usability.de - Case Study Usability Study and User-Centered Design Dematic DC Director

Expert review and interaction design Dematic

User-centered design app

Expert review
User-centered & design
Smartphone and tablet app
International

Dematic GmbH is one of the world’s leading providers of material handling solutions and intralogistics. The company develops systems for storage, order fulfillment, and transportation. With 55 worldwide locations, they offer customized logistics solutions for their clients, ensuring them a competitive advantage.

Their solutions also include in-house software for warehouse management and control. Dematic puts their clients and their specific needs and requirements at the center of their business.

The Approach

When it comes to logistics, ensuring efficient usability of different warehouse components is extremely important. Therefore, Dematic wanted to identify any usability weaknesses and possible areas of improvement for its web-based warehouse management system, DC Director. At the same time the existing web interface was supposed to be complemented by a mobile application for real-time monitoring of logistic data and controlling of storage processes. The goal was to enable warehouse managers and supervisors to be in control of the warehouse at all times – even on the go.

usability.de carried out an extensive expert review of the DC Director web application and evaluated whether the application complies with standard accessibility guidelines. Furthermore, usability.de initiated a user-centered design of the smartphone and tablet app. A special challenge was the visualization of large amounts of data on a relatively small smartphone screen. That challenge prompted usability.de to collect user feedback during the design phase of the app.

DC Director Interface für Smartphone und Tablet App — DC Director interface for smartphone and tablet app

The Solution

Based on the expert review, usability.de developed a list of specific improvements for Dematic's DC Director. These suggestions were directly integrated into the next release of DC Director. The customer feedback was positive in every way and confirmed the significant usability improvements.

A prototype of the smartphone and tablet app was designed by usability.de and served as a template for the technical implementation of the app. Many of the elements of the prototype were integrated into the release of the app. Dematic's customers appreciated the modern and clearly structured interface on their smartphones and tablets.

DC Director Mobile Dashboard | DC Director Mobile Reports — DC Director mobile dashboard | DC Director mobile reports

The client about the project

“usability.de supported us professionally in developing a mobile concept for our globally employed warehouse management product. At the same time, a usability optimization of the product’s desktop user interface was conducted. During the implementation, we thoroughly complied with the recommendations of usability.de. The customer feedback was positive in every way: An appealing, modern user interface and a significant improvement compared to the old GUI. The same applies to the smartphone and tablet interface designed by usability.de, which also stayed close to the design and navigation concept of the prototype. Due to the constructive and pleasant cooperation, we are looking forward to continue with a further expert review of the software for our special working stations. This review will be accompanied by contextual inquiries with users of our RapidPick stations in the USA. ”