Introduction

The Streetlight Outage and Restoration (SOAR) project resulted in a truly dramatic shift for the client. It was the first time they practiced user-first design and the change was evident in how rapidly the tool was adopted by the public and municipalities.

The client is a Michigan-based utility service that manages about 200,000 streetlights across the state. I joined the project for phase two, shortly after the initial launch. As the lead designer, I was to work on designing new features based on the backlog and user feedback. I started off by revisiting the competitive analysis and making note of opportunities where we could improve the web-based app for both service workers and consumers.

The work

The features in the backlog included:

• Check outage status – The ability to check the status of a previously reported issue
• Add a photo – The ability to attach a photo to a report in order to provide a clearer picture of the issue and/or the location of the light
• Drop a pin – The ability to drop a pin on the map to report a missing streetlight
• Extended repair status – A new status to be displayed for streetlights that need an extended amount time to repair

Check outage status

The public can check on streetlights that they've reported without having to call the municipality, and the municipality can check without having to call the service provider.

Add a photo

A means to upload a picture of the streetlight coupled with GPS coordinates and nearest cross streets greatly improved the accuracy with which the field workers could identify a light in the real world. Given that each truck roll is approximately $500, reducing them and preventing duplications was a big win.

Drop a pin, extended repair status, and map layers

As the streetlight GIS data is ever-improving, if a streetlight isn’t found on the map, the user can “drop a pin” to report a missing light.

Initially, the map only had two status – Not Reported and Reported/In Progress. The "Extended Repair" status was added for lights that would take a longer time to repair. Visually representing the status of streetlights on the map as well as providing search functionality and email notifications, gave a much better experience and transparency into a streetlights repair status.

Another feature we were able to add in was the different map layers, such as satellite view.

Onboarding instructions

After conducting some guerilla-style usability testing on the existing site and the new prototype, I also decided to add onboarding instructions/an introductory tour for first-time users. This addition was extremely well-received, both by the client and the users.