Overview
LOBSTA (Location based task manager) is a task and project management solution for on-site customer services and mobile businesses. It adds location information to projects, users and tasks and is based on the open-source Redmine task manager.
At first, LOBSTA was only available as a plugin for Redmine but due to its popularity, the company decided to create a stand-alone mobile client and create a visual identity for the product.
My Role
User research & Analysis · Persona creation · User Interviews · MVP definition · Low/High fidelity wireframes · Prototyping · Illustration, logo and icon design · Design system / styleguide
The challenge
LOBSTA is a task management tool based on Redmine, which is recognized as the largest open-source task management tool worldwide. Redmine is known for its highly complex issue management, a unique task management method. Despite its powerful capabilities, Redmine's complexity makes it unsuitable for mobile use.
The primary challenge was to design an interface that seamlessly integrated complex features such as geolocation tools, issue tracking, project boundaries, and workflow management. The platform had to be intuitive enough for users to navigate with ease, enhancing their productivity and overall experience while also considering the varying levels of digital literacy of the users.
Visual Identity Design
The name of the product made it obvious to explore a visual direction that references the red crustaceans. Since the main target for the product is the Japanese market it made for a good opportunity to create a Lobster mascot to give the product a friendly face and make it stand out from other popular project management tools like Trello, Asana etc. which do not use a mascot.
The logo uses round shapes and corners to further emphasize a feeling of an application that is light and easy to use. The use of a reserved color palette and a lot of white space gives the brand a clean and professional look while still retaining a bit of playfulness.
Mobile Client
LOBSTA is based on Redmine, which is a complex and massive web project management tools with endless possibilities of customization. The mobile client is not supposed to offer the same amount of functionality, but rather be a companion to the full version. The main target users of the app are businesses that require to be on site, such as courier and delivery businesses, infrastructure works, home care services etc.
Therefore it is important to provide an interface that lets users update and create their tasks on the go as well as offline functionality.
The base of the mobile app was build with flutter flow, which was also done by me.
Website
The website is the main communication channel for the LOBSTA software. Users can find detailed product information, case studies as well as tutorials. LOBSTA is still in beta phase, so the main CTA is asking users to sign up for the beta or newsletter.
