Smooth Communication Between Vessels and Promoting DX in the Maritime Domain

Challenges:

Even with the advancement of sophisticated digital technology, analog radio is still used for maritime communication, and the pre-modern issue of multiple ununified communication standards persists. This analog-based communication environment leads to inefficiencies such as "communication is only possible when visually close," "frequencies must be matched with the other vessel," and "unclear audio." These issues not only create inefficiencies but also pose risks of accidents between vessels and delays in post-accident rescue.

Therefore, the company planned the "CoastalLink" concept, a unified maritime communication platform via satellite internet, to enable smoother communication between vessels. As part of this, they embarked on developing an application for communication terminals used by ships.

However, given that this application was a novel undertaking without similar existing services and was intended for iPad use, it was necessary to verify the feasibility of the application itself before commencing full-scale development.

Furthermore, due to time constraints for the proof-of-concept (PoC) experiment, there was a need for development expertise capable of handling a tight two-month schedule, as well as knowledge in screen design based on user experience. This necessitated a partner company with extensive experience in agile app development and UX/UI design.

Solutions:

Monstarlab provided comprehensive support for the PoC development aimed at verifying the feasibility of the platform, covering everything from requirements definition and UX/UI design to the development of the prototype used for testing.

The purpose of this development was to test the operability of the "CoastalLink App" for iPad, which would be used by ship operators at sea, and the "CoastalLink PORT" web portal for port operators (control towers), as well as the convenience of two-way communication at sea.

The results of the verification clearly identified key challenges that needed to be considered during full-scale development, such as the difficulty of obtaining location information at sea due to the unique functionalities of the iPad.

Regarding UI operability, the verification also highlighted important considerations for development. Given the anticipated harsh maritime environment, including the impact of waves and poor visibility at night or in fog, it became clear that the initially planned interface needed to be simplified. This led to the consideration of more easily operable button controls and the simplicity of sending fixed phrases.