Port Assist
The Port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe, expecting over 30.000 calls of sea-going vessels with 437 million tonnes of cargo throughput per year. The port is responsible for a staggering 385.000 (direct and indirect) jobs in the Netherlands. The Harbour Master of the Port of Rotterdam is responsible for the safe, smooth, and secure handling of shipping in this dynamic environment.
Challenge
The Harbour Masters at the Harbour Coordination Centre control the planning and access of the 30.000 sea-going vessels and 90.000 inland ships that visit the Port of Rotterdam every year. To maintain Rotterdam's leading position as the world's smartest port, the Port of Rotterdam is developing a brand-new software suite called Port Assist. This product will replace outdated software and facilitate new developments, modern laws and regulations, and further digitisation of harbour processes.
As a UX Designer and Design Lead, I worked with multiple SCRUM teams in the software development department for over two years. Here I was responsible for conducting user research and interviews, building high-fidelity prototypes for usability testing and iterating on the results to create final designs and flows. I worked in close collaboration with our front-end developers in the SCRUM teams to bring the designs to life. I was also in charge of creating the Port Assist Design System in Figma, which is utilised across different teams and helps designers and developers design and build Port Assist more efficiently.
Solution
Port Assist is a web application where Harbour Masters can carry out their work using a task-driven approach. Through process optimisation, we can now present a clear overview to the user to handle all prioritised tasks. Port Assist consists of several dashboards, from where the users can start handling a task or gain access to a ships port call details. The tasks are dealt with in a side panel that only presents the information needed for the specific task to avoid information overload. When more is required, the user can click through to the port call detail screen.
To ensure an efficient and seamless workflow from design to development, we implemented the existing design system ANT Design. I was in charge of adapting ANT Design to our needs and guiding the transition from a design point of view. We drastically reduced the lead time from design to implementation by realising the switch to this design system.
Results
By analysing the Harbour Master processes and adapting to modernisation and digitisation, we significantly reduced the Harbour Masters' workload, reducing the number of different systems and software required. On top of that, specific labour-intensive tasks will be automatically completed to shift focus to the more critical matters.
