A feature providing comprehensive delivery tracking capabilities for construction site managers, enabling real-time visibility into equipment delivery status and location.
overview
As United Rentals's suite of digital tools evolved, its flagship worksite management platform Total Control was long overdue for a redesign. Despite playing a critical role in managing the largest fleet of construction rental equipment in the world, the platform had never been touched by experience design, resulting in an unintuitive interface with a seriously steep learning curve.
One feature benefiting from a significant redesign was the Total Control delivery tracker. This feature allows customers to track the progress of their construction equipment deliveries. Improving this functionality would improve coordination between customers and delivery teams, allowing better planning on construction jobsites.
design goals
1. clearly show all scheduled equipment deliveries & pickups
2. easily track real-time delivery status, including Estimated Time of Arrival
3. provide crucial updates regarding early or delayed deliveries
the process
My co-designer and I approached the problem collaboratively, consolidating research, white-boarding, and passing designs back and forth as we worked. Through a scrappy, iterative approach, we were able to rapidly test low-fidelity ideas and present them to our clients.
Our initial explorations considered two main possibilities. One involved showing delivery status updates on a live map, similar to existing delivery tracking tools on the market. We briefly explored this direction before receiving technical feedback requiring us to pivot.
We pursued the second direction, involving breaking up deliveries into 'live' and 'historical' deliveries. While initial iterations more clearly distinguished between these two statuses, the highly complex states a rental delivery progressed through made this breakdown feel too simplistic. We ultimately kept the approach of differentiating between different delivery statuses, but created a design that accommodated a wider range of statuses overall.
the solution
Our final design consisted of a list of deliveries, each one cycling through different statuses until the delivery is completed. Maintaining the spirit of our original ideation, we highlighted upcoming 'live' deliveries at the top of the screen, providing the user with a clear indicator of which deliveries they should pay attention to. With the same goal, we used visual indicators through color and iconography to identify deliveries encountering an issue.
