EPA inspections, lab safety, equipment maintenance, go dawgs!

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IntroductionProblemResearchSolutionReflection

Introduction

Upon graduating from the University of Georgia in 2020, I was offered a contractor role as an Industrial Hygiene Specialist at the university's Environmental Safety Division. My duties included: inspecting campus/lab safety equipment, aiding with the COVID-19 response, and waste management (among others).
While in this role, I accidentally re-discovered my love for product/ux design via the environmental software suite we used to track waste management and equipment status; the system is called CHEMATIX.
CHEMATIX was initially created due to a series of surprise EPA compliance inspections targeting universities in the early 2000s. Its purpose is to promote self-regulation where possible and to prevent health an safety problems via record-keeping.
During the EPA's sweep of universities, Rene Henry of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated: "our inspectors have not been on one campus where they have not found serious problems." Universities have faced a much as $1.7 million fines for compliance violations. It's crucial to get things right.
Role: User Experience Designer
Team: EHS-1 [myself + product owner + 4 engineers]
Timeline: ~8 months
UGA to Pay for Public Safety Projects After Hazardous Waste Violations
View Article
University of Georgia Settles Hazardous Waste Violations with EPA for $400k
View Article
UGA Settles with EPA over Hazardous Waste Violations
View Article
UGA Faces $100k Fine for Hazardous Waste Violations
View Article

CHEMATIX: In 2020

CHEMATIX has already had some success. Now, the broader goal is to transition from a reactive approach (monitoring help tickets, fixing bugs) to a proactive approach (preventing issues, implementing user feedback & data).
It has been adopted by other institutions:

Problem

Users are experiencing duplication of efforts in their day-to-day work involving CHEMATIX thus making data more susceptible to error and ambiguity.
How Might We....
  1  
help lab staff and safety inspectors complete their work quickly and easily?
  2  
improve the quality of collected data to keep campus/labs a safe place?
  3  
expedite and clarify the inspection process for staff and inspectors?

Solution

The solution we designed is a more responsive, refreshed version of the existing application:
Key Points
1) Quick and easy: users are able to complete inspections from their own device
2) Improve quality of collected data: users can now complete digital inspections more easily thus removing the impetus to recall information later; users can now attach photos/notes to specific inspection steps: removing ambiguity
3) Expedite and clarify: confusing language and inspection steps have been separated and clarified
so, how did we get to the solution?

Research

This was my first design project; it was also peak COVID-19 season so research was scrappy and difficult to conduct. Labs were mostly operating on intermittent schedules so it was often difficult to find users to interview.
Discovery
User Insights
the design!

Design Decisions

I conducting testing using very rudimentary tools: my laptop, pen, paper, and my phone to record vocal user feedback. Figma mirror was not what it is today... Nevertheless, I received a lot of great feedback and iterated accordingly!

Search: by Building

Goal: reduce time on task: help users find correct building faster

Building List in CHEMATIX

New

Building Info: High Cognitive Load

Old

Pros:
-Default Search: switched from having 3 options to 'contains'
-Building Index with corresponding numbers - numbers serve as links/buttons (buildings in alphabetical order)
Cons:
-Potential user learning curve
Outcome:
-Time-On-Task decreased by about 60% for this step
Pros:
-Familiar and allows multiple search options
Cons:
-Requires user knowledge: building number or building name
-Multiple search fields and multiple search options creative overload
Outcome:
-Slower: almost always requires re-starting process entirely

Lab Search Results

Goal: reduce time on task & likelihood of data entry error: ensure users select correct lab

Labs with Equipment/Assessments Displayed

New

All Labs Displayed

Old

Pros:
-Only shows labs that need attention
-Contains multiple relevant filtering options (by room number, equipment)
Cons:
-Doesn't show as much information all at once
Outcome:
-Time-On-Task reduced for equipment and lab inspections
Pros:
-Shows extensive information in one window
Cons:
-Not responsive - requires lots of pinching/zooming and scrolling (Equipment titles are only at the top of the table of data)
Outcome:
-Slow but familiar

Attachments & Buttons

Goal: reduce time on task & likelihood of data entry error: pinpoint corrective actions to specific inspection step

Add attachments to corresponding criteria

New

Attachments added at end of inspection: nonspecific

Old

Pros:
-Users can attach images as they complete inspections
-Image files will be associated with specific checklist items
Cons:
-Will require relearning
Outcome:
-Users really noticed this change
-Accuracy of information increased; action-items were addressed more accurately
Pros:
-If user forgets to attach photo, they can do so post-inspection
Cons:
-Doesn't associate files with specific checklist items causing ambiguity/confusion
-'Attachments' is vague for many users (some think this is referring to other file types)
Outcome:
-Creates ambiguity. Most users were overhwlemed by number of buttons and didn't know an 'upload attachment' button existed

Final Solution

Final Notes
1) The Goal: reduce time on task and improve quality of collected data: users were operating ~60% more quickly and submitting accurate data immediately.
2) The Outcome: removed reliance on paper inspection reports and frees up time for users to complete other tasks.
Inspection: Lab
Lab Staff
Inspection: Equipment
Compliance Staff

Reflection

This is my 'bridge to UX' origin story! Up until this point, I had every intention of another career pursuit but this changed everything: I found my love for more applied research and re-discovered my love for design. UX/Product design, a career I didn't know existed, suddenly became my calling and pushed me to delve deeper....
My first design project: completed during the height of COVID-19! I mobilized a pretty strong community of users for testing which I'm still pretty proud of!
There were a lot of opportunities to improve CHEMATIX; scope creep was an ongoing challenging throughout the whole project.
The nature of higher education meant that people were almost always willing to help/provide feedback. I cannot underestimate how valuable this was! I'm very thankful for the UGA community.  
Some key things I learned:
- Testing was immensely difficult at first; I was a facilitator, note-taker and designer which made being prepared crucial
- Contextual inquiry was so important: I gathered some of the most valuable insights just by watching users in their own environment
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