The Task:

I completed my mandatory 3rd-semester master's education internship with the company MAN Energy Solutions. The company - that specialises in designing marine engines and employs thousands of people - needed to optimise certain tasks their workers perform.

In particular, there were problems with certain internal processes which were currently done manually and needed to be optimised.

My approach:

Equipped with my service design toolkit, I was able to approach this project and create a tangible solution in the form of a companion mobile app, solving a few big issues workers have been experiencing.

The project started with user observations to discover their work patterns, major pain points, as well as everyday struggles. From there, I and my team started brainstorming to come up with possible directions to take the project further. Moreover, this phase included collaborative work with other departments, project managers, and various stakeholders to further explore the possibilities.

Throughout the research and early prototyping phases, employees, part of the project's target group, were consulted regularly to get their opinions - they also took part as co-creators of the solution. Moreover, employees from different departments, actively engaged in the solution creation process, have taken part in various workshops, facilitated by me.

Solution:

In the end, a mobile app was developed, with several features directly requested by MAN employees. The app allows workers to take pictures and directly upload them to MAN's storage servers. Moreover, employees have access to their files on the go and can edit them at any time. Furthermore, the app works in the offline mode. These features will significantly cut down on the performance time of mundane and repetitive tasks, saving the company both money and time. During the final concept app presentation, the results of the projects were faced with a positive reception. The app was then forwarded to the development team for implementation.