CAT Project

This project was completed in 2020 as a client project for Caterpillar Inc. in Peoria, IL.

ROLE

Designer, Group of 4

DURATION

September 2020 – November 2020

TOOLS

Figma, Adobe InDesign, Google Forms

Summary

CAT Fleet Management

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this project was to design a user interface for Caterpillar’s new fleet management software. We were given a pre-made journey map, user personas, and the company’s specific design specifications.

 

problem

Fleet management software can be complicated, as it is consists of data visualization, team communication, tasks, alerts, and multiple different types of users.

 

solution

Our design solution allows users to view alerts, a personalized to-do list, asset management information, current projects, a calendar of events, maintenance information, messages, and more.

 

outcome

We attended an 8-hour usability day hosted by CAT’s UX team. We user-tested our prototype with actual users, iterated on our design, and presented our work to CAT stakeholders.

 

process

project process

1

Research

Competitive Analysis
Journey Map

2

Ideation

Sketching
Low-Fidelity Mockups

3

Design

High-Fidelity Mockups
Figma Clickable Prototype

4

Test

Prototype Testing
Iteration

from the client

Challenge Overview

Many of the medium to large companies who use our tools operate their organization with an internal rental model where there is a centralized equipment management group who “owns” the equipment and then rents the equipment out to projects for work; the projects are then charged an hourly rate based on usage of the asset. 

Many of these customers use some type of manual process where projects fill out a spreadsheet on a monthly cadence to say what asset types they need on each project and their anticipation for how long they will need the assets and how much they will work. The equipment group then works to look across the fleet and fulfill those needs with the available assets at hand, or at times initiates a new buy or rental, to assign specific assets to the specific job needs; the result is a manually created and updated fleet schedule of all assets in the fleet and when they will be on what jobs. 

Pain Points

  • The manual nature of the process and lack of more up-to-date and accurate data. 
  • Only theoretical so often don’t get to see whether projections came true. The internal product team view indicates this is a great opportunity to consider possible integrations of data from Asset Operations and Utilization functionality to line up what is taking place once an asset is assigned. 
  • Project teams are blind to what other projects need/have; all would fall back on the equipment manager to make connections and optimize assignments across. 
  • The equipment group basically receives an order form and doesn’t get to easily help guide projects to best-fit assets/options for a job. 
  • Spreadsheet of needs and follow-up assignment often ignores the asset’s maintenance schedule to plan for when an asset needs to be off the job for planned maintenance needs.
Research Report

DESIGN

Features

  • Data Visualization
  • Asset Management
  • Maintenance Request
  • Personalized To-Do
  • Team Communication

DESIGN

High-Fidelity Prototype

testing

Usability Testing Findings

  • Delay in finding the “rent” button
  • Add project picker for the calendar
  • Add a secondary header to help tabs stand out
  • Fix project name mistake
  • Some readability problems with size
    • green maintenance pill
  • Make sure users can choose new assets from current inventory or from Buy/Sell/Rent page
  • Allowed users to add assets to a project separate from initially making the project ie: Asset Request Form

Portfolio

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