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A Three Day Hackathon Project

Truckers are tough,

but life on the road

doesn't have to be.

Hackathon Theme:

Build a product to help Delivery Drivers or Long Haulers during the long winter season

Hosted by:
General Assembly

December 13-15, 2021

In this project, the UX Designer team worked really collaboratively on the design and flow of the app.

Specifically, I led the artistic decision making, which led us to the overall industrial look of the site. We intentionally picked highway and industrial fonts and color pallet to appeal to the truck drivers' experiences.

Developer Team

Jennifer Goldberg

Lonna Lu

Abigail Johnson

UX Team

Jane Huntington

Noura Ibrahim

David Bieschke

Casey Auvé

Advisors

Jessica Li

Zakiya Konadu

Rachel Walker

Thanks to everyone in this amazing team! It was fun and a great experience to work together!

Persona:

Red

Jacobs

Age: 57

Home: Iowa

Status: Married

Occupation: Truck Driver

Annual Salary: $105K

Archetype: Realistic

Red has been driving Long Haul Class A trucks since 1986. He has found stability in the last 20 years, driving for the same company. He likes to use his downtime to play poker with his friends and fish.

Even with his 35 years of experience, he misses interacting with people regularly. He takes pride in complying with safety standards to ensure he and his haul are safe.

"I am missing a lot of family time to make more money... but longer hours can really take a toll on me."

Competitive Analysis.

We began by looking at meditation and mental health apps Headspace, Ginger, and Calm. Then we started researching what issues truck drivers were experiencing and found several websites that dealt with all aspects of truckers' psychological and physical health.

Problem Statement.

Red is a trucker who needs tools and resources to address his stress levels and overall mental health while on the road when he's stressed and worn down.

How Might We?

How might we address Red's needs in a way that respects his privacy?
How might we address Red's needs to allow him to access mental health resources when he's alone in his truck?
How might we get past Red's reluctance to seek help and learn about ways to better his life when on the road?

Service Features.

Halka is an app provided to truckers through their employer. It's completely anonymous, but the trucker is required to check in an hour before starting work. Depending on their response, the user will receive a randomized link to one of the multiple articles that address five primary needs: immediate action, deep breathing, reframing their thinking, eating on the road, and physical exercise.

After answering five questions on the scale of "not true at all" to "true nearly all the time," an algorithm divides the responses into three groups:

Group 1

Scores 1 to 2

Driver is in acute distress and needs immediate intervention.

Group 2

Scores 3 to 4

Driver has moderate stress, should seek moderate adjustments to lifestyle.

Group 3

Scores Perfect 5

Driver is doing well, needs no immediate help.

LOW FIDELITY

wireframes.

Building low fidelity wireframes allowed us to brainstorm together in a remote setting, using Figma and Zoom we were able to build the initial pages. Once we were finished with our task, we would review others' work and provide feedback. We split the workload evenly depending on our individual skillsets.

With my prior visual art background, I led the art direction discussion, where we chose a color pallet, font choice and letter spacing. Overall, we chose to design with an interstate highway inspired theme, to appeal to the tough blue collar drivers.

User Flow.

1.

User logs in or signs up for the app

2.

User is given a welcome back prompt

3.

User fills out a simple survey

4.

Based off of the user's answers, a list of resources will be provided

User Testing.

We were able to pull together 5 user interviews with the short timeframe. The results proved to be very valuable.

When creating a new account,

users picked "Sign In" instead of "Sign Up"

expected to click through, instead of clicking "[next]"

of users said the return touch point was too small

Next Steps.

Over the three day build, we had a functioning website that allowed users to sign in with a unique user handle, and take a simple 5 questions mental health survey. We also had great branding specific to our user base.

Best of all, I have renewed confidence in my UX skills. I can't wait for another hackathon to sharpen up.

Here are a few future targets for Halka: