Summary
- A complete job now fits on one screen, at glove size, in daylight.
- Work is written to the device first and synchronises when signal returns.
- Jobs closed on site rose from about half to almost all of them.
- Sector
- Field operations
- Engagement
- 12 weeks, 2026
- Scope
- field research, product design, offline sync, next.js build
The problem
Tidewater's crews close jobs on a tablet, outdoors, frequently wearing gloves. The application they had was a web form with fourteen steps, small controls, and a loading state every time it required the network. Roughly half of all jobs were completed later, from the vehicle or from home.
A job written up an hour after completion is a job written from memory. The resulting errors were not carelessness. They were the consequence of an interface requesting the work in the wrong place.
Designing for the field
We spent four days on site before writing anything. Every control on the new screen is at least 44 pixels across, contrast holds in direct sunlight, and the fourteen steps are now three: what was found, what was done, and a photograph.
- One screen per job. Nothing sits behind a tab or a second page.
- Every write lands on the device first, then synchronises. A dropped signal costs nothing.
- Photographs upload in the background at whatever size the connection can carry.
The crews stopped asking for training on it. That is how we knew it was finished.
Outcome
Approximately 94% of jobs are now closed before the crew leaves the site. No report has been lost to a dropped connection since the synchronisation layer was introduced.