I joined a two-semester MDP (Multidisciplinary Design Program) project, which was sponsored by SkySpecs, in 2017. I worked with teammates from College of Engineering and together we designed a work order system for SkySpecs.
Team of 5 | 6 months | Sketch + Principle + InVision
SkySpecs was founded in 2012 by two UM alumni. As SkySpecs expands, they need to automate their process for tracking clients' inspection orders. The creation of a work order system will bring them benefits of a robust, flexible system that allows them to decrease friction in the transition to a larger client base.
Since the industry of wind turbine inspection was totally new to us, we spent lots of time interviewing with SkySpecs employees and discussing with our sponsor mentors to figure out their operation process from receiving an order to sending out a drone and a pilot to the field.
Stakeholders
Our job was to visualize an abstract flow they were already very familiar with. A big challenge was to build a complete picture by bringing pieces from different stakeholders together.
There are several key stakeholders involving in the process of creating a new work order:
> Business/ Operation Directors: they are in charge of communicating with contact people on the client's side, including confirming orders with the procurement focal point, scheduling inspections with the wind farm site manager and technicians, etc.
> Drone Operators/ Pilots: available operators are assigned by the directors to a work order.
> Clients: clients send out inspection requests to SkySpecs, including which wind farm to visit and how many turbines to inspect. Later, they will discuss with SkySpecs when to do inspections.
Every week, we presented our wireframes to sponsor mentors in our weekly meeting. In this way, we were able to discuss face-to-face with them by walking through screen by screen together, and iterate our design according to their feedback at a fast pace.
At the end of the first semester, there were four sections in the work order system: work order, customers, turbines and agenda. Under the work order tab, customer and turbine information was connected from the customer tab and the turbine tab. Therefore, users could simply choose from a drop down list to create a new work order. After a new work order was created, the new record would be shown in the agenda tab in a calendar context.
After a summer break, SkySpecs added the turbine tab in their web portal, which was mainly for the purpose of post-inspection analysis. We then integrated the header of their web portal into our prototype and made a big change on the design of turbine selection.
Since there were usually more than 50 turbines in a wind farm needed to be inspected, and sometimes the number went up to hundreds, we came up with a new way for users to easily select multiple turbines in a short time. This revision also allowed users to upload a csv file and the system then parsed turbine information from it.
In the last month of the project, we conducted a testing with SkySpec's business director and operation director, who are potential users of the work order system.
They pointed out some features that might be helpful to add, including adding a column of actual inspection dates and links to PO (Purchase Order) files to the work order table. Overall, they were really satisfied with our work.
InVision Prototype
Feel free to play with our InVision Prototype with password: skyspecs.
The memory is sweet,
I really appreciate that we have this opportunity to work on this project for two semesters, so we had enough time to communicate with stakeholders and iterate our design.
Our project direction pivoted a lot at the beginning. However, thanks to the time of exploration, I learned a lot about wind turbines and turbine inspection. Even though we ended up with a project which had little to do with physical turbines, the knowledge helped me communicate with stakeholders more effectively.
Some people asked us why SkySpecs didn't just adopt a work-order software. I think this reflects to a niche market of drone application in wind energy. Their work order system requires to be highly customized. Therefore, they find it worth to develop their own work order system.
I am also very grateful that all of the people in SkySpecs are so supportive and responsive in terms of helping us understanding their business and work.
but there are some regrets as well.
If I had a chance to start this project over again, I would have worked with my engineering teammates more closely. Since they were learning a new programming framework which SkySpecs was using internally, we were not able to discuss deeply about how feasible our design was. However, if we worked more closely, or at least if we designers encouraged them to share their perspectives more openly, I believe our final deliverable would have turned out more polished.