Highlights
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Week over week retention grew 5% since this release.
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Pick up and deliveries at an all time high 3 weeks after release.
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Upon follow up inquiry drivers mention that the app makes them feel trusted due to the flexibility of inspection.
Highlights
-
Week over week retention grew 5% since this release.
-
Pick up and deliveries at an all time high 3 weeks after release.
-
Upon follow up inquiry drivers mention that the app makes them feel trusted due to the flexibility of inspection.
Configurable Inspections
Ship.Cars driver app allows drivers to pickup and deliver vehicles without the hassle of paperwork. One of the key flows within the application is the inspection process. Many owner operators and carrier companies build their reputation on trust. A big part of that is ensuring vehicles are delivered on time and in the same condition they embarked on.
One thing our product team consistently heard is that carriers often base their inspection process off of the relationship they have with that particular customer. This feature sought to give carriers the flexibility to define inspection requirements relative to the customer they’re working with.
Kickoff and Discovery
Facilitating high trust relationships
Competitive Analysis: After reviewing what competitors offered for their inspection process we found that there was no one in our space offering a feature similar to the one we were looking to build. There was no ability to build custom configured inspections.
Research: Our product team reached out and conducted interviews with dispatchers, owner-operators, and carrier company owners. We heard a broad range of feedback from owner operators. Some have such established relationships with their customers that they consider photos to be be completely unnecessary. While other, namely enclosed haulers, transport expensive exotics who want to hold their drivers to the highest standard. Our product owner spoke with a driver who goes so far as to get on his hands and knees for high value classic cars.
“Some of my customers just don’t care about pictures. We’ve worked together for years and they trust me“
– Driver, Owner – Operator
“Six pictures isn’t enough.
I want 50+ pictures.“
– Owner, Carrier Company
“Some of my customers just don’t care about pictures. We’ve worked together for years and they trust me“
– Driver, Owner – Operator
“Six pictures isn’t enough.
I want 50+ pictures.“
– Owner, Carrier Company
Given the choice between admitting a mistake and possibly losing their job or claiming, ‘It came that way off the truck’ many will have no problem blaming the driver. To protect yourself you MUST take pictures of every car you deliver on all sides…
– Driver
Goals
Flexibility and control
One of the key factors in this feature is flexibility. It needs to support both the obsessive world of classic and exotic enclosed transports as well broker carrier relationships that have been established over years of successful transports.
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Create the ability for the inspection process to reflect established broker-carrier relationships.
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Avoid risk of drivers feeling like they are not trusted.
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Support existing flows within the inspection and order creation process.
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Alleviate claims risk for carriers.
Initial Concepts
Initial lo to mid fi designs were completed. The feature MVP was defined through 3 choice levels:
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No photos required.
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2 photos required: These are the left rear front right of the vehicle which allowed for 360° coverage of the vehicle. This inspection type is a common request from drivers with one even stating that it would be ‘the perfect app if it allowed taking photos of the corners’.
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4 photos required: These are the front, left, right, rear, and front of the vehicle.
Each level inlcudes an optional add-on of an odometer and roof photo. This would allow for supporting of our current users and default inspection, while providing more flexibility and control.
Lofi Designs
4 Photo Inspection
6 Photo Inspection
2 Photo Inspection
No Photos Required
Alt layout – using toggles
Process Accelerators
Setting up business rules and permissions
To accelerate the process, inspection preferences was to be managed via global app settings. An override would be allowed on an order by order basis. Any shipper requirements would over ride carrier company settings. Since this feature would be introduced within the order creation process existing patterns were leveraged to reduce learning curve and increase feature awareness.
Interaction Design
Define actions of components in relation to graphic
The user needed to quickly discern how these graphics would adjust based on their selection. Animation here provided extra context and utility to the action.
Since this would be a constant in this feature, I wanted to get a sense of development work. I presented both options and was given a ballpark estimate for how much time each would take. This allowed me to weigh the development cost-benefit of each option during initial usability sessions.
Option 1
Option 2
Key Feedback and Iteration
Need for custom entries
Initial design concepts were taken back and reviewed with select carrier companies. The feature was received well but we kept hearing that they would like to define a custom inspection. This information helped to inform subsequent designs. The pattern would have to change as we were no longer working with static choices but dynamic carrier defined requirements.
Challenge
With no predefined vehicle area libraries to choose from, we decided to allow for custom carrier inputs to be added and passed through to the driver’s inspection requirements. We chose to utilize the material FAB and allow for custom photos to be added to level 2 (2 photos) and level 3 (4 photo) inspections. When entering a custom inspection the user is required to enter a description and vehicle area in order to provide the driver proper context for the requirement.
Design Documentation and Delivery
All component behavior and key flows were defined and delivered to the dev team to ensure a seamless handoff. This included interaction design and motion specs for how the vehicle graphics would appear. A business decision was reached to make configuration on an order by order basis a premium feature. This necessitated the design of a playful upgrade prompt animation.
Design Documentation and Delivery
All component behavior and key flows were defined and delivered to the dev team to ensure a seamless handoff. This included interaction design and motion specs for how the vehicle graphics would appear. A business decision was reached to make configuration on an order by order basis a premium feature. This necessitated the design of a playful upgrade prompt animation.
Upgrade Prompt
Final Designs
Driver follow-up:
“I build my reputation on trust. Why are you going to hire me to transport your vehicle if you don’t expect me to be able take care of what’s inside your vehicle?…I like ship.cars because the app makes you feel like they trust you.”
– Driver, Owner-Operator
Key Results
Highlights
-
Week over week retention grew 5% since this release.
-
Pick up and deliveries at an all time high 3 weeks after release.
-
Upon follow up inquiry drivers mention that the app makes them feel trusted due to the flexibility of inspection.
Driver follow-up:
“I build my reputation on trust. Why are you going to hire me to transport your vehicle if you don’t expect me to be able take care of what’s inside your vehicle?…I like ship.cars because the app makes you feel like they trust you.”
– Driver, Owner-Operator
Check out some other projects
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Ship.Cars Driver App
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See Process »
Website Redesign
Ship.Cars Web Site
A new look for a traditional industry. This project entailed a complete overhaul of a car shipping SAAS platform website design.
See Process »
