Developing a new digital tool requires much more than technical expertise. Creating a useful and usable tool demands a deep understanding of user needs, careful planning, and genuine collaboration. The Sustainable Flow project’s development work on the Emission Monitor tool for tracking CO2 emissions in Baltic Sea ports demonstrates how putting customer experience at the center of development leads to truly useful and meaningful solutions.
Digital Tool Developed Based on User Needs
The foundation for successful digital tool development is a thorough understanding of who will use the tool, for what purpose, and what they want to achieve with it. The Sustainable Flow project started with an extensive assessment of ports’ needs regarding an emissions reduction tool. All seven pilot ports in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia participated in the assessment.
Developing based on assumptions is dangerous and often leads to tools that don’t match users’ daily work. In Emission Monitor’s development, no assumptions were made. Instead, the project team discussed directly with port personnel and identified operational requirements, technical capabilities, and goals related to CO2 emissions reduction.
The needs, operating environments, and specialization areas of the ports are very different, but through extensive collaboration it has been ensured that Emission Monitor meets users’ daily work needs.
Users at the Center Throughout Development
A significant strength of the project has been the strong engagement of end users in the development work. Through regular workshops and meetings, close dialogue has been maintained with ports about which features are most important and how information should be formatted. Continuous communication has ensured that development progresses consistently and that the tool meets the ports’ needs and goals.
Considering Different Users and Use Cases
In Emission Monitor’s development, it was recognized that different users need different features. For example, environmental managers need comprehensive reporting functions to meet legal requirements and track emission reduction targets. Operational workers need the emission data that is easy to digest to understand the impacts of their daily operations to port’s overall emissions.
Considering different user groups from the start has ensured that every user can access the information important for them. With Emission Monitor, ports can examine their CO2 emissions ranging from the high level required for strategic planning to the detailed level required for operational decisions, making it a valuable tool for all port stakeholders.
Ease of Use and Visual Design
Emission Monitor was designed from the beginning to be an easy-to-use, browser-based, responsive tool. These objectives, combined with Google Material Design principles, result in a professional but familiar and intuitive user experience.
The user interface is visual and customizable. Users can modify views according to their preferences, and emphasis has been placed on visuality so that understanding complex emission data is possible with a single glance. Information can be filtered by time periods and emission sources, enabling comparisons, monitoring, and deep drilling into individual emission sources.
Automatic Data Collection Through APIs
Ports’ digital infrastructures are different, so Emission Monitor offers several ways to input information. Primarily, data affecting CO2 emissions is collected automatically through application programming interfaces (APIs). APIs enable automatic data transfer including from electricity producers, fuel consumption monitoring devices, and equipment monitoring systems. The advantages of automatic data transfer are accuracy, real-time updates, and reduction of manual work.
One of the biggest challenges in development has been the limited availability of APIs. Although ports have API-compatible systems in use, utilizing APIs has been challenging. Ports’ limited resources and APIs belonging to third parties have proven to be the most significant limiting factors.
Due to limited API availability, alternative data input methods have been developed for Emission Monitor. The tool enables both manual data input and uploading of tables, making data collection easier without an API connection. These versatile input methods enable application deployment in all project ports.
Power of Collaboration
Collaboration is one of the Sustainable Flow project’s objectives and has been a prerequisite for the project’s success. All five project partners have worked closely towards a common goal, and close collaboration with ports has ensured the development of a genuinely useful digital tool. Weekly meetings, workshops, and continuous communication have enabled quick resolution of challenges.
The supplier of Emission Monitor has brought technical expertise and emissions calculation knowledge to the project. Developing the application on a familiar cloud platform has ensured smooth development work. Three-week sprints and regular demonstrations have guaranteed transparency and schedule-compliant progress.
Emission Monitor’s Possibilities After the Project Ends
Emission Monitor is being developed as an open-source application so that everyone interested can benefit from the tool and develop it further. The openness of development work is part of the project’s broader goal to support sustainable development and emission reductions in the central Baltic Sea area and beyond.
Emission Monitor’s development work shows that successful implementation of a digital tool is not just about utilizing technology, but about understanding people, promoting collaboration, and designing solutions that truly serve their purpose. By keeping customer experience at the center of every decision, the Sustainable Flow project has created a tool that helps ports achieve emission reduction targets by visualizing emission data and making monitoring easier.
Text: Piia Lukkaroinen Researcher in the Sustainable Flow project at the Maritime Logistics Research Center
Photos: Krista Valkonen