Open Doors Causes Many Problems!

As the designer for Ganje's smart locker system, I implemented design solutions to address open locker door challenges. By displaying reserved locker information prominently on the web application and introducing informative alerts, users could easily find their lockers and close the doors after use. These design interventions reduced customer service calls related to open locker doors by 11%, leading to improved user satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Ganje locker is a smart locker that receives parcels instead of users. They are secure storage and distribution systems with integrated computers and sensor networks that provide users a self pick up delivery.
Through a web application, users are able to connect to lockers and pick up/ drop off their order shipments.

According to field observation and CRM calls, we noticed that sometimes, it was difficult for users to find out which locker door was opened for them, specially In big stations (e.g locker racks above 20 doors) or noisy outdoors.

There was 2 scenarios for this situation:

• The door didn’t be opened correctly, so they couldn’t notice it.
• There were to many doors that was already open, so the user get confused which one is the right door.

To solve the problem, first we needed to know why and how often this case was happening.

In order to analyze various parts of the problem, it was important to understand what was user’s journey through our web application.

After analyzing CRM calls, we discovered that open locker doors led to user confusion and subsequent calls to the center for assistance. The CRM team receives around 30 daily calls (12% of orders) regarding this problem.

We investigated different station areas for 3 days and observed users behavior while picking up their parcels.
The observation conclusions were:

1. The most common reason was the doors left open by the previous user. So the user reached out to the door that was already open and ended up with an empty locker.
2. Noisy environments lead to not hearing the door opening.
3. The door was not opened completely.

Armed with this data, I opted to break down the problem into smaller segments for separate analysis.

So, we decided to go with the solution semantic station on web application. However, verifying the technical team's capacity for feature development was crucial. Given diverse layouts across stations (rack numbers, types, and compositions), ensuring accurate station simulation within the web app was imperative.

After checking these wireframes with CTO and confirming it, designing the UI has started.

Further investigation revealed the issue affecting couriers as well. Unresolved locker doors caused confusion and potential misplacement of parcels, led to extensive operational effort. Ensuring closed doors for all users was crucial.
While physical solutions were costly and complex, we tackled the problem through the web application. Implementing alerts on the opening door page improved user confidence in closure, prompting a redesign.

After lunching the changes for users and monitoring it, we changed our courier web application in a way that there would be less mistakes in loading lockers. At the first of their journey, we show them open doors and ask them to close it. Also for every parcel, they would see which locker is going to be open and hope that it would decrease confusion.

We performed a usability test using a prototype to evaluate the users' ability to identify the appropriate door. The prototype was tested with a sample of 12 individuals, all of whom accurately identified their respective doors without any confusion. Here is the link of the prototype:

• Within two weeks after launching the feature, the number of CRM calls dropped about from 12% to 1% .
• We ran the survey again and as the results showed that the problem of not finding the door was decreased to 2%.
• After this changes, the rate of doors being open dropped from 13% to 5%.

The most interesting aspect of the job to me was observing how my designs affected users and the company. I learned that small changes can bring significant improvements. In the case of Ganje, minor modifications to the web application design and the addition of alerts reduced the number of customer service calls for open locker doors. This highlights the potential impact of small improvements on user experience and operational efficiency.