Traffic control room showing multiple screens, cameras and applications.

Problem

Nationwide traffic control centre staff were getting fatigued trying to intercept and mitigate traffic network issues in their respective regions. Their roles were to effectively keep traffic networks running as efficiently as possible throughout the major centres.

Each operator daily had to look at many screens (including road camera monitors) and navigate disparate legacy applications to do their jobs as best they could.

Screen captures of Traffic watcher screens

The solution

We designed a solution (TrafficWatcher) that aggregated and prioritised problem areas (on a single screen!) partnered with Google Maps technology. Existing traffic operations data (eg. traffic cameras, weather patterns, city events) was integrated into TrafficWatcher to offer operators fuller context of road network issues. This allowed staff to deploy the appropriate services (eg. Police/Fire) much more efficiently.

The prototypes were tested with users in three major centres, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. TrafficWatcher was created collaborating with the on-floor staff in those regions.

Google Maps Logo

Outcomes

  • Introduction of a world-class internationally recognised Google case study.
  • Traffic centre users proactively resolved network issues. Relevant information was presented as a prioritised task list saving hours of searching for issues.
  • One single fully informative interface was used rather dozens of different screens and interfaces.
  • Existing NZTA technology was overlaid to enhance the user experience.
  • Reduction of human error, staff training, development costs and a greatly improved work environment.
User research task list

The process

The creation of TrafficWatcher was very much a collaborative effort. From in-house contextual inquiry at the regional operations centres, to user interviews, usability testing exercises and iterative design - we were able to quickly deploy a world-class MVP within a couple of months.

The product was produced by a very small team of four. Communication between the regional centres improving significantly as all relevant parties were a part of the creative process, building the experience.

Warner Davies
Product Designer
Various Design Pieces

I have over 20 years experience in multi-disciplined user-centric digital design.
My main strengths are UI design, digital strategy, stakeholder engagement and user research.

I have produced design work for a wide variety of Australasian brands including
Genesis Energy, Fletcher Building, Countdown, Woolworths, The Warehouse, Fisher & Paykel and Spark New Zealand.
‍
2023
Senior  Product Designer. Worked in a team with a product manager, engineering team lead and 5 engineers. Together owned a part of Fuel50, shipping solutions to challenging problems and getting feedback directly from customers.

The role involved introducing best practice usability testing, extensive prototype building and end-user research and feedback as well as mentoring where required.
Fuel50 Hero Image
Visual UI Design
UI Design
Usability Testing
User Research
Responsive Design
Responsive Design
Prototyping
Prototype Design
Accessibility
Accessibility
Userflows
User Flows
Research
Stakeholder Engagement
Mentoring Opportunities
Mentoring Opportunities
2019-2022
Senior UX Designer. Building evolving human-centred, frictionless digital channels and platforms. Strategically leading the creation, execution and iteration of User Experience across the LocalCover digital ecosystem. Mentoring in human-centred design – including tools, workflows and emerging techniques.
Boxer Hero Image
Visual UI Design
UI Design
Usability Testing
User Research
Responsive Design
Responsive Design
Prototyping
Prototype Design
Accessibility
Accessibility
Userflows
User Flows
Research
Stakeholder Engagement
2018-2019
Senior UX specialist in the Connected Journeys team. Designing Transport OS products used by Operations Control Centres nationally. Design of innovative products used internally by NZTA national customers. Role included research including contextual inquiry and moderated usability testing, through constructed prototypes and Lookback.
NZTA Hero Image
Visual UI Design
UI Design
Usability Testing
User Research
Responsive Design
Responsive Design
Prototyping
Prototype Design
Research
Stakeholder Engagement
Contextual Inquiry
Contextual Inquiry
2017-2018
Senior/Lead UX Designer. Overseeing the UX Design Process and frameworks utilised at Genesis Energy to create consistent user experiences across Genesis Energy. Applying human-centred design principles to the development of user experience as well as many opportunities to lead the UX practice and mentor other designers.
Genesis Hero Image
Visual UI Design
UI Design
Usability Testing
User Research
Responsive Design
Responsive Design
Prototyping
Prototype Design
App Design
App Design
Accessibility
Accessibility
Userflows
User Flows
Information Architecture
Information Architecture
Research
Stakeholder Engagement
Google Design Sprint
Design Sprint
2017-2018
Senior UX Designer (Contract role). Covering BAU UX/UI requirements for Suncorp including the Vero, AA Insurance and AMP. Adobe AEM including data driven design through Analytics and A/B Testing.
Suncorp Hero Image
AMP
Visual UI Design
UI Design
Usability Testing
User Research
Responsive Design
Responsive Design
Prototyping
Prototype Design
Quantative Research
Quantitive Research
A/B Testing
A/B Testing
Userflows
User Flows
Research
Stakeholder Engagement
2017-2018
Senior UX Designer (Contract). Developing digital customer experiences for MMC.Managing and designing digital initiatives, strategic projects, user experience methodologies and digital opportunities for MMC in conjunction with their clients, including Milford Investments.
MMC Hero Image
Visual UI Design
UI Design
Usability Testing
User Research
Responsive Design
Responsive Design
Prototyping
Prototype Design
Userflows
User Flows
Research
Stakeholder Engagement
2016-2017
Managing digital initiatives, strategic projects, high profile marketing campaigns and digital opportunities within the Online programme working with other team members, agencies and technology partners to increase the role and profile of digital and CX across Spark Digital’s entire marketing mix. Bringing several UX competencies in-house with less reliance on external agencies.
Spark Hero Image
Visual UI Design
UI Design
Usability Testing
User Research
Strategic Design
Strategic Design
Prototyping
Prototype Design
Userflows
User Flows
Adobe Experience Manager
Experience Manager
2015-2016
Senior UX Designer (Contract role). User driven design at the Innovation Lab. User testing. Minimum Viable Product. Iterative design including prototype testing. User Design Hypothesis Validation. Agile and User Experience Methodologies, including research, stakeholder and end user validation. Goal orientated design process. Primarily application design.
‍
Fletchers Hero Image
Visual UI Design
UI Design
Usability Testing
User Research
Strategic Design
Strategic Design
Prototyping
Prototype Design
Accessibility
Accessibility
Userflows
User Flows
App Design
App Design
Research
Stakeholder Engagement
2002-2015
Senior UX Designer. User experience and solution strategy for Brother International, BurgerKing (Antares), NZME, Progressive Enterprises (Countdown), Woolworths Australia and The Warehouse group of companies. Project and account management. SaaS, eCommerce, responsive website and mobile application design.
‍
CountdownWoolworthsWarehouseWarehouse StationeryBurgerKingBrother
NZTANZTA

Experience

DISCOVERY

  • Stakeholder Interviews
  • Content Audit
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Discovery Audit
  • Design Sprints
  • Workshop Facilitation

USER RESEARCH

  • Recruiting
  • Field Research
  • Analytics & Synthesis
  • Usability Testing
  • Customer Feedback
  • Contextual Inquiry

STRATEGY

  • Strategy Brief
  • User stories
  • Design Principles
  • Design / Sketching

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

  • Task Flows
  • Userflow
  • Wireframes
  • Card/Reverse Sorting

DESIGN

  • Interaction Design
  • Ideation Design
  • Prototype Creation
  • Component Library Creation

DEVELOPMENT OVERSIGHT

  • HTML / CSS
  • Asset Production
  • WCAG Accessibility
  • Design Desk Check

Project Management

  • JIRA / Confluence
  • Agile Practitioner
FigmaAdobe Creative CloudSketchLookbackDovetailPendoSlackWebflowHTML 5.0CSS 3.0

Projects

NZ Transport Agency
Genesis Energy
Fletcher Building
NZTA Hero Image

Managing New Zealand's Road Network
more efficiently

Traffic control room showing multiple screens, cameras and applications.

Problem

Nationwide traffic control centre staff were getting fatigued trying to intercept and mitigate traffic network issues in their respective regions. Their roles were to effectively keep traffic networks running as efficiently as possible throughout the major centres.

Each operator daily had to look at many screens (including road camera monitors) and navigate disparate legacy applications to do their jobs as best they could.

Screen captures of Traffic watcher screens

The solution

We designed a solution (TrafficWatcher) that aggregated and prioritised problem areas (on a single screen!) partnered with Google Maps technology. Existing traffic operations data (eg. traffic cameras, weather patterns, city events) was integrated into TrafficWatcher to offer operators fuller context of road network issues. This allowed staff to deploy the appropriate services (eg. Police/Fire) much more efficiently.

The prototypes were tested with users in three major centres, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. TrafficWatcher was created collaborating with the on-floor staff in those regions.

Google Maps Logo

Outcomes

  • Introduction of a world-class internationally recognised Google case study.
  • Traffic centre users proactively resolved network issues. Relevant information was presented as a prioritised task list saving hours of searching for issues.
  • One single fully informative interface was used rather dozens of different screens and interfaces.
  • Existing NZTA technology was overlaid to enhance the user experience.
  • Reduction of human error, staff training, development costs and a greatly improved work environment.
User research task list

The process

The creation of TrafficWatcher was very much a collaborative effort. From in-house contextual inquiry at the regional operations centres, to user interviews, usability testing exercises and iterative design - we were able to quickly deploy a world-class MVP within a couple of months.

The product was produced by a very small team of four. Communication between the regional centres improving significantly as all relevant parties were a part of the creative process, building the experience.

Genesis Hero Image

User-defined Information Architecture

Website construction and setup image

Problem

Genesis Energy, New Zealand's largest energy supplier,  were looking to revise their website experience. This included increasing their registrations, improving retention and reducing any customer churn.

They were also, at the same time, looking to refresh and improve, their online customer portal experience and create a dedicated customer app, Energy IQ.

Genesis Hero Image

The solution

A user-centric website was established supporting all of Genesis main customer types. The website used revised navigation menu, content layout, content strategy and overall revised taxonomy. I introduced to the business Optimal Workshop tools Card Sorting and Tree Jack to create an improved information architecture. In addition we used existing data and allowed for better measureable data points, to create an experience appreciated by all stakeholders. Customer and data research were key to the exercise. Initial design was also established for the Genesis Customer Portal - Energy IQ as a result.

Customer retention image

Outcomes

  • A fully responsive user-centered (customer-defined) updated public facing website.
  • Improved data structure and layout for establishing data points for measuring the future UX experience.
  • Improved retention of the existing customer base and increased registrations.
  • The introduction of tools in-house, to improve customer collaboration and research with less dependence on external agencies.
  • Better and continued use of data research to drive/direct UX initiatives.
  • Introduction of Google Design Sprints making way for much improved team collaboration and UX strategy planning.
Card Sorting. Sticky note collecting.Optimal Workshop Logo

The process

The revised experience was created the first in-house UX team within Genesis. This allowed for very quick turnarounds to meet sprint goals and less dependence on external agencies. The process of creating the revised site plan, navigation structure, taxonomy and content detail was based on essential customer feedback. From information architecture  exercises to user-tested iterative design - we were able to create experiences that delighted all. Individual subject matter experts were involved as required. Improved ways of measuring return on investment for the future and new initiatives introduced such as Google Style Design Sprints enabled a much more collaborative and cohesive working environment.

Estimates on-the-fly using drone technology

Problem

Colorcote, a subsdiary of Fletcher Building  were looking for innovative and efficient ways of easily quoting re-roofing build costs. Often older  house plans were not available for aiding the estimation process. Inefficient methods for working out time and materials such as physical measurements were costing the business a lot of time and effort (without a guaranteed favourable outcome). The process could take a high amount of time at considerable cost.

The solution

The Fletcher Innovation Lab, created a tool called the Placemakers tool that allowed building estimations to be efficiently made from home floor plans.  Unfortunately the images from Google satellite maps were not good enough quality so the team decided to use drone aerial footage instead. The sales representative was able to create personalised estimates in less than two days and present back to the potential customer estimates the following day. The users could also alter roofing material and see results insitu from the app from the comfort of their own home.

Outcomes

  • An incredibly efficient estimation system was created that saved ColorCote huge expense for unknown payoff.
  • Customers could review different materials on the fly with the salesperson through the app interface and get personalised quotes.
  • Photography such as problem areas was all included in a personalised presentation, using the drone footage and aerial photography.
  • The app created was based on existing Placemaker tool technology used elsewhere but using aerial photography rather than floor plans.
  • Users could pick and choose what roofing options they wanted in situ in the app interface to get photo realistic renders of the options available to them with no expectation to proceed.

The process

The team, worked very closely with the ColorCote stakeholders to iteratively design the salesperson/customer app experience within a minimal amount of time. The salesperson interface was wire-framed, and MVP created and user tested and deployed very quickly. Extensive stakeholder engagement, user research and contextual inquiry allowed the small team to create a world-class (ROI measurable) solution  in a very short space of time.

Contact

Warner Davies Photo

Mobile +64274411155
or email warnerdavies@gmail.com .

Fuel 50
Boxer
Genesis
Vero
Spark New Zealand
Fletcher Building
Warehouse
Countdown
Fisher & Paykel
Fuel 50
Boxer
Genesis
Vero
Spark New Zealand
Fletcher Building
Warehouse
Countdown
Fisher & Paykel