Customers » Designing Fifth Force workflow management system for Fifth Element

Designing Fifth Force workflow management system for Fifth Element

Perttu Aunola, COO at Fifth Element :

What was the starting point and objective of the project?

Fifth Element has created product-based workflow and logistics management solutions for big Finnish and international companies. In 2009 we performed a market survey about usage and business needs of wireless workflow management solutions in different industries. Results of the survey confirmed our perception that also small and medium-sized enterprises will benefit from mobile use, location information and real-time status information in their everyday activities. This research result was the basis for the decision to build a cloud service that companies could take into use easily on their own through the internet.

We understood that usability requirements will be emphasized when the user base grows and the service gets users from several different industries. It was clear for us from the beginning that the product should be effective at work, look attractive and be easy to take into use.

How did Etnoteam help you to solve the situation?

We wanted to verify the business needs in selected industries with user research. This work was supported with wireframe models that were developed iteratively together. Especially in designing the mobile phone user interface, the challenge was to design a simple workflow for the small screen but still fulfil the business needs for mobile use.

Etnoteam offered user interviews for mapping the business needs. On the basis of the interviews, Etnoteam experts designed wireframe models of the screens and the workflows and first versions of graphical appearance.

What was the outcome of the project?

The final result of the successfull co-operation was easy-to-use software that fulfils the business needs and includes both web and mobile user interfaces. We have received good feedback about the service from our pilot customers, both people working on field and managers, and whether the terminal being a Nokia E series phone or an iPhone.


Fifth Element is a Finnish software company that helps their customers in mobile processes, in their improvement by using real-time geographic information, and in their integration into back-end systems. Fifth Element's product-based solutions provide business benefits and increase the competitiveness of customers. Fifth Element has solid expertise and extensive experience in wireless processes as well as in processes utilizing geoinformation. They use the latest technology such as speech recognition and radio-frequency identification (RFID) in their solutions.

Etnoteam interviewed the target group representatives of the expected workflow management system to clarify the essential needs and requirements of the target group as a basis for designing the system. After the user research, Etnoteam designed the mobile user interface interactions and graphical appearance for the mobile part of the system and conducted a usability walkthrough for the web user interface that was designed already earlier and designed the service main page .


Etnoteam's services that were used:
Research: User Requirement Definition
Design: Interaction design
Design: Visual design
Evaluation: Usability testing
"));