Overview

Problem

Our client needed a birds-eye view of what was happening in the ore mine and then quickly communicate important instructions. Mine managers don’t have a clear picture of the everyday high-level and detailed events of a mine. Their complete system was based on a waterfall methodology with a multitude of event dependencies. Secondly, interuser communication is based mostly on radio dispatch. Pinning the whole operation on a small, two-person team, means that it is highly leveraged towards risk. Even if those individuals are talented at their jobs (which they are), so many vital decisions through such a narrow tunnel appeared to be a recipe for failure and generally unsustainable.

Solution

We set out to study a typical day in our user’s job, create high-level thumbnail wires to gain alignment around MVP, and continually gain feedback in the form of interviews and user forums to shape a better product. Our main screen, which would facilitate all tasks, annotations, and communication, was built upon a scrubbable timeline/Gantt view that featured a map that reflected the timeline. This view, along with an annotations feature and presentation mode, allowed managers to see the past, present, and future. Our tool helped facilitate collaboration, planning, and communication.