To create a place that would allow mining managers to analyze historical performance and consequentially make improvements. This, part of a bigger platform for monitoring metrics and tasks across all the operation.
Role & duration
One of two UX designers, collaborated with two product teams, the design systems team, and mining SMEs. 6 months.
Problems
Their current processes involve scattered information across various sources (e.g., Excel sheets, BI reports, whiteboards, verbal status updates, or loosely documented shift notes), making it difficult to identify the what, where, and why of the problems they encounter.
Hypothesis
Our app will serve as the comprehensive source for all haul cycle information, enabling users to analyze both current and historical. This will facilitate the quick identification of recurring issues and their root causes, support prioritized decision-making based on loss analysis, and streamline task delegation to ground staff. Ultimately, the system aims to resolve these issues and optimize material movement daily according to the plan.
The process
Empathize
SME interviews
Secondary research
Ideate and iterate
Brainstorming workshops
Sketches
Launch
High fidelity mockups
Prototypes
Understand
User flow
By talking with our mining SME's and conducting secondary research, we were able to map out our users' activities and decision making process.
Solution
Haul Cycle Health
An analytics tool that aims to empower mining companies and their Ops Leadership with holistic insights they need to understand root cause of critical or recurring haul-cycle problems.
1. Understand how the mine is doing
The left pane allows supervisors to quickly assess mine performance for different time periods, and identify which metric could be underperforming.
2. Deep dive and investigate
Once an underperforming metric is identified, supervisors can investigate the reason for the variance and estimate its impact.
3. Take action
Once issues are identified, supervisors can create and delegate tasks to the team or escalate the issue to a different department.
Reflections
Late validation told us to redirect. Site managers were clear: shift supervisors needed situational awareness support now, historical pattern analysis could come later. We took that feedback, rebuilt the scope around real-time shift-level tooling, and delivered it.
The tool was never adopted, but not for design reasons. The mine site was mid-transfer to another company due to a corporate split, and no longer had the bandwidth to implement new tooling. Timing, not the solution, killed it.
The lasting takeaway: in high-stakes operational environments, situational clarity in the present is always the prerequisite for analytical value over time.
