From Paper to Digital System: Creating an Intuitive App for Construction Quality Control
UX Design, Jul-Aug 2022. Protected under NDA.
Overview
Controlling construction quality with paper is not eco-friendly and makes management, storage, and reuse difficult.
My task is to digitize the construction quality control workflow, which involves complex personnel, environments, and scenarios.
Being the only Designer, I led the end-to-end design process for the MVP alongside 4 engineers within 8 weeks.
Designed and iterated IA, wireframes, and prototypes for 18 user flows across four pages, securing development and implementation resources by driving system adoption.
The User and Task
Building a semiconductor factory means installing special machines that need strict checks. In these checks, employees and contractors use paper Quality Control (QC) forms to make sure parts like pipelines meet the rules.
The Problem
These important steps still use paper. This makes it hard for TSMC as it gets bigger. When workers need to change machine parts, like wiring, they waste time finding and checking the old paper forms to remember how things were set up, and this often causes errors.
The challenge
I faced several challenges before diving into the design execution phase.
The team, working with a designer for the first time, was unclear about the value a designer could bring beyond creating visually appealing interfaces.
The engineers had already conducted requirement meetings with users and completed wireframes before I joined, thinking I could just follow them.
Users had a low willingness to digitize their current paper-based operations; instead, they felt somewhat resistant because they argued their needs were not understood.
Building Trust First and Advocating for User Research
To tackle these challenges, here are my approaches:
Dev. Meetings are my initial opportunity to gather information for further research.
Create prototypes to quickly gather user feedback.
Incorporate hypothesis in prototypes to enable research through design (RtD).
Share the value and examples of user-centered design.
Actively attend any meetings that might potentially be related to the project.
Building trust to gain more resources for user research to find the missing pieces of the puzzle. Diving Deeper!
My Contribution
I was in charge of end-to-end user experience research and design. My contributions include:
Led user interviews and testing, including research planning, hosting, analysis, and action items.
Clarified the current service blueprint (SBP) and streamlined both online and offline work modes to create a new digital workflow.
Planned the information architecture (IA), categorizing information into 4 layers based on the user journey, with 19 detailed core task flows under the layers.
Designed UI modules after inventorying information blocks from QC forms, extending components from the company's design system (assets from the other department).
Provided future recommendations, including suggested topics for further user research, as well as potential costs and risks.
Design Highlight
Unfortunately, due to an NDA, I can't show you the bulk of my work at TSMC. However, I'll try to provide some highlights from one project, excluding sensitive information like interfaces and detailed processes.
Defining and Modularizing Information on the Forms
We selected 21 commonly used forms from hundreds as digitalization examples after identifying user issues and requirements.
Based on user insights, I inventoried the blocks of these forms and categorized the information into three types: essential items, inspection items, and optional items. All forms include these three types of information.
Redesigning User Behavior Based on Their Motivation
We encountered several issues that needed resolution to advance the concept to testing. For instance, contractors were accustomed to seeing "everything at once," which is challenging on digital screens smaller than paper.
By studying their eye-tracking, I discovered that contractors wanted to know "what will be checked" before proceeding. Using Gestalt psychology principles, I grouped related information, allowing contractors to quickly grasp inspection content with a few swipes, and also enabled inspectors to swiftly browse through and complete their checks.
Identifying the Reasons Behind User Needs
During user interviews, a requirement emerged: "Inspectors need the ability to delete forms." Wait…, why inspectors need a function of "deletion"?
Upon further inquiry, it became clear that they were concerned about contractors not meeting the requirements and wanted to delete non-compliant forms. In the current paper-based workflow, contractors typically rewrite a new form, and the old, problematic one is destroyed. That is, they need a "rejection" mechanism in a digital system, instead of "deletion".
I designed a modification that considered the workflow and interactions between roles, and marking widgets to maintain operational flexibility within the system.
Proof of Concept
We conducted user tests in the factory workspace using test phones. The tests focused on gathering qualitative data for the following reasons:
Quantitative measurements would not provide reliable data since it uses placeholder data from engineers and still has some unresolved bugs.
The current testing is to identify usability issues, such as tasks that cannot be completed or problems that cannot be solved by engineering.
I provided the team with handover documents that emphasized understanding the underlying issues behind user feedback and adjusting the functionality layout accordingly, rather than always implementing changes exactly as users suggested.
Result
The project was adopted and further developed.
The department expanded UX design positions.
I received an invitation to return the following year from my supervisor, the manager of the department.
Reflection
Design thinking goes beyond just interfaces, just as digitalization involves more than merely establishing digital systems. I further disclosed the potential costs and risks of this digitalization project, which relate to users' operations, communication methods, and equipment management issues. Specifically,
Before contractors can start their work, they need to register and gain entry. With digitalization, they will need to receive equipment beforehand, raising issues of equipment distribution and personnel authorization.
The system must account for various use cases, considering interactions between people and technology, people and each other, and people and the environment. For example, during inspections, users may need to climb or crouch, so the placement of equipment in the environment is crucial.
I believe the value of design lies in identifying potential issues early and proposing solutions to ensure a smoother digitalization.
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