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Enhancing Workforce Management for Draper Aden Associates through User-Centered Design.

Harnessing User-Centered Design to Enhance Productivity, Usability, and Safety

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BuilderMania

A UcID/Ue design case study of a WMS for a Construction corp.

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Problem Statements

The construction company faced challenges in managing workforce tasks, scheduling, and communication, leading to delays and productivity bottlenecks.

Current workforce management systems failed to meet the specific usability and accessibility needs of field workers and managers, limiting adoption and satisfaction.

Field tasks such as check-ins, emergency handling, and reporting lacked an intuitive interface, increasing cognitive load and errors.

Phase Index

Phase 1: Contextual inquiry and analysis

Interview, Document, Analyze, and Validate

Collecting user data via interviews for a Work Activity Analysis and Design model. Focus was on user work roles, needs, and system inputs.

a)

Meet the Client

Roles and Responsibilities of Engineering and Construction Experts.

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b)

Construction Insights

Safety, Productivity, and Tech Integration for Enhanced UX Design.

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c)

Site Photos

Visual Documentation:

Representative Site Photos.

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d)

Sketches made In-Field

Field Visit Sketches:

iPad Drawings Captured On-Site.

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Consolidating and Interpreting Work Activity Data

a)

Work activity affinity Diagram

Organizing & Categorizing Interview Responses in a diagram.

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Phase 02: Usage Research Data Modeling

Developed and represented user models

Collecting user data via interviews for a Work Activity Analysis and Design model. Focus was on user work roles, needs, and system inputs.

i.

User Models

Categorizing Work Roles to Inform System Design

Step-by-step sequence models delineate subcontractors' daily check-in/check-out processes, pivotal to our interface design. Unusual scenarios like visitor visits are also analyzed. These models validate task objectives, intentions, and user actions based on interview data, integrating task step/subtask elements.

User personas were developed following specific inquiries directed at participants during our interviews. Through probing, we sought insights into their work preferences and challenges. Based on their feedback, we distilled this information into two primary user personas representing distinct individuals in key work roles, namely managerial and worker positions. These personas, aligned with the target domain, accurately portray the motivations and challenges encountered in their respective roles, offering valuable insights for enhancing the work environment.

A task inventory is crucial for guiding system design and ensuring comprehensive task coverage. It facilitates system design by breaking down tasks into manageable steps and subtasks, enhancing comprehension of system flow.

The flow model diagram illustrates a user's progression through a specific task. Unlike considering content in isolation, task flow analysis enables us to comprehend how individual content pieces interconnect. These connections form user paths towards their intended destination, providing a clear map of user interaction. Task flows ensure content remains user-centric by detailing task performance steps and aiding project planning during the pre-layout stages.

The artifact model presents objects depicting how users engage with, manipulate, and share components of work practices. Data from interviews informs understanding of artifacts within the model, guiding design requirements and system-artifact relationships. Our project adopts a unified approach, consolidating construction site daily routines into one interface to enhance task efficiency.

The essential use case model provides insight into emergency responses at construction sites, while usage scenarios detail user interactions and encountered difficulties.

Phase 03: Design

Design thinking, Ideation and Sketching, wireframes

This phase involves ideation, sketching, critiquing, and synthesizing to shape our design, using research data and artifacts as key resources.

i.

Design

Refining User Roles: Focusing on Primary Persona to Guide Design Decisions

A crucial part of our process was to explore different design ideas to ensure the designs are accessible to users on a construction site, accommodating various work-specific needs.

Our design process considered system interaction, emotional impact, and ecological perspectives. We focused on how the primary persona would experience the system, ensuring it meets their key employment-related needs.

We frequently referred to our collected data and user models to understand user roles and interactions, capturing the emotional aspects of system usage.

We used scenarios and storyboards to visualize realistic user interactions, which helped identify potential barriers or limitations. After ensuring all perspectives were considered and interactions were logical, we moved on to developing our system wireframes. Physical mockups were not created due to the nature and purpose of the system.

We conducted our ideation session and took turns sketching out ideas. Sketching out the interfaces and writing the description below gave the group members a rigid structure of what we are planning to achieve. Based on these, we ultimately gave out our opinions, critiques, suggestions, and even multiple alternative ideas.

We selected this color palette because these colors are commonly found at construction sites. They evoke a sense of familiarity and relevance for our target audience, enhancing the overall user experience by creating a visual connection to the industry-specific environment.

BuilderMania is originally designed to serve workforce management-related necessities on an active construction project. With the figures provided below, we attempted to illustrate an early version of the wireframe which will be further refined in the prototypes.