Making marine data uploads more reliable
Overview
The UK Hydrographic Office has for a long time received scans of the seabed from port authorities, survey companies and other government entities, and uses them to update the digital and paper navigation products of their brand, Admiralty. The data provided was often inconsistent and incomplete, and the internal validation process was inefficient with lots of back and forth communication between suppliers and UKHO's data processors.
A discovery led to the alpha design of a service for data suppliers to provide consistent, relevant, reliable and useful data to UKHO, ultimately improving the safety of lives at sea.
Process
We undertook an extensive discovery to better understand the end-to-end process, from collecting data and sharing it with UKHO to validating and processing it. Through interviews, data analysis, interaction mapping, synthesis and ideation, we captured the needs, pain points and delights of all user groups involved and identified process improvements and requirements for an external and internal facing portal to explore in Alpha.
Based on research findings and ideation, we identified eight key opportunities in three areas:
- Communication and relationship with data suppliers
- Introduction of a data upload platform
- Improvements to the user journey
Working as an agile team, we were able to design and develop a web-based upload portal that met the needs of internal and external users, and the organisational strategies of UKHO.
Outcomes
- Fewer outbound queries from UKHO, freeing up time to focus on core activities
- Increased supplier confidence in the submission process
- A flexible, agnostic pattern for future data upload services in UKHO
- Influenced and defined new ways of working within UKHO
- Proved the efficacy of an agile, lean approach with continuous discovery
- Proved value of Service Design and Content Design to UKHO