CASE STUDY

Kaltire Field Services

Modernizing Field Operations for Efficiency and Inclusion

Role: Senior Product Designer – Research, Vision & UX Strategy

Project Overview

Kal Tire’s service operations team manages technicians and commercial vehicles to deliver scheduled and emergency tire services across Canadian cities. The legacy process was entirely manual, leading to miscommunication, lost time, and avoidable errors.

I led the UX and accessibility design of a new iPad-based mobile application that digitized field workflows, reduced travel and idle time, improved safety compliance, and gave real-time visibility into technician activity — transforming how service teams operated on the ground.

The Challenge

The existing workflow created friction at every level:

Dispatchers received service requests via phone/email and manually wrote details, searched for tire specs separately, and printed work orders.
Work orders were pinned to a board in the office; technicians retrieved them manually and used personal phones for GPS.
Management had no way to monitor technician status or progress.
Errors in tire/rim assignments led to wasted trips to depots and extended service delays.

The process lacked scalability, transparency, and digital support — particularly for technicians with diverse literacy and tech fluency levels.

Process & Collaboration

Research

Ride-along & job shadowing with technicians
1:1 interviews with dispatchers & managers
Mapped pain points in real-world workflows
Identified literacy & low-light design needs

Define

Created service personas across roles
Documented key entry points and coordination gaps
Prioritized UX challenges tied to job delays & safety

Ideate

Ran field-informed ideation sessions
Designed user flows with offline fallback planning
Co-created safety checklist features with stakeholders

Prototype

Built annotated Figma prototypes
Applied accessibility specs from the start
Used high-contrast visuals & icon-first language

Test

Walkthroughs with techs & dispatch for usability
Iterated based on tap targets, flow clarity & icon recognition
Ran bi-weekly feedback loops and sprint reviews

Research & Discovery

To deeply understand the day-to-day work and identify real pain points, we:

Conducted on-site contextual inquiry, including ride-alongs and job shadowing with tire technicians.
Facilitated 1:1 interviews with dispatchers and managers to understand service bottlenecks and coordination gaps.
Mapped end-to-end service flows, capturing user roles, pain points, and information handoffs.
Identified key accessibility considerations, such as variable literacy levels, low-light use, and the need for visual clarity and iconography over dense text.
Identified gaps in safety compliance, information access, and real-time coordination.

This early research grounded the team in technician reality and exposed systemic inefficiencies invisible to leadership.

Current Task Flow

Task flow diagram showing how technicians receive work orders, with multiple inefficient return trips to the depot highlighted.

User Feedback on original product

Technician Field Workflow (Current State)

Pick up Dispatch Report + printed TSS Work Order from board
Inform dispatcher of selected job(s) (often grouped by location)
Collect tires and parts (store or warehouse)
Use personal phone to look up job location (data charges are a concern)
Travel to site
Common issues: locked gates, security, no on-site contact
Notify dispatch upon arrival
Locate the vehicle/unit (search lot or ask for assistance)
Perform the job
Complete Work Order + record vehicle info
Fill out torque report and attach to vehicle
Notify dispatch when finished
Return to dispatch

Screenshots showing Pick-up Dispatch Report, printed TSS Work Order from board, and associated checklists for technician tasks.

Design Approach

We designed an iPad-based mobile application to modernize and streamline field service operations:

Digital Workflow Transformation

Real-Time Work Order Assignment: Dispatchers can search for customers and vehicles, verify tire/rim specs, and send electronic work orders to field technicians.
Built-in GPS Mapping: Technicians receive locations with embedded map navigation and on-site vehicle identifiers.
Live Inventory Visibility: Technicians can confirm they have correct materials, or locate the nearest tire depot with available inventory.
Task Tracking: “Start” functionality triggers time and location tracking, giving dispatch visibility into job status.
Safety Compliance: Embedded checklists and alerts ensure technicians follow safety protocols at each stage.
Inclusive UI Design: Interfaces optimized for low-light use, consistent iconography, and accessible flows for varying literacy and language levels.

Legacy Workflow Insights

Technicians relied on printed work orders and manual searches for tire specs.
Field navigation was managed on personal phones.
There was no digital record of technician progress, time on job, or inventory use.
Tire/rim mismatches were frequent, wasting time and fuel.

Accessibility Integration

Embedded accessibility principles from the start:
- Clear, high-contrast visuals for outdoor/low-light environments.
- Simplified layouts and minimal typing required.
- Used consistent iconography with labeled actions.
- Interface designed for future language localization.
Conducted screen interaction walkthroughs with dispatch and technician personas to simulate field behavior and mental models.

Agile & Continuous Feedback

Participated in bi-weekly sprint reviews and cross-functional check-ins.
Facilitated research share-outs to align stakeholders on findings and shift assumptions.
Partnered with QA and PMs to develop an accessibility QA checklist for feature release.
Maintained a collaboration rhythm between design, product, and field ops, allowing us to pivot quickly based on real-world constraints.

Outcome & Impact

Operational Efficiency

Eliminated the need to return to dispatch for work orders, reducing fuel use and idle time.
Supported multiple jobs per day through efficient task planning and live communication.
Reduced inventory errors and prevented wasted depot trips through tire/rim verification.

Real-Time Visibility

Dispatch and management gained real-time technician location and job tracking, enabling proactive reassignments and better coordination.
Provided management with time-on-task insights for planning and resource allocation.

Accuracy & Safety

Reduced job errors through spec confirmation.
Promoted compliance via required safety checklists within the workflow.
Technicians felt more confident and empowered to handle tasks independently.

Business & Customer Value

Faster service turnaround, improving customer satisfaction — especially in emergency call-outs.
Lower overhead from reduced fuel usage, paper reliance, and coordination gaps.
Raised internal expectations for what inclusive, scalable field tech UX can look like.