OHShelp overview
OHShelp is an OHS App that provides educational material, and how to guides on OHS issues for Organisers and Health and Safety Reps to use at workplace visits.
Health and safety reps can search for information on workplace hazards, log and track issues and find useful stepped guides on safety process’ in the workplace.
I worked on OHShelp for The ACTU in 2019/2020
The process I followed for OHShelp
User Interviews
The aim of interviewing the Union organisers and HSR’s using OHS help was to understand their behaviours and attitudes around the hypotheses “HSR reps don’t have enough information around OHS issues” and “It’s difficult for HSR reps to get in touch with their union” which solving was to be one of the drivers for success.
I asked open questions as not to lead the interviewees and try to get them in their own words to describe their process’ and how they feel around OHS and their experience with the unions.
The aim was to cast the net wide, and then narrow the information I got down through synthesis.
Synthesising research results
The aim of synthesising our research findings was to find themes and commonalities amongst the results of the interviews. We could prove/disprove or add to our original hypothesis by starting to find the real problem points or gaps for our users and then work on how to address them.
By compiling the research we could also understand common process and behaviours and where OHShelp can either fit in to or improve the current state.
Method
Verbatims from the interviews were documented and grouped into themes and then those groups are grouped if possible and so on until there are key groups consisting of smaller groups.
Summary of findings
The summary of findings was a direct result of synthesising the research. The summary was a pack with details of the research (Subjects/area/gender etc). The pack included themes and insights of behaviours and attitudes and also solutions to help observed pain points or improve process. The final pack was intended to be circulated widely through the ACTU and I hoped that whilst the main purpose of the pack was to drive the design thinking, anyone should be able to read it and understand the nature and results of the research.
Testing wireframes and prototyping
After we understood the before, during and after of when a hazard occurs in the workplace and the gaps where we could help, we could then start to put together wireframes or rough layouts of what we are creating.
We tested our prototypes by:
- Setting common or popular tasks and seeing if the user could achieve them (eg make a new account or change your details).
- Letting the users flow freely though the product noting which information or functionality is important to them.
- Asking open questions about how they feel about OHS help.
Testing the prototypes helped with:
- Prioritising information and helping to define the information architecture.
- Validating that the solution we had come up with would help HSRs.
- Finding how users flow through what we were making.
- Finding which labels work best.
See the outcomes of the wireframes and initial prototypes here.
The first release (MVP)
The first release included all of the features that we believed will add instant value to the user.
Ongoing improvements
Through analytics and follow up interviews/testing we will get a greater understanding of how our users are using OHS help and what improvements we can make.
Along side this feedback gathering we can analyse and prioritise features to add in the next release that will best benefit our users.