Engage EHS 2020

Designers: Marija Cosic, Cormac Ó Conaire, Kevin Dunne, Sean O’Sullivan, and Darragh Geoghegan, Design Partners, Bray, Co Wicklow, Ireland
Client: Engage EHS, Dublin, Ireland

The Challenge
Within organizations Health & Safety (H&S) is not a sexy affair and it can be a cumbersome process to manage. For unengaged users, reporting incidents, managing audits or assessing risks can be extremely laborious. How can H&S management be made easy, instant & engaging? How can a well-designed process help companies adopt the correct measures for a safer work environment for everyone?

The solution is Engage EHS’ cloud-based software that helps organizations worldwide to engage their workforce in H&S and transform the way they manage their safety data. 
 
Understanding the Users
The design team’s immersion into understanding various user needs, as well as analysing the complex UI workflows, unearthed specific requirements for the new design. These included the need for more intuitive navigation, smarter workflows to make H&S Managers’ lives easier, and more exciting interactions to encourage employees to participate in the H&S process.
To drive user participation and adoption the team used gamification and nudge theory techniques - users were rewarded for their actions to drive compliance, and positive affirmations were used to inspire behavioral change and adherence to H&S routines. They are guided through the system at every step and all interactions and navigation were simplified by reducing sensory overload.

“when customers got their hands on it, they loved it, and it started improving everything about their experience of using the product on the web.” - Sean O’Sullivan, CTO Engage EHS

New customers typically have immediate issues that need resolving, therefore the onboarding is a crucial part of their experience. Engage EHS’s talented team developed innovative features like the ability to report incidents in real-time, powerful analytics, and complete paperless auditing. Users were made feel reassured that Engage EHS’ product makes their working lives easier by highlighting these innovations.

“We are leading the way in employee engagement. Enterprises are fast learning that an engaged workforce is a safer and more effective one when it comes to EHS programs” - Darragh Geoghegan, CEO Engage EHS.
 
Capturing the Culture
Part of Engage EHS’s success is down to their positive culture. Health and Safety is not a sexy industry, yet their team doesn’t match the stereotype. Their offices are covered in colourful, super-hero wallpaper and they exude a cool, positivity and optimism. When designing the new user interface, the team wanted to reflect their culture in the digital experience. Design Partners’ designers balanced the professionalism of the industry with an optimistic, inviting approach that instantly differentiated Engage EHS from their competitors; A ‘safety super-hero' character guides users through the various functions of the UI in a friendly, step-by-step way, while the software’s performance delivers a serious, uncompromising service. This carefully balanced tone has helped reduce user friction and drive success for the new product.
 
An Actionable Dashboard
A crucial part of the user engagement was the Insights dashboard. For the H&S industry, engagement is crucial, and the dashboard is one of the most used elements of the user interface. Design Partners believe that data must be "humanized" before it is presented to the user. The design team work to 4 key characteristics to achieve that - the dashboard must be confident, safe, fast, and enjoyable. These principles have been refined over many years of creating actionable dashboard designs and were central to how the Engage EHS Insights Dashboard evolved.
 
Result
SAAS companies live and die by their NPS scores, and the final design has already increased these scores. Sean O’Sullivan, explains; “For new customers, they have a significantly better first-time experience, and with existing customers it's positively impacted our NPS scores”. The collaboration delivered a solution that had great improvements for end users as well as sales with a reported 50% growth year on year. Some customers have also announced an 83% reduction in the Lost Time Injury rate. 

 “The design is a winner and has been directly responsible for lowering friction on sales. Overall, a very positive impact across the board” - Sean O’Sullivan, CTO Engage EHS