital users to use the app. I performed site visits and co-designed the app with a technician.
The original paper forms were simplified and app designed to resemble the layout of the physical form, to aid quick and easy adoption by the technicians, and assist the less digital savvy technicians to make the leap from paper to digital.
To ensure the best solution, SAP Fiori was harnessed and the team went through rigorous wireframing into a low fidelity prototype, and then into an interactive prototype using SAP’s Splash and Build prototyping tool. These designs were validated across the board from user testing.
Contextual enquiry
As a research activity, a contextual inquiry was undertaken to understand how the technicians operated the equipment and used the existing paper forms while on a customer site.
Wireframes
A complete set of app wireframes were co-designed with users on paper and then on-screen. four iterations the wireframes developed for simplicity with two team leaders contributing heavily and their team members provided additional feedback.
Outcome
Simple navigation, an optimized layout, and similarity to the current paper form made it easy for technicians to use the app. The pre-population of known form fields to aid the user quickly and easy complete the form for increased productivity.
An SAP Fiori app interface modified with a high contrast colour scheme ensured the app was visible both in a field in the blazing sun of summer and in the darkness of a power outage.