In search for new business opportunities CalCon Group has decided to develop a brand new version of their flag software for facility management and real estate evaluation as a SaaS product. The main objectives: new ways of thinking, modern real estate management, easy interfaces, user centered design.
1. Analysis: User needs, opportunities
My work started at researching user needs and understanding the processes, which have to be supported by the software. I gathered my input from two sources:
– direct and reported Customer Insights,
– interviews with colleagues from Evaluation & Consulting Department, who posses indepth knowledge about strategic, operational and tactical actions regarding real estate.
2. Personas: data from interviews and customer insights
After analysing the gathered material, in a small team with Product Manager, Developer and Innovations Specialist we could define main Personas using the software. At the beginning on 3 main levels of detail:
– Technician / State Surveyor – takes tactical actions regarding building maintenance, evaluates building state and reports damages,
– Facility Manager – takes care of a few buildings in the area, plans the yearly budget for each building and creates reports about states and costs,
– Real Estate Portfolio Manager – makes decisions about the whole buildings’ portfolio, approves budgets and needs brief insights on a daily basis.
3. Concept
As a result of the above research, we’ve ideated a solution of the persona-dependant dashboard, which will display only the relevant information as an entry interface after login. The workspaces in the software are then accessible through dashboard widgets or through the top menu. The dashboard itself is also customisable so that our user can adjust information to his/her current needs.
At this point, I delivered the first high fidelity designs.
4. Prototype
We started from a web prototype, building the most important features first including:
– building state evaluation forms,
– simple budget planning tool,
– simple data export tool.
For a general direction agreement with the Management, I also created interactive mockups in Axure and InVision.
5. Test
When the prototype was ready, we’ve decided to make internal user tests among our Evaluation & Consulting Department colleagues. The tests resulted in repeating of the User Journey definition and conceptual process. The first solution tended to have too many clicks in the working pages, which prevented our surveyors from efficient and fast state evaluation. At the later stage, we needed to improve planning and also simplify the process.
The final improvement will be implemented after a pilot program in 2018.
6. iPad App
In waiting for the final release of the v.Next an iPad app has been designed and developed. Released in autumn 2017:
The description on the Calcon website
https://www.calcon.de/glossar/epiqr-input-app/
Link to the iTunes Store for iPad
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/epiqr-inputapp/id1274056431?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
I had a pleasure to fully design it and to work with a remote development team in Romania on the prototype implementation. To help us achieve the best results we worked according to agile methods.