The OEM Activation Tools is a web-based portal that allows original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to activate their ZTR telematics hardware.
The problem:
Users were transferring assets out of their accounts by accident causing customer panic and a large build up of tickets in the IT Support backlog. Users thought they were only activating assets but they were actually activating and transferring these assets to another account. This resulted in the activated asset not displaying in their device list as it had been transferred out of their account.
Single Activation Original Process
Bulk Activation Original Process
Background information:
ZTR Control Systems sells hardware devices, that are attached to customer construction equipment for example, a forklift, which can then be used to track equipment utilization in the ZTR ONE i3 Software.
To activate a ZTR telematics hardware, a user would have to log in to the OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturers) Activation Tools portal. In this portal users are able to activate the device for themselves or activate the device and then transfer it to another company’s account. The transferring ability is used most often with our larger clients who want to help their customers by completing the activation process for them. Once a device has been activated, users will have a record of it in their device list.
My role:
To remove the frustrating user experience of activating devices. (UI/UX Design)
Design process:
Research
I reached out to our commercial sales team and had them demo a real scenario that our current users were experiencing. They were able to explain two use cases of this tool:
1. Users were activating assets for themselves therefore not needing to transfer assets.
2. Users who were activating assets on behalf of another company and wanted to transfer those assets to them.
The current design of the portal seemed to be tailored to the use case of activating and transferring the asset to another company. There was no way to just activate an asset unless the “Transfer to” drop down was selected to “Do not transfer”. Our IT reports also showed that most of the errors were coming from users who were trying to activate assets for themselves and were forgetting to change the transfer to option to “Do not transfer”.
Problem identification (MVP)
I ran into a challenge when identifying the problem as the stakeholders (Product Owner, Sales Team, Lead Developer) were saying that it was the defaulted drop down option for “Transfer to” that was the problem and that if we changed the default to be “Do not transfer” than our issues would be solved.
What they were proposing:
However, I was able to look more closely at the full user flow and noticed that the way it was designed was extremely misleading to the user as the CTA’s were only specifying activate and no where did it mention you were also going to transfer the device, except for the very last drop down field.
I concluded that the problem was the user flow of activating and transferring a device. I knew that if I separated the two flows (activation and transfer) and made it a more tailored experience by asking the user at the beginning who they were activating the asset for, it would allow the user to be more aware of the choices they were making and result in the correct outcome. I also wanted to limit the user errors by having a note explaining when they chose to transfer to another company they were not able to undo this action.
My proposal for Single Activation:
My proposal for Bulk Activation:
This proposal was warmly welcomed and the sales team got very excited at the possibility of tailoring it to who you were activating it for. They had mentioned that some companies have specific metadata requirements but because of the way it was originally designed there was no way to enforce those requirements. With my new solution we would be able to enforce specific metadata requirements by having rules applied to certain input fields that would be determined by the account name you were activating the device for. For example, if you were activating a device for United Rentals than there would be a rule set on the Equipment Purchase Order Number of an 8 digit number.
We were also able to apply this customization to the bulk activations by creating CSV templates for each company, so when they selected which company they were activating for, they were then able to download the CSV template that would coincide with that company and have the metadata rules applied.
The stakeholders became on board with this new decision as not only did it solve the problem of accidental transfers but it also added the new benefit of customized metadata which solved the long requested customer requirement of having rules on metadata.
My next steps in the design process was to create mockups and a prototype to demo to the stakeholders. I was also able to give the UI a refresh to enhance the user experience with clearer error messaging and more visual hints to present which devices were activated successfully and unsuccessfully.
Single Activation Prototype:
Testing
Once the prototype was developed I was able to test it with a couple of customer service representatives who dealt with the incoming calls regarding IT issues. They were able to go through the design and noticed right away how much easier it was to complete the activation task. I also requested developers who had never used this application before to complete the user story of activating a device and everyone was able to complete the task with no difficulties.
We then beta tested this with a couple of our larger clients for one week, before publishing this new solution to all of our customers. We found that most customers were very happy with this new solution with the only negative feedback coming from older customers (ages 40+) who didn’t feel like the old way was confusing and that this new process seemed longer, however they also contradicted themselves since they really liked the new step of choosing who they were activating for as they could tailor the metadata requirements.
End result:
The end result was that the OEM Activation Tools portal had a complete UI refresh with a new flow for both single and bulk activations. Once this was published to all of our customers and we were able to collect feedback, we found that there were fewer calls coming in to our customer service team with users accidentally transferring instead of just wanting to activate which led to less tickets being created for the IT Support Team.
What I learned:
This project taught me a lot about creating the perfect user flow and instilled more confidence in myself when following my gut about determining the problem that needs to be solved.
I am very proud of the solution created, however I do hope to continue monitoring the user feedback and seeing if there are more refinements we can make to instill the best possible user experience.
Bulk Activation Prototype:
