Design Challenge: The application is used to assign users a coat as well as receives the coats back from the users. The coats have a bar-code, the admin scans the coat bar-code and the user's identification badge to assign the coat to the user. While returning the coat, just the coat is scanned and the return is complete.
I began with research asking myself questions like who is the user? What is the context? What are the parameters to assign the coat? Current Scenario? As it is a new application and something similar does not exist. Internet was not helpful to understand the scenario and the task flow. I asked these questions to the company itself and got some answers.
Primary Research
Q1: Purpose of Application?
A1: To assist Coat handler, hence the user of this application is the coat handler
Q2: Parameters to assign the coat?
A2: Only parameter is whether the coat is assigned or not.
Secondary Research
Requirements:-
- Assist Coat handler
- Kiosk and Tablet application
Regarding the second requirement, I researched further the similarities and dissimilarities between the Kiosk and Tablet. Definitely, there are pros and cons to both like Tablet is portable while various kiosk companies offer specially designed kiosk for a specific context/workspace. It is efficient to develop a web application instead of a native application that can be work in both Kiosk and Tablet.
Having researched about ESD smocks they can be of different types based on the requirement of the company. Usually, they differ by fabric, length, pockets, cuffs but the purpose remains the same. That is to provide an insulative shield and reduce the electric field generated from the clothing. Which lead me to make assumption number 1. In Fig 1, the rightmost image shows the barcode on the ESD smocks where you can see a barcode number along with a unique ID, which defined my second assumption.
Before starting with the ideation phase, the following assumptions were made for simplicity and define some constraints.
Assumptions:
- All the coats distributed by the coat handler are same; this means the ESD smock provided by the coat handler will be same for everyone irrespective of height and size.
- Every coat will have a unique ID other than a barcode.
Main Application Functionalities: -
a) Assign — Coat handler assigns/gives a coat to the employees
b) Receive — Coat handler receives coats from the employees
User Scenarios:
- Assign coat to the employee
- Receive coat from the employee
- Report a complaint that the employee registered for the coat while returning
- Information of the coats available, assigned or reported
- Inquire if the coat is missing
- Add a new coat to the collection
High Fidelity
I first started by deciding the Color Palette and the UI style. I decided to go with a flat and minimalistic design.
