CLIENT: Zonar / Mercedes-Benz / Continental
INDUSTRY: Telematics, Fleet Management
ROLE: Global Creative Director, HARMAN
LOCATION: International
Our two year engagement with Zonar /Mercedes-Benz Group / Continental began with a pitch to win their work away from another technology consultancy here in Seattle. We succeeded and had an embedded team of 25 engineers and UX designers overseeing the recreation of their Ground Traffic Control (GTC) system, a rich collection of hardware and software used by companies to manage large fleets of vehicles.
As global creative director (UX), I recruited and hired the UX team, sold the project, established timeline and strategy, managed the workflow closely with engineering and PMs, led design crits and client meetings, established the researcher plans, worked individually with designers and researchers (sometime late into the night at cafes) and celebrated as we completed our work....
Following a user-centered design paradigm, we explored customer service records, set up research activities and even interviewed users at Zonar’s annual conference in San Antonio, where we gathered information from truckers, mechanics and managers. We tore down the information architecture of their existing system and recreated the hierarchy based on user needs and task flows, all the while testing live data speed in the cloud from vehicles in the field back to the control centers. Our embedded team of designers and technologists followed an Agile software development approach that was modifed to involve our remote developers as well.
Zonar started off as a single engagement customer but our work was strong enough to eventually become their agency of record (AOR) and earn ownership of research responsibilities at their annual conference, creation of a variety of mobile apps and design of their main marketing portal - our branding on GTC also became their main company branding.
You can read a bit more about the Ground Traffic Control system here
INDUSTRY: Telematics, Fleet Management
ROLE: Global Creative Director, HARMAN
LOCATION: International
Our two year engagement with Zonar /Mercedes-Benz Group / Continental began with a pitch to win their work away from another technology consultancy here in Seattle. We succeeded and had an embedded team of 25 engineers and UX designers overseeing the recreation of their Ground Traffic Control (GTC) system, a rich collection of hardware and software used by companies to manage large fleets of vehicles.
As global creative director (UX), I recruited and hired the UX team, sold the project, established timeline and strategy, managed the workflow closely with engineering and PMs, led design crits and client meetings, established the researcher plans, worked individually with designers and researchers (sometime late into the night at cafes) and celebrated as we completed our work....
Following a user-centered design paradigm, we explored customer service records, set up research activities and even interviewed users at Zonar’s annual conference in San Antonio, where we gathered information from truckers, mechanics and managers. We tore down the information architecture of their existing system and recreated the hierarchy based on user needs and task flows, all the while testing live data speed in the cloud from vehicles in the field back to the control centers. Our embedded team of designers and technologists followed an Agile software development approach that was modifed to involve our remote developers as well.
Zonar started off as a single engagement customer but our work was strong enough to eventually become their agency of record (AOR) and earn ownership of research responsibilities at their annual conference, creation of a variety of mobile apps and design of their main marketing portal - our branding on GTC also became their main company branding.
You can read a bit more about the Ground Traffic Control system here