RAIL OPERATIONS APPLICATION
ABOUT THIS PROJECt
This was not a freelance project - it was part of my day job. It's included here to illustrate my capabilities.
The client is one of the top rail touring companies in the world, and runs scenic trips through the Rocky Mountains in western Canada. They wanted to create a system that would allow them to run their Rail Operations more efficiently. The system would allow them to create their train schedules, track train performance, and plan how many of each type of railcar would be required for each trip, based on the demand for that trip. As demand and operational considerations required, the Train Operations team could use the system to re-configure the trains as needed. Interested parties (like local hotels and bus companies) could subscribe to receive notifications about changes to the scheduled arrival time in their town.
WHAT I DID ON THIS PROJECT
I was the User Experience Designer on the project and was also responsible for Visual Design. I worked with a business analyst colleague from my company and the business analyst from the client organization to gain an in-depth understanding of the requirements of the system. I created paper sketches of the entire interface and iterated on those based on feedback from the business analysts. I then created high-resolution screens and a clickable prototype that was shared with the client for feedback.
I spent a week on site with the client at their Rail Operations Hub and their Head Office conducting sessions where we walked through the prototype with the people who would be using the system to get their feedback and identify any gaps in the requirements. The user experience was further refined based on those sessions, and the final approved design was then turned over to our development team.
WHAT I LEARNED ON THIS PROJECT
While the paper prototype process can be a great tool for rapid design iteration, it is more appropriate on some projects than others. When you have early access to end users and are collocated, it works great. When you are working at distance, the immediacy of paper prototypes is somewhat lost. In that case you need to scan your paper sketches and share them through some means of online collaboration. It was still helpful, but on a big system like this the overhead of sharing the paper sketches starts to outweigh the benefits.