Shipment Tracker

Transforming sensor data into actionable insights

Dashboard | Product Concept

A major European telecom had a wealth of data coming from smart devices and embedded sensors. They were looking for guidance on how to turn the incoming data into actionable insights for their internal teams and customers.

Telecommunications Company Conceptual Design
Telecommunications Company Conceptual Design detail

Problem  |  Approach  |  Solution

Problem

This was an unusual project, in that we typically start an engagement by trying to get an understanding of, among other things, what types of insights or workflows the client hopes to enable for their target users.

 

In this case, the client did not have well-defined user scenarios or a clear sense of what opportunities might be presented by the new sensor datastreams. They looked to us to help them envision where the data could be most valuable and actionable.

small blue horizontal divider

Major focus areas:

 

  • Use case discovery and definition
  • Conceptual design and ideation
  • Data visualization
use case definitions
Conceptual design
Data visualization
small blue horizontal divider

Problem

This was an unusual project, in that we typically start an engagement by trying to get an understanding of, among other things, what types of insights or workflows the client hopes to enable for their target users.

 

In this case, the client did not have well-defined user scenarios or a clear sense of what opportunities might be presented by the new sensor datastreams. They looked to us to help them envision where the data could be most valuable and actionable.

small blue horizontal divider

Major focus areas:

use case definitions

Use case discovery and definition

Conceptual design

Conceptual design & ideation

Data visualization

Data visualization

small blue horizontal divider
Telecommunications Company conceptual design closeup

Approach

After some discussion and brainstorming, the client provided us with three general use cases to consider:

 

  • Shipment sensor data
  • Smart vending machine data
  • Purchase patterns of customers buying mobile phone and data packages

 

We asked ourselves how could the data available to these use cases tell a valuable story for decision-makers? We conducted a conceptual design process, considering potential questions people might want to ask around the data.

Some questions we envisioned users asking:

 

  • How are shipments doing—are they likely to arrive on time?
  • What might influence shipment quality?
  • Are there patterns that can help us discern when and why quality varies?
  • What can we learn from vending machine sales patterns
  • When did sales of different types of items increase or decrease?
  • Do we have the right stock in the right place at the right time?
  • What influences customer purchases of phone and data packages?

After vetting and refining those scenarios with the client, we developed initial concepts to display data in a form that could provide such insights. Through an iterative process and client reviews, we refined and enhanced the visualization metaphors to sharpen the insights.

Telecommunications Company Conceptual Design detail

Solution

We delivered several clickable prototypes, which were used by the client to further develop product concepts. The client teams reported that the designs were extremely valuable to their product development process.

small blue horizontal divider

Key deliverables:

 

  • User scenarios
  • Conceptual designs
  • Design mockups & clickable prototypes
small blue horizontal divider

If you have a product concept you want to bring to reality, talk to us. We have unparalleled expertise in designing analytic and data-rich digital products.