Challenge​

A commercial construction firm was having trouble tracking and fixing code violations in their projects. There was a disconnect between the inspectors and the engineers about what the issues were and where they were located, resulting in expensive and unnecessary changes that negatively affected completion timelines.  

Their out-of-the-box task management systems didn’t have the construction industry specific features that would make them valuable in the field. They had no way of uploading photos, video, geolocation or schematic info to their documented issues. 

The mobile apps that came with their legacy solutions were also too tedious to use, resulting in a near 0% adoption. This forced their field experts to document with paper and pen and then submit those issues to the platform only after they returned to their desks, resulting in costly delays and faulty documentation. 

Solution​

We created a hands-free, mobile-first solution that allowed image & location based documentation, complex approval flows, and in-app live chat that field experts could use for quick and effective construction documentation. 

After we determined the following requirements for success via in-depth user interviews,  the requirements were clear: a device agnostic mobile-to-desktop app for field-to-office communications, mobile UI that was simple enough to use with just one hand or hands-free, could upload images and provide a real time approval flow as issues were resolved.  

Method

To accomplish this, we decided to use React Native in order to optimize code reuse between iOS and Android, as well as give the optimized mobile performance users expect and need in the field. 

We selected a minimalist design as the user flow was very linear. In a typical app interaction the user would only need 4 buttons, all easily within reach of the thumb. Speech to text was a very important feature as it enabled hands-free entry of complex issue descriptions, citing building codes and project requirements.

Once an issue was in the queue, it opened a chat attached to the ticket between the worker and the inspector. Additional photo and voice features guaranteed all parties understood each other clearly. They also required  the field expert to confirm the resolution before officially closing out the ticket, which they could do from their mobile device once the fix-notes and images were uploaded.

Results

Based on their own calculations, our client achieved 100% ROI within less than 1 week. After implementing our field-ready, construction management solution the communication gap between engineers and inspectors was virtually eliminated. Our client immediately reported a drastic reduction in budget loss due to unnecessary and redundant projects.  Finally, they recouped additional costs after their insurance provider reduced their premiums as a direct result of having high fidelity visibility into their audit trail on code violation resolution management.