Prevention guide Volandis
As an employer in Construction & Infrastructure, you care about your employees. You want them to retire healthy. But how exactly do you approach this? What is the best way to help your employees? And who can you turn to for assistance?
Prevention is better than cure
Human hands are indispensable in many industries. But in few places they are as vulnerable as in the construction and infrastructure sector. Every day they are faced with all kinds of dangers. Employers want to protect their employees from these hazards.
Volandis provides advice to employers and employees in the construction and infrastructure sector. It is a non-profit advice centre. Volandis provides advice on workplace safety, job satisfaction, and future viability.
The prevention guide
Under the motto of prevention is better than cure, the idea for the prevention guide was born. It is an online guide that lists service providers for the construction and infrastructure industry.
With a Volandis account, employers can access the guide. Employers who use MijnVolandis are already assessed on sustainable employability. Volandis performs a sustainable employability analysis, which is followed by a company report on 'Sustainable Employability'. This report provides advice on how an organization can improve.
The prevention guide is the place where organizations can see at a glance who they can turn to in order to bring about improvement.
Service providers, with services related to the DIA report, can offer their services through the prevention guide. The prevention guide brings supply and demand together.
Approach
At Novaware, the wishes of our clients are central. Therefore, the project starts with a conversation with the client. This way, we can get a good understanding of the client's wishes. Next, we work towards a clickable prototype via a design sprint.
Together with Volandis, we have worked out user stories. These stories clarify what the prevention guide requires. A user story is basically a small piece of the assignment. Employers must be able to filter, there must be a connection with myVolandis, employers must be able to manage their profile, etc. We put ourselves in the shoes of the users together with the client. This way, we ensure the ultimate user experience for all users of the prevention guide.
Clickable prototype
Such a prototype is actually a kind of blueprint of the website. The beauty of such a blueprint is that you can start testing. Internally, but also with user groups. The prototype is discussed and adjusted where necessary. We like to work with a prototype because it provides a lot of room for adjustments. And when the choices are not yet set in stone, a prototype can be used to make comparisons. And thus make decisions!
DTAP pipeline
All user stories, along with standard tasks, encompass the specific project's work. After having a good overview of the user stories, the DTAP pipeline can be set up. DTAP stands for development, testing, acceptance, and production. This schematic way of working aligns well with the customers' expectations. By using a DTAP pipeline, it becomes easier to adjust the functionality. Volandis was closely involved in one of the phases and had a role in the acceptance environment to give their approval. Once everything is satisfactory, the functionality is released into production.
Sprints
We always work in two-week sprints. Every two weeks, the client indicates what has the highest priority for them. These are the tasks that will be scheduled for the next two weeks. After two weeks, the selected functionalities are delivered and demonstrated. If necessary, adjustments are made. Then, the next sprint is set up. This approach ensures that we can monitor progress throughout the project.
Technical challenges
The prevention guide is an extension of an existing Volandis application, MijnVolandis, and has multiple users. The two applications had to seamlessly merge into each other. The integration with MijnVolandis ensures an optimal user experience.
Volandis now has a multi-site environment within the Umbraco CMS where they can manage their multiple applications. Much of the content between both platforms overlaps. By using a single Umbraco environment, we were able to prevent content entry from becoming a time-consuming task for Volandis.
Companies that are tested for sustainable employability through MijnVolandis can easily proceed to the prevention guide. Here, they can immediately see what options they have and who to contact to ultimately achieve improvement.
We had already developed a Single Sign-On functionality for Volandis in the past. With the prevention guide, we again used this application so that users do not have to log in again. A pleasant experience for the user.
Providers can offer services through the prevention guide. They submit services, after which Volandis gives approval. This was a requirement to ensure the quality of the prevention guide.
To design this complex product well, we used Vue.js. A JavaScript framework where functionalities are kept separate from each other, but all relevant code of the respective functionality is available. This was also necessary in this case because two front-end applications were created, both of which use content from a single back-end installation.
Ongoing process
The prevention guide will be expanded with new services from providers in the coming years. This way, Volandis can optimally support employees and employers in the implementation of sustainable employability.
User testing
In this project, we also used the System Usability Scale (SUS) during user testing of the prototype. SUS is a questionnaire that measures the usability or user-friendliness of a website or app, taking into account the context in which the product is used. The prevention guide scored an impressive 9 in this test!
