Overview

PROJECT TYPE

Mobile App for Warehouse Scanner

My Role

UX Designer

Deliverables

High Fidelity Wireframes

Handoff to Developers

Update Style Guide

Tools

Figma

Business Goals

Fulfilld wants to fill a need of bringing warehouse management software up to the 21st century. Previous warehouse software on workers’ scanners looks like they’re out of a video game from the 80s. Warehouse workers have a high turn around and also a high amount of time for training. Fulfilld wants to create a mobile app that is easy to learn, will lead to less mistakes made by warehouse workers, and make their days easier.

The Problem

Warehouse Workers need simple clear tool to help them easily accomplish their daily tasks easily and accurately.

Obstacles and Opportunities

Small devices - using scanner guns. Different warehouses use different sized screens so we have to create a design that can adjust for that.
Time - this project had a short deadline to start up with a warehouse. There was not time for research or user testing so many assumptions had to be based on the teams experience and insight from our stakeholders.
Busy Warehouses - Our users are warehouse workers using the application on scanners in a loud, chilly warehouse, with variety in lighting.
We are designing for warehouse workers who have different levels of skills with technology and many of the workers first language is not english.
The Warehouse Industry experiences a high level of turnover. So there is a need to cut down on training time and get workers up and running quickly.

The Solution

Create an easy to use mobile application designed specifically for workers in the warehouse.

First Iteration

Final Solution

The need for a New iteration

After the initial designs went live in the warehouse, it was clear that we didn’t hit all of our goals. The biggest thing we heard users say during training was the dreaded:

“What do I do next?”

This quickly sent us back to the drawing board of figuring out ways to simplify the design and make it more effective for our users. First we collected as much feedback as possible from the users in the warehouse and created an updated persona to keep in mind during the design process.

Updated Persona

One of the main inspirations we used was this concept of “Drive Mode” pulling ideas from the simplified designs that users get in different applications to keep from getting distracted.

Zooming in - Problems with the first iteration And improvements

On a quick timeline, we made initial designs that were built out and used at our first warehouse. I’ll go through some of the assumptions that we made for the first iteration, how they did not work, and the updates that we made in order have a better experience for our warehouse workers.

Task Designs

When this project was started, we incorrectly assumed that a warehouse worker would appreciate some context to what step of the process they are in, which is why the steppers were utilized. It turns out, this much information on a small screen was bogging down the warehouse worker and was too much information.
The new layout only has one instruction per screen. And that instruction can always be found in the new instruction banner at the top of the screen. Users can quickly learn that if they aren’t sure what to do next, their instruction will always be located right at the top.
This also provides more room to fill another need to make everything BIGGER. Warehouse workers can easily glance down and see what bin or license plate they are looking for next.

Agenda

Clearer differentiation between the types of tasks. While Fulfilld’s algorithm does prioritize tasks, sometimes on the floor a warehouse worker can be told “hey I need you to do this Putaway Task” so we want to be easily training workers which task is which, and make sure they know what kind of task they are starting to do.

Workers can switch the tabs between a task view or a Delivery view. This is also a configuration that is set ahead of time based on the warehouse workers job description to know which screen they start on. A worker who is working delivery by delivery will start automatically on the deliveries tab.

Improved Success or Error Messaging

With the first designs, warehouse workers were expecting a success “ding” after scanning their Staging Bin, to avoid this confusion I made sure to include that after ever scan the device would give either a success or error response to quickly let the worker know if they made the right scan or need to make a correction.
I also learned that having a success message pop-up as a snack bar was not sufficient for our workers to see that they successfully completed their task. So I made sure to add a separate screen to call out if the task was not completed properly. This helped the warehouse workers know that their task was done properly and that they were ready to start the next one.

Taking Physical Location Into Account

When behind the screen, it is easy to forget that these designs are being used in live warehouse. When users, who don’t often use new technology, are learning a new product it’s helpful to lay everything out. That’s why the new design includes a screen to call out that it’s time to move from one location to the next.
I was also able to utilize our already created map of the warehouse to allow workers to click the location icon to see where they are in the warehouse along with where the bin is they are looking for. Most warehouse workers have memorized the warehouse layout but this feature is very helpful for new hires

Warehouse Obstacles

Another issue that was found in the field was if a user wasn’t able to scan a bin or if a mistake had been made and somehow product was occupying a bin that our Fulfilld system thought was available. Now users can select Bad Barcode and do a manual bin override if necessary.

Outcomes and COnclusions

Once these updates were made, we saw a huge impact. Warehouse workers barely had any questions on how to use the app and were able to quickly get to work. When the app was brought to new warehouses, the workers were instantly impressed with how much easier this application was than what they had used in the past.

This was also a great lesson for Fulfilld as a new start-up. While we can’t always do as much research as we’d like to, this really emphasized how important it is to do more research and user testing before going live with a new application or feature.

New Opportunities

Giving workers a way to complete a manual override was necessary but it also lead to a new problem, manly that someone who was feeling lazy now could do a bin override and put the product wherever they’d like, ignoring where Fulfilld tells them to place the product.

Fulfilld’s algorithm takes into account incoming and outgoing deliveries, and is very selective as to what bins are selected as to not create bottlenecks when a delivery needs to go out quickly. So manual bin overrides were causing some problems. This is something that many warehouses deal with and unfortunately we didn’t have the bandwidth to create a bigger solution for this.

If there was more time to address this I would love to do a research spike around ways to use gamefication to help incentivize or encourage warehouse workers to complete their tasks without making changes. I did a small deep dive into Yu-Kai Chou’s research around gamification and started doing some brainstorming. Some initial ideas from brainstorming using his Otcalysis Analysis:

Improving feedback - incorporate praises into the app for when tasks are completed quickly and without any errors.
Find ways to help users feel more empowered and like they’re really a part of the company, contributing to the team by completing their tasks.
Creating some sort of points system so users can compare how they have done this week verses previous weeks of work.

After the mistakes that were made with the first designs, we wanted to make sure the proper research and testing could be completed before implementing these changes.