Thursday

Cintas handheld

Developed help system for handheld pc application for all delivery drivers in North America.

Case Study: Cintas (2004)- Cintas Corporation designs, manufactures, and implements corporate identity uniform programs. Within their North American rental uniform division, Cintas employed 5,000 Sales Service Representatives (SSRs) who carried Personal Route Computers (PRCs). These computers were due to be replaced with Dell handhelds, which included a new software application. Cintas asked Armstrong Interactive (AI) to develop a fully functional, user-friendly, platform independent help system to complement the pre-existing software for the new PRC.

AI Methodology:
AI projects follow a six stage methodology: alignment; analysis; design; development; transfer; and closeout. On-site visits, conference calls, and e-mail ensured clear communication between the client and AI at all stages of the project.

Alignment: University Advancement and AI signed a letter of engagement, describing the project itself; the objective, scope management, assumptions, risk; methodology, and deliverable; and the structure of the programming, content, development, graphic design, information architecture, video production, and video editing teams.
Analysis: AI visited Cintas’ Vandalia location to determine SSR demographics and general PRC usage. Based on analyses of the client, the end user, and the technology itself, AI teams planned a multilingual interactive user interface. With technical support from IMS, AI provided the client with detailed product specifications.
Design: Incorporating Cintas’ brand identity guidelines, the design team created logos for the new PRC, now titled CoPilot. Next, AI established a content outline and concept screens. The client received a design document that explained design decisions and provided guidelines for updates.
Development: The content team then transferred and wrote material for CoPilot, while the implementation team created the interactive components. Next, AI conducted usability testing focused on icon comprehension, language, abbreviation, readability, and navigation. Based on results from these tests, the teams revised content and design accordingly.
Transfer: To ensure a smooth transition from AI to the client, students established a warranty and a plan for long-term maintenance for the application. The client receive a CD, providing full access to all the files necessary to run and update the product.
Closeout: AI delivered the project closeout checklist to the client to finalize all outstanding deliverables and tie up all the lose ends of the project engagement.
End Product:
According to the client and end user analyses, the new PRC help system needed to aid both novice and experienced Cintas employees. Embedding Visual C++, AI created a platform independent module built on an intuitive interface, designed to lead users to the answer they needed through a series of topic headings. The system, engineered to fit within a given memory constraint of at least 128mb, included a search engine, index, a table of contents and a glossary.

Student Learning: Throughout the consulting process, students learned how to bid and manage projects, provide consultative development, conduct usability testing, and deliver a high quality product while developing expertise in programming and interface design. Stepping outside of the traditional classroom to develop a real product for a real client enabled interdisciplinary teams of AI students to experience the ‘real world’-excellent preparation for the demands of today’s collaborative business environment.

Program Contacts:
Glenn Platt, Director, plattgj@muohio.edu
Peg Faimon, Asst. Dirrector, faimonma@muohio.edu