With a fleet of over 4,000 barges, Ingram Barge is the largest shipping company in the inland waterway system in the United States of America
Services
UX Research, Interviewing , UX/UI Design, Prototyping, Presentation Design
Technologies
Sketch, InVision, Miro
Keywords
Fleet Management | Captain Friendly | Prototyping | UX/UI | Moving Barges
Project Overview
We spent over three months doing field research at Ingram Barge locations in New Orleans, Paducah, and St. Louis. In-person research is vital to building a comprehensive understanding of how users work and design the application.
Like with many organizations, Ingram still used manual tools like spreadsheets, post-it notes, and email to manage complex business processes.
The Problem
The primary UX challenge was designing an application that a particular segment of Ingram’s barge captains would accept and use.
Due to the nature of their work, these end-users didn’t have much patience for new technology. Ingram had tried and failed to introduce something like this once already in the past, but it had died due to low adoption.
If the project was going to succeed, we had to get their buy-in.
The Solution
Since Ingram Barge is a shipping company, efficiency is always a priority.
This new application would help optimize their transportation processes by:
1. tracking where barges are on the river in real-time,
2. reporting how much freight each barge was carrying,
3. and determining when a barge could carry more freight.
We identified each step in every workflow people performed as part of the fleet management process and moved on from there.
A lot of design firms skip this part and cut straight to designing high-fidelity screens. That’s probably why the last vendor Ingram employed failed. Understanding the business process and true workflows of the end-users must inform how those interactions are designed.
After defining the user flows and outlining the information architecture, we created a low-fidelity black and white wireframe for each screen that would use for each step of the user flow.
Low-fidelity wireframes are important because they are easier to edit and, therefore, more conducive to rapid iterations based on client feedback. After several iterations, the wireframes were approved by Ingram’s stakeholders.
We then developed a clickable prototype for the users to review themselves
After several iterations, the wireframes were approved by Ingram’s stakeholders.
We then developed a clickable prototype for the users to review themselves.
Once the wireframe was approved, we created a high-fidelity version of the application and continued to iterate based on user feedback.
Conclusion
After defining the user flows and outlining the information architecture, we created a low-fidelity black and white wireframe and then transitioned into high-fidelity visuals. We created clickable prototypes to help developers visualize and implement this excellent solution.
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