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E-Commerce Return

Design for warehouse return clerk in SAP EWM
Team
SAP EWM development team
2014.11 - 2015. 9
Scope
SAP EWM940/S4HANA 
Fiori UI5
Enterprise Web Application
Contribution
User Interview
Interactive Prototype
Usability test
Front-end Programming
Since the prevalence of e-commerce business, receiving returned product becomes a common warehouse activity. The clerk in warehouse who is responsible for returns, needs to track the the returned products, and dispose them in the right way. The process requires the clerk to interact with multiple SAP systems, meanwhile operate the physical products off-line. To improve the operation efficiency, we designed a simple and usable Fiori Web Application.

Design Process

Workflow...? Play it by ear

User activities in the system & physical space

1. Reference number can be in different systems.
2. Inspection process is experience-dependent.
3. Put-away strategy is separated from return operations.

How might we _______
reduce the complexity and errancy in operations?

Design Goals
New Process
1. One unified reference number input.
2. Once found a return order, the system shows all products in the order.
3. Product inpection with alternative interaction via scanner input.

Reflection

Look back the challenges

1. Handle edge cases
One biggest challenge faced in this project is to handle a large variety of use cases in different warehouses. It is often straightforward to design for one case. When it comes to multiple workflows, designers have to consider integration and prioritization - focus on the main workflow, get ready advanced features but only reveal when needed. Meanwhile, edge case is also costive for development effort. It is challenging but fun to think of cheap solutions with the least sacrifice on usability.
2. Apply guideline
Company guideline is usually well designed to be versatile for most workflow.s This project, as one interface of enterprise software, is special because it is strict requirement of operation speed and context-based interactions. It involves user’s interaction with the physical space, such as inspection and placing product. When there is not a clear choice of floor plan, we focused on the screen navigation flow, and proposed component design changes to ensure operation efficiency.