service and product designer
UZ-FINAL.jpg

Operational issue management

Operational issue management @ urbantz
(real time alerts)

Problem

To alert users in real-time of Urbantz last-mile logistic platform to issues happening in their operation and offer quick access to service recovery tools.

A selected alert in the MVP release.

My role

Research user needs and lead the ideation and design of the new feature.

Activities performed

  • user interviews

  • object oriented UX (OOUX)

  • ideation workshops

  • prototyping

  • user testing

Original dashboard version without alerts

Hypothesis

While Urbantz collects data and tracks several aspects of the customer operation, this information wasn’t shared in real-time with users. This project aimed to use this data to help users identify issues faster, and in some cases automate service recovery.

Method

Using design thinking methodology, I conducted research to empathise with users together with a Product Manager and Customer Support Managers. In a first for the company, we then brought in developers to the ideation phase to ensure we could work in an agile way and release an MVP faster.

User interviews

Together with CSM’s and PM’s, we interviewed clients remotely in several languages. The data revealed there were two personas.

Selected insights

  • alerts on packages, delays and driver behaviour would be universally helpful.

  • too many alerts would be annoying.

  • operatives mostly monitor the dashboard and incorporating them into this screen would be most helpful.

  • currently, operatives are mostly alerted to issues through either contact from the driver or recipients.

Primary persona

Secondary persona

Object oriented UX (OOUX)

OOUX was used to break down the complexity of operational issues and identify steps users take to recover their service.

Doing this shifted the team’s thinking around the concept of alerts. It became clear that users should first define an issue and then attach an action. This could be an alert but also an automated SMS, email or escalation ticket. Multiple actions could be linked to a single issue.

OOUX is an effective method of breaking down complex problems and identifying patterns so that reusable components can be designed.

Prioritisation

Working closely with developers we decided that hardcoding dashboard alerts in the front end would be an easy way to test a tangible visualisation of an issue with select clients. We planned for three different types of issue to be tracked in an early MVP. They were:

  • delay to a task (delivery) over 60 mins.

  • a round with over 5 consecutive failed tasks.

  • a driver who hasn’t reported their location for over 30 mins.

User testing

Participants were asked to complete a series of Tasks on a prototype with and without alerts. We found that the time taken to isolate issues was greatly reduced with alerts and the satisfaction of the system was 92.5% vs 51.8% without.

OOUX is an effective method of breaking down complex problems and identifying patterns so that reusable components can be designed.

user testing scores

Time taken to isolate issues with and without alerts

Satisfaction

SUS satisfaction scores for the alerts.

Wireframe

  • feedback from the user testing revealed an improvement of the alert chip could be made by making it visible different from a filter.

  • on clicking an alert, items were highlighted in the timeline.

  • a frame on the timeline indicates that an alert has been selected.

Outcome

The MVP is currently released to select clients. Feedback is being gathered using Google tag manager, Hotjar surveys and through contact with CSMs.