18. Anneleen Vanhoudt
INNOVATION FACILITATOR & RESEARCHER
Joke Van Kerckhoven
PRODUCER & RESEARCHER
Hilde Van Dyck
STRATEGIST & INNOVATION ACCELERATOR
The Peel team
Jan Nikolaas Gijsen
TECHLOVER & VISUALISER
19. End users
Business
• Visits more construction sites
• Collect data to do benchmarking
Advisors
• Simplify reporting so they can focus on their core task
• Meet the needs of the contractors
Contractors
• Receive the right information
20. Match user needs
and business
opportunities
towards a clear
focus.
Problem solving,
Concept &
Prototyping
Minimal viable
product & Launch
Peel Prototype Build
23. The Peel process
Open upDefine
business
opportunities
Dig
deep
Research user
needs
Create it
Match business
with users
Mash up
Make ideas
actionable
Stage it
Present innovation
opportunities
31. Match user needs and business opportunities
Design an application that increases the advisors’
efficiency and effectiveness by simplifying reporting.
32. Match user needs and business opportunities
Design an application that increases the advisors’
efficiency and effectiveness by simplifying reporting.
Different devices should
function as an eco system
33.
34. Match user needs and business opportunities
Design an application that increases the advisors’
efficiency and effectiveness by simplifying reporting.
Different devices should
function as an eco system
Quick scan should operate as
a filter function
35.
36. Match user needs and business opportunities
Design an application that increases the advisors’
efficiency and effectiveness by simplifying reporting.
Different devices should
function as an eco system
A primary group of advisors will test
the applications and give feedback
Quick scan should operate as
a filter function
Fascinated and inspired by human behavior.As a designer I immerse myself in the world of the end user and observe how the context may not match they current needs and get inspired by it.Why is it so important to immerse yourself in their world (and to be the fly on the wall) and not just talk to them? That is because people are incredible problem solvers.To give you an example. We did a project for a lab that studies blood samples. I observed different end users and one of them is the dispatcher (other: courier, nurses, medical specialist). So this is a logistic role in the company and coordinates requests for picking up blood samples. So I observed this woman in her working environment. While talking to her about the good and the bads of her daily job I noticed this:
She had 5 phones to coordinate her contacts. This was incredibly insightful and she wouldn’t have told us about this in an interview because it isn’t a problem anymore. She already solved it. But by improving this we can definitely improve her user experience.And it is because users are such good problems solvers that we also co-create with them in creative workshops. Not because they will come up with the best design solutions, but because they are experts in the problems that they perceive.As a designer I translate these insights in better products and innovations I don’t make products pretty, I make products better.Of course I work together in a team with people who do make this pretty. But that’s not me.(Aesthetics are important because it influence the user’s emotions. If a website has a pleasant visual design, users are more relaxed, tend to find the website more credible and easier to use.)
Work atmonkeyshot for 2 years where we do user experience design of digital products, like websites, applications, etc..
Since last January I founded Peel together with my boss, Hilde Van Dyck and another colleague, WimPutzeys and with peel we practice user driven innovation. What does this mean in human language. It means that with peel we match the oppportunities which a business might so with the real user needs
Ta-da!
To to do.
Today I am going to present one of the project that we did. But before I go into that I want to frame what Peel does by this visual.This visual is made by Daniel Newman and he used this drawing to explain a design process to his clients without bothering them with sophisticated models and schemes. So there are 3 main phases: research, concept prototype and design. As you can see the process starts with one big scribble when you do research and experience a lot of uncertainties (because you don’t know where you are going) but this scribbles goes slowly towards straight line and a clear focus in the design.And with peel we feel comfortable in this messy corner where you research various innovation possibilities.If you specify this process you get these three steps:
PEEL – PROTOTYPE – BUILDPeel: match user needs with business opportunities towards one clear focus.Prototype: elaborate on the concepts and make a prototypeBuild: make a minimal viable product As you can see, each step is shaped like a diamand. And of course this isn’t just a pretty shape. The diamand illustrates a typical creative process where you diverge first which is followed by a convergence phase.
When you diverge you create choices
When you converge you make choices.And this is repeted several times.
I would like to illustrate the first Peel diamand with a project that we did for constructiv, more specifically for the NAVB.
What does the NAVB do? Well the abbreviation says itself. For the dutch speaking people, it is the ‘nationaalactiecomitévoorveilgheid en hygiëne in de bouw.
Or for the French speaking crowd it isComité National d’Action pour la sécurité et l’hygiène dans la Construction.So they visit different construction site in Belgium and inspect these sites in terms of hygiëne and safety. Hereby, it is important to know that they soley have an advisory rhole, and don’t give sanctions. They came to us with a dual problems. On one hand they experienced the problem that didn’t cover enough sites because making the report in the current application took to much time.And on the other hand there was a need to standardise the reports so that they can perform benchmarking. You have to know that most of these advisors have been contractors themselves with a specific expertise. Therefore they tend to focus on elements of their own discipline.
So our opportunity to peel was to design an application that increases the advisors’ effeciency and effectiveness by simplifying reporting.
Peel the banana in one week
Who were we doing the project for:These are the different, direct and indirect, end users of the applicationBUSINESS: as explained before they want to visit more construction sites and collect data in order to do benchmarkingADVISORS: Simplify the reporting so that they can focus on the core task, visiting construction sites and give advice to contractors. Another main concern is that their report is valuable for the advisors, to so meet the needs of the contractorsCONTRACTORS: get the right information
If we zoom in on the Peel diamand
First phase we first create empathy both with business and with the user and afterwards we converge towards one clear focus.
So the first part refers to the Ta Da! moment and the second to the To do list.
5 steps.Open up: define the scope of the project by looking a the business opportunities.Dig deep: then we go into the field and research user needs.Create it: the next step is to do the match making between business and userMash up: we make ideas actionable by telling user storiesStage it: we present the innovation opportunities
In the open up step we have a innovation discovery workshop with people from the business. The aim of the workshop is to specify the idea that the business had in mind. The technique used for this in tinkering, with basically means that you think with your hands.So one of the exercises that we did together with the business was that we asked the people to envision the application as a physical product and to design its package. This enabled them to think about the name of the product, the features, how the product differs from its competitors etc.This exercise evoked discussion so you can see it as a tool for effective communication. Because everyone has to participate and have their say. But also because when you visualise things that you are certain that you’re talking about the same thing.
So tinkering is a learning process. Research has proven that by physically manipulating things, you generate sensory image of all sorts and that basically you think better.
In the open up step we have a innovation discovery workshop with people from the business. The aim of the workshop is to specify the idea that the business had in mind. The technique used for this in tinkering, with basically means that you think with your hands.So one of the exercises that we did together with the business was that we asked the people to envision the application as a physical product and to design its package. This enabled them to think about the name of the product, the features, how the product differs from its competitors etc.This exercise evoked discussion so you can see it as a tool for effective communication. Because everyone has to participate and have their say. But also because when you visualise things that you are certain that you’re talking about the same thing.
Then we got to the dig deep step. Here we performed two different kinds of research. First we did field research where we went with the advisors to the field and observed how they would perform their tasks. And what we observed there is that the social rhole of the advisors is extremely important. Because they have a dubble rhole. On one hand they are there to help the contractors, but on the other hand they are also loosing a lot of time because of them. This was abvious in the way they were taking notes and pictures for their report. It was done in a very subtle way.
Next to the field research we also performed a focus group with the advisors. In a focus group you bring people together and let them talk about their current experiences and needs. In this workshop we discovered that that they already created some tools themselves to make their job easier. For example they create a translation list where they put some specific words like for example a scaffle (stelling) in various languages so they can use this list with contractors who don’t understand dutch. This is a trend that in construction area you come across more and more. We also asked them to draw their experiences on an experience map and indicate what were the most positive and negative experiences.
You might ask yourself isn’t this double the amount of work for the same result. Well it is not because research has showed what people say is very different from what people do. So observations help you to interpret the answers of the focus group.
The numeruous insight which we gathered from the open up en dig deep steps are translated in the create it step towards 5 themes which present the possible functionalities of the application. We did this by story board in because by doing so we focus on the actions that an advisor should be able to do in the real world, instead of listing the functionalities of the application. To the user stories we added post its with the functionalities so that these could litterly be thrown away whe not needed.
We presented these themes to the client and from the step we realised that there was a mismatch between the business opportunities and the users needs. So we needed to go back to the initial brief and add some side notes to it.
Initially the business had an application for a tablet in mind which made sense because their main focus was reporting, but we suggested that it would be more useful to think more at an eco system where a smartphone application communicates with the tablet application. So the advisors can make notes and pictures with their smartphone in a subtle way, and these are automatically linked with the tablet application.Furthermore to increase the effectiveness of the visit business had in mind to introduce a quickscan by which would ensure that all advisors would scan all important themes of the construction site. So the themes were: ergonomics, products, education etc. And the idea was that the advisor would walk around the site and check these things first before going into the site hut and adress the main contractor. In practice this didn’t match reality because often their are a lot of very dangereous situations that the advisors need to address immediately.
For example this man was working on the scaffel but wasn’t wearing protection that would address him from falling.
But the idea of working with themes to increase effienticy was of course not bad, so we decided to integrate the themes in a different manner. So we decided that the advises should be structured around these themes in the datadase so that the advisor could use these themes as a filter function. Evenmore, we decided to add an infographic to the interface so that the advisor would be aware of how many advises he already gave for the different themes, which also helped business with their benchmarking exercise.
So our opportunity to peel was to design an application that increases the advisors’ effeciency and effectiveness by simplifying reporting.
Finally we decided with the navb team to assign a group of advisors as the test group who would use the application first and give constructive feedback for improvement.
With this new information we started working on the experience prototype: which we called safe wing. Because the application would function as a partner is their daily job. This experience of ownership was extremely important to make it into a succesful product. Therefore we added features like favorites. So the advisors could indicate which documents (like safety instruction documents, pictures etc.) because by personalising the application the advisors would experience it more as their own tool. Acceptation through personalisation.
This is something that we learned from the physical workspace. When people are able to personalise their work environment they experience a hiher satisfaction rate because it give them personal control over the territory and results in a higher attachment to the place.
Experience prototype for on the field with 2 functionalities: taking pictures and making notes.
Experience prototype for the report making. The home had 3 main functionalities: show an overview of the planned visits, give access to information and motivate the advisors to give advise over different field.
Experience prototype for the report making. The home had 3 main functionalities: show an overview of the planned visits, give access to information and motivate the advisors to give advise over different field.
Experience prototype for the report making. The home had 3 main functionalities: show an overview of the planned visits, give access to information and motivate the advisors to give advise over different field.
Experience prototype for the report making. The home had 3 main functionalities: show an overview of the planned visits, give access to information and motivate the advisors to give advise over different field.