Digital transformation of certification#
Certification processes are notably cumbersome by their inherent rigid form-like structure, and “boring-beige” interfaces. The overall bureaucratic connotation assigned to them has been tailored from the ground up to be as cumbersome and hard to interpret as possible, causing lagging processes and an overall inefficient workflow.
When moving to the digital transformation of these certificates, as designers we have the duty to revisit such processes and logic to prevent unnecessary or outdated transitions, in order to deliver a much needed refresh to outdated practices.
From the UK, our clients brought up a challenge to us: modernise the current Electrical Certification process, by converting their tools into a unified and modern tablet app.
This was an interesting project, although we knew absolutely nothing about electrical installations certification in the United Kingdom. Our customer became an essential partner in this development, as we worked together to find a compromise that could form a better solution for them.
Moving out of the way for function to prevail#
While we are always on the look to attain new workflows, more streamlined, with a unified, centralised, and collaborative set of features, in design we must also be able to show some restrain into our approach, and not lose focus to the end-goal of our product.
A certification app is built to be functional and needs to maintain all of the traits that make it a necessary work tool. While there is a lot we can re-design and optimise in the transition towards digital, we must exercise caution not to stand in the way or cripple the core features that make it a required instrument used everyday.
During the whole process there was some room for improvement, mainly in the business and management side, but we were always careful not to disrupt the certificate logic and affects, keeping the certificate inter-field dependencies while refining the way engineers interact with the app.
Current status and possible future iterations#
The resulting app, which is now available for download at both AppStore and Google Play, proved there is room to improve most of the current processes without disrupting regular workflows that are familiar to engineers.
With the app, an engineer is able to fill out an optimised energy certification form, validate the inserted information (while highlighting any fields that require attention) and issue the certificate on-the-go. It also supports offline mode for work that needs to be done in remote locations without celular connectivity.
There is still much to do in this project, as it pivots towards Enterprise models with real-time collaborative teams and certificate revisions, but what we have achieved so far overall makes for a successful use-case in digital transformation.
