Caterpillar Collaboration
The Project
My Role
Caterpillar works with Bradley University students every year, with those students designing and testing screens for any particular project Caterpillar needs. In this particular year, Caterpillar wanted an extensive system that would allow users to manage their equipment, also known as assets.
This included tracking when maintenance was up for their equipment; where assets were at any given time; moving assets between jobsites; seeing what assets were at what jobsites; renting, buying, and selling assets; and a calendar that featured all this information for users to see quickly and easily. Our team also included a messages system for users to contact other key individuals about the movement and maintenance of their equipment. We were a team of four, and set out to achieve this goal by researching, designing, testing, and then prototyping this application.
As a team we were responsible for researching our user’s needs, creating user flows, putting together wireframes, user testing, and then designing the final high-fidelity screens. Together we made 28 screens. I was most involved in the maintenance, home, and jobsites screens, but this project was particularly collaborative and we were involved in each and every screen to some degree.
Visual Design
Initial Sketches
When making screens for Caterpillar, our team was limited by the pre-existing design principles and documentation they had on hand. We received access to their documents, which were filled with small graphics, logos, icons, fonts, buttons, and more. We pulled directly from this document, as well as created UI influenced by it, to put together all of our screens.
Caterpillar’s brand is based on their particular aesthetic, as is any brand, so all of our screens have straight lines, sharp corners, and follow the classic yellow, black, and white color scheme. The graphic of the cement mixer on our home page was one of their assets that we were able to use for a more approachable look, though we kept their overall design professional and as simple as possible. The card system in particular was meant to condense what would otherwise be a very complicated system, and a lot of information, in a more easily digestible format.
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