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Drone Delivery System
PROBLEM STATEMENT
As we move towards a world of automation and intelligence, the logistics of enterprises have a lot of potential for optimisation and efficiency. For e.g. Amazon’s drone delivery concept has obvious benefits at an unprecedented scale.
As a UX designer, we would want you to conceptualise a B2B interface to operate such automated delivery systems, catering to different consumer companies.
DESIGN A B2B INTERFACE TO OPERATE AUTOMATED DELIVERY FOR CONSUMER COMPANIES
Type of Product : Mobile/ Tablet App for catering daily drone delivery tasks.
Core Users : Delivery operation managers
Core Problems :
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Delivering the consignment to the end users on time.
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Shipping charges are high via traditional shipping methods.
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Remote areas are very difficult to deliver via the traditional ways.
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Lot of time and resource is wasted in completing a single order.
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Traditional delivery methods also impact the environment.
Constraint :
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No such digital product available for regular users to do a comparative analysis.
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The problem statement is very open ended as their can be multiple touch points while operating a delivery service.
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There are multiple categories of drones available with very different methodologies to operate thus having a variety of user experience.
Assumption :
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The technology is available all the time at all places.
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The human resources are well versed with the process.
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The infrastructure is available to store, operate and manage drones.
Business goals :
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Reduce the time for delivery.
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Easy adoption for scalability.
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Reduce cost for deliveries resulting in profitability for all stakeholders.
DESIGN PROCESS
DISCOVERY
The discovery phase starts with an in-depth research about the topic. Due to certain constraint like lack of time and access the real users I could not do my primary research and hence have heavily relied on my secondary research. The insight from the research are as under:
The global drone package delivery market was valued at $0.94 billion in 2021 and is projected to be $32.1 billion by 2031.
As of the end June 2022, cumulative disclosed industry funding totaled $15 billion.
Amazon alone spent's 47 billion dollars in shipping orders per year.
Drones could permanently replace 127 billion dollars of human efforts.
Drones are believed to disrupt an industry worth 4 trillion dollars.
CASE STUDY
Rwanda Medical Drone Delivery System : Rwanda, a country in Africa was struggling a lot to provide necessary medical services to its people located in the remote areas with not so good condition roads for transportation. Thus, the government of Rwanda collaborated with Zipline, a startup with specialisation in drone technology to built drones and an infrastructure to support it. The main use case was for medical purposes. Some key insights are as under :
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Each drones can carry weight upto 1.6 kg or equal to 3 500ml blood bags.
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The process takes just 5 minutes from order to drone launch.
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To make the GPS connection fast the GPS device is attach to the battery of the drones thus making it always On reducing the launch time by upto 20 minutes.
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The drones are built in 3-4 pieces thus making it faster to assemble and launch and if the drones is facing any issues, that specific part is replaced instead of the whole drone.
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Its lunched via a launching machine helping it to gain a speed of 100km/hr speed in just 0.3 seconds.
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The drones drops the consignment at the location via help of a small parachute thus avoiding any heavy infrastructure requirements from the delivery spot.
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After dropping the consignment the drone goes back to the Zipline facility and is landed via a specially designed platform.
USER JOURNEY OF RWANDA DRONE FACILITY
The Zipline drone facility , a temporary structure making it easy to install anywhere
Drones divided into several parts making it easy to handle in case of malfunction
The GPS is built in the battery making it always on and reducing the launch time
The parts of the planes can be check via a phone device for defects
The drones are launched via a special launcher helping it gain speed in micro seconds.
Once reaching the destination the drone drops the parcel via a parachute
The parcel lands in the provided destination and can be collected
After delivering the drone comes back to the Zipline facility and lands via a landing platform
DEFINING THE PROBLEM
Setting up the context : Based on my research and case studies and going through various research papers and video essays I came across several assumptions, they are as under :
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The geography of the region plays an important role in defining what kind of drone delivery system it can sustain or afford.
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Drones are designed in different techniques based on the resources available, for example the quadcopters required more battery but are flexible to use in residential areas.
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For a country like India where we have cluster of houses together it is quite tough to come up with a solution of an end to end delivery service as a lot of people live in buildings of residential flat system where they do not have a segregated backyard, frontyard, terrace or even a balcony.
Identifying the user base : Although we are providing design solution for B2B interface for consumer companies we should also have a look at the delivery partner and also the end user who are receiving these deliveries via a drone.
USER PERSONA
From the data collected via different sources like journals, research papers, news article and video essays, I have created personas representing an ideal user of the application. The persona helped me to arrive at better solutions as it gives an in depth understanding of the user goals and frustrations and overall user experience.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
OVERVIEW OF THE SERVICE DESIGN OF DRONE DELIVERY FACILITY
TOUCH-POINT 1
TOUCH-POINT 2
TOUCH-POINT 3
IDENTIFYING THE TOUCH POINTS
Touch-point 1 : The drone delivery operation manager
Once the order is placed by the end user the consumer company handles over the order to the drone delivery facility to deliver the order to the customer. This marks as the first touch point where the delivery operation manager has to for-see the entire process from getting task assigned to deliver the order to getting it delivered to the end user i,e the customer.
Task to be completed
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Accept the delivery order.
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Scan the QR code for order details or enter the order ID.
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Assign a drone for the delivery.
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Check drone for malfunctioning via mobile or tablet app. (camera required)
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Load the parcel to the drone.
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Enter the destination or can be connected automatically via backend. The destination can be the customer's house if he/she has the infrastructure to manage a drone delivery or can be a delivery hub nearest to the end user.
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Launch the drone.
Touch-point 2 : The delivery partner
Based on our research we know that a number of times it becomes very tough to do drone delivery to the end user directly as they might be living in a very heavily populated areas or in a house which does not have a balcony, terrace or a backyard.This in this case the delivery has two be divided into two parts, the first one will be done by the drone from the inventory facility to the delivery hub and then from the delivery hub to the end user.
Task to be completed
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Accept the delivery order.
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Go to the delivery hub via maps.
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Track the drone which has that specific order.
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Collect the order from the drone after authentication.
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Update that order is collected form the drone.
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Find the end users address and deliver the order to them.
Touch-point 3 : The end user i.e. the customer
As mentioned earlier, if the customer cannot afford a drone delivery due to the space or area he/she is living in, they can opt for a mixed delivery option which involves a drone delivery the order to the delivery hub and then either the delivery partner can deliver it or the customer can himself go and collect the order.
Task to be completed
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Place the order.
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The user can select 3 options to get his order delivered :
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Get the order delivered directly to your house.
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Get delivery via delivery partner.
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Collect order from the nearest delivery hub.
Note : Based on the requirements of this project we will just go with the design for touch-point 1 as this involves the B2B solution for consumer companies.
Assumption : For this project we are making an assumption that we are designing for an online grocery shop.
USER JOURNEY FOR TOUCH POINT 1
STORYBOARD FOR TOUCH POINT 1
1. Order get placed.
2. Scan the QR code on order to get the details like mobile number, address.
3. Assign a drone.
4.Activate the drone.
5. Check drone for malfunctioning.
6. Attach the order to the drone.
7. Enter the destination.
8. Drone arrives at the destination
USER FLOW FOR TOUCH POINT 1
DESIGN
WIREFRAME FOR TOUCH POINT 1
Home screen
Scan QR code
Select drone screen
Scan QR on drone body
Drone check passed
Enter/select the address screen
HI-FIDELITY MOCKUP FOR TOUCH POINT 1
NOTE : These are just the first iteration of the screen design and as we know we go back and forth a lot to come up with the best possible solution.
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