One of my recent design successes came through my involvement with Clik on the Clik Jobs app. It was a brilliant project to be involved in, so I was delighted to be asked back for additional work on the Clik Remote platform. Here’s a brief account of the design strategy that shaped the project:

What is Clik Remote?

Clik Remote is a service management web application that connects engineers, sales teams, customers and managers in the engineering services industry by way of a central database.

It’s an intuitive piece of software that streamlines service management for all involved; customers get better service, engineers get better job preparation and sales reps get better leads. If, for instance, you manage a building maintenance company, you can plan jobs into the Clik Remote database for your engineers to access whenever they arrive onsite. All of their planned work is located in the app and they can create and edit jobs, too, making for a fully streamlined process.

Research and insights

The project kicked off with user research that was designed to uncover the behaviours and common gripes of existing users. It found that:

• Navigation to and editing of customer details was a painstaking process
• The diary wasn’t clear and was missing useful features
• ‍The engineer’s schedule was difficult to use and absent on mobile devices
• The mobile version was unresponsive and frustrating to use

From these invaluable insights, it was clear that we needed to build a new app that was user-centric and mobile-first through and through.

How to design a good dashboard

The first port of call was understanding how we could organise the content in an intuitive dashboard that made it easy for users to access real-time data and consume the content they needed to consume.

Ultimately, it was about making their working days easier by clearing the clutter and putting the most important information front and centre.

This required a complete reorganisation of the user flow by introducing subcategories for ease of navigation. Widgets, such as a function, displayed the most important information and were easily customisable to give users more control over the content they saw on their dashboard.

Improving the engineer’s schedule

A more detailed restructure came into play in the schedule section, which proved to be one of the most troublesome for users in the research stage.

Flexibility was the key here via the introduction of an infinitely scalable calendar-like view, which dramatically decluttered the whole interface.

Improved filtering and colour-coding created instantly identifiable events, especially for those engineers on the move who required fast and easy access to their next jobs on their mobiles.

Optimising the CRM

There were several improvements to be made to the CRM, too. Features like an ‘Add New’ button for contacts and sites and a simple ‘Back’ button made navigation easier than making a builder’s brew in the morning. What’s more, by reducing the real estate for the features that didn’t see as much action, we made the entire user experience more efficient.

Even making information like contact details and invoice addresses more conspicuous made life a little easier for managers and jobs a little smoother for engineers.

Good design makes good relationships

It’s been a real pleasure working with Clik again on this project and I’m doubly pleased with the outcome – I can’t wait for their users to make the most of the redesign this year so they can make more of their working days onsite.

One of the main reasons for this success was the invaluable level of collaboration we achieved between us. It’s always a blessing to have a client with a clear vision and a mutual professional respect on a project – not only is it conducive to better working relationships, but it helps give the end users better results every time.