AiM Assignment Manager

AiM Assignment Manager (AM) is a SaaS website designed for AiM internal teams to manage vehicle inspection requests and arrange appointments.

@ Alliance Inspection Management | 2016-2019

BACKGROUND

Alliance Inspection Management (AiM) is a vehicle inspection company offering both consumer and dealer-based vehicle inspections and complete floor plan audit services throughout North America. They have to handle more than 30,000 vehicle inspections per day. The internal teams used a legacy system called AiM CRM to manage these vehicle inspection appointments. After many years of use, the users found the legacy UI slows their work process, and they could not handle some use cases in the system.

AiM decided to redesign the whole website in 2016. Our high-level goals were to:

  1. Create a more user-friendly interface.
  2. Optimize the users’ workflow.
  3. Add new functionalities to meet new business requirements.
  4. Be flexible for different types of inspection appointments.
  5. Be customizable for different groups of users.

The new site launched internally in late 2016.

MY ROLE

I led the research and design work for this project. Here are my responsibilities and design process:

I worked closely with 2 product managers, 3 web developers, and 1 QA engineer. I conducted a weekly sync-up meeting with the engineer lead and stakeholders to ensure everything is on the right track and everyone is on the same page.

DISCOVERY

The Legacy AiM CRM

The legacy AiM CRM was designed in 2007 and primarily used by internal teams to schedule, update, and cancel vehicle inspection appointments. The main functionalities including:

  • Search inspection request(s)
  • Schedule appointment
  • Update appointment-related information
  • Enter comments for different groups
  • View inspection request edit history

The search with results and request detail screen in the legacy system

User Flow

There were 3 groups of users using this system. Their general user flow in AiM CRM is:

DEEPER INSIGHTS

As I mentioned, 3 groups of users are using this system. To better understand their duties, workflow, needs, and goals, I conducted interviews with each group.

Here is the appointment scheduling process showing the 3 user groups, their workflow, and their interaction.

Call Center team, CSR team, and Dispatch team plays different roles in the inspection appointment handling process. They have respective duties but frequently communicate with each other to get help. In their current workflow, they reach out to each other through emails or have an offline conversation.

Interview with Stakeholders

Besides interviewing users in each group, I met with stakeholders who have many years of experience managing AiM CRM.

I figured out that there was lots of magic behind the scene, including how we received the inspection requests, how we connect the outsourcing Click scheduling system to check appointment availability, and how we handle the appointment with a lease maturity date. I also sat down with engineers to discuss the possibilities to optimize the current workflow. Comprehending more context helps me better develop the ideas.

DEFINE PROBLEMS

Based on my research on the legacy system and feedback from interviews, I identified the following issues:

Confusing user interface

  • The search criteria were unclear, and the user could not process a more specific search.
  • The search results showed insufficient info, and the user had no control over the results.
  • The information blocks on the request details page were obscure, so it was difficult for users to locate any information.

Inefficient workflow

  • All communications between users were via email, online chat, or an in-person chat.
  • It was hard to track which task assigned to which user.
  • It may cause duplication of work and slow down everyone’s work processes.

Missing features

  • Unable to add a new request in the same system.
  • Unable to manage multiple cars in the same appointment.
  • Unable to update organization info in the same system.

“I’m getting about 50 emails per hour. It’s overwhelming...”

— Jen, CSR Team Lead @ AiM

IDEATION

After discussing with the product owner, here are the 3 top priorities we decided to focus on in the 1st round:

  1. Redesign the search and search results page.
  2. Redesign the request detail page.
  3. Add a new inspection request form.

Idea Development

I started to develop some ideas on these pages and brought my lo-fi prototypes to stakeholders to make sure we were on the right track.

I generated lo-fi mockups for the search page, search results page, and request detail page because it would need more visual clues to know how it presents.

Wireframes for inspection request detail page - v.1, v.2, v3

On the other hand, I created paper prototypes to show my ideas for the new inspection request form because it’s mainly a text form; it’s more about what text fields we should include and what would show once I select an option.

Paper prototype for new inspection request

Identify Design Opportunities

Besides the 1st round pages, I also see some design opportunities here. Since it is a system for 3 groups of users to manage 3 types of vehicle inspections, we can:

Generate a customizable dashboard based on the user's role - the user can quickly access the most relevant requests.

Create a module that can be applied flexibly for different inspection types - every inspection detail looks consistent.

DETAILED DESIGN

Introducing AiM Assignment Manager (AM)

After many rounds of discussion and design iteration, I proudly present our newly designed vehicle inspection management system - AiM Assignment Manager. The legacy AiM CRM was renamed to AiM Assignment Manager (AM) because it can handle more tasks now. AiM AM is a SaaS website for AiM internal teams (Call center, CSR, and Dispatch team) to manage vehicle inspection requests and arrange appointments.

The users will still have all the features they used to have but will get some new or upgraded features:

  • Intelligent search
  • Basic search
  • Advanced search
  • Flexible search results
  • Sort by column
  • Export results to Excel
  • Customizable columns
  • Horizontal scrollable
  • Optimized workflow
  • Personalized dashboard
  • Search by request status
  • Clean user interface
  • Modularization
  • New features
  • Create a new inspection request
  • Manage organization

Walkthrough the Design

In most cases, a user comes to AiM AM to look for a specific inspection request. The default main page of the site is a big search box. The basic search allows users to do a global search. The advanced search allows users to search with multiple criteria that they can find more specific search results.

The search results will display right under the search box. It allows users to check what term they searched and modify if needed. The user can customize the columns of search results - if the columns exceed the screen size, except for the first confirmation number column, the rest of the columns become horizontal scrollable. They can also sort information by columns. For the research purpose, the user can export all results to Excel.

The user can click any row to enter the request detail page. The request detail is composed of several modules - each module contains one type of information. The user can take action by clicking a button on the top right corner. A window will pop up that allows the user to edit information. Modularized information is more straightforward for users to locate information and modify data with confidence. It also keeps the consistent look-and-feel for all types of inspection requests.

Besides searching an existing inspection request, the new AiM AM allows users to add a new request right in the system. In the legacy system, the user would need to jump to another system and generate one manually.

In the new AiM AM system, the user can also add a new organization, search existing organizations, and manage them. Organizations are usually dealerships or auction sites that have collaboration with AiM. It is easier to update the organization’s information altogether instead of editing the related requests one by one.

Last but not least - Dashboard. The dashboard gives the user a glance view of high-priority requests. It will be personalized based on the user’s role and responsibilities. Instead of digging into emails to figure out what request needs attention or search for the requests, the dashboard helps the user quickly access all these “urgent” requests.

MY TAKEAWAYS

Any Visual Mockups Will Help

As a designer, it is easy for us to picture how the interface might look like. But for people who are not as familiar with what we do every day, it is hard for them to imagine a design when we "talk" about ideas. Even if the mockups are simple, they still help the conversation between designers and stakeholders.

In this project, I brought paper prototypes and lo-fi mockups to my audience whenever we have a conversation. It accelerated our discussion and helped us make decisions better.

Involved in the Complete Product Cycle

Delivering beautiful mockups is not the end of a designer’s work. We need to make sure it gets implemented the way we designed it. We have to be open to collaborating with the team members through the whole process.

In this project, I worked closely with web developers and QA engineers to ensure my design was implemented correctly and figure out solutions together when we saw any blocks.