KiwiRail: Shield

KiwiRail maintains the New Zealand rail network and moves freight around the country. As one of Aotearoa’s largest organisations, KiwiRail employs around 4,500 staff in over 50 locations. In addition, large parts of the rail network are operated by KiwiRail partners such as Auckland One Rail and Transdev. Around six thousand New Zealanders work on the rail network each day.

People working in the rail industry face a myriad of health and safety challenges including maintaining infrastructure and handling dangerous goods. Ensuring the safety of everyone who works on the rail network is vital. A key element of that is ensuring all staff, partners, and contractors are across the latest rail operating rules, communication protocols, and emergency procedures. KiwiRail built the Shield app with Smudge to meet that need.

In 2022, KiwiRail began to overhaul its operating rules

Before KiwiRail built the Shield app, operating rules were printed and collated in ring binders. Whenever a rule changed, teams would update their file. It was all very manual and as a result the folders of regulations were often outdated and underused.

Updating KiwiRail’s operating rules had two phases. First, KiwiRail rewrote their policies and rules to make them easier to understand. Then they looked for a partner to help them build a digital app to give anyone working on the rail network instant access to the latest operating rules and procedures from any device, anytime, anywhere. That’s where Smudge came in.

The biggest challenge in any complex project of this nature is making sure the right people are involved at the right time. Smudge worked closely with KiwiRail’s rules development group, a diverse team from across the organisation.

KiwiRail Programme Manager Megren Pillay emphasises the scale of the project from a stakeholder perspective.

Starting with site visits and prototype tests

We took a Human Centred Design approach, putting the people using the Shield app at the heart of the design process for the app. Smudge did many online interviews and site visits to Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, Timaru and Christchurch to understand how KiwiRail staff operate day to day and to learn about health and safety risks. One hallmark of working with Smudge is we’ll immerse ourselves in your world to understand the intricacies of the problems you’re trying to solve.

For the first few months, we explored challenging aspects of the project with prototypes. Getting prototypes into KiwiRail users’ hands helped us validate ideas, solve technical hurdles, and test key functionality.

One example is the app’s text to speech mode. Megren explains: “When we engaged with teams in the field, we realised some people have difficulty reading English because it’s their second language. We also knew that screen glare makes it hard for people to read their devices in the sun. So, we incorporated text-to-speech functionality to read instructions aloud. That innovation came from Smudge engaging with track maintenance teams.”

Another early technical challenge was related to content management. KiwiRail wanted to manage their library of rules separately from the app. With updates rolling out almost every week, KiwiRail didn’t want to do a new app release every time the rules changed. They’d identified a Component Content Management System (CCMS), that suited their needs.

One of Smudge’s first tasks was to validate that the CCMS could be automatically synchronised with the app. That might sound simple but there are three variations of the app for Web, Android, and Apple, and it's a lot of work to integrate the data from the CCMS seamlessly and keep it all humming along in sync.

The importance of security when building a public app

Many apps we build are for internal organisational use. KiwiRail has so many contractors and key partners that Shield has to be available for anyone to use, from electricians to excavator operators. That requires an additional layer of security to manage registration and logins.

There were some complex aspects of the project. For example, this app is publicly available. You can go and download it from the app store. This was the first time KiwiRail had made a public app like this, and they required specialist advice. Data security was also key to the Shield app.

From outdated and inconsistent to live updates on the go

KiwiRail’s Shield app went live in 2024. It’s been quite a change. The KiwiRail team can simply log into their app and search for the rule they need. They can bookmark rules they use regularly and refer to a handy glossary if they don’t understand a term. The app’s easy, intuitive interface looks the same whether you’re logging in on your laptop or your phone.

Whenever a rule is updated, an alert goes out to the app, users can read the update, then acknowledge they’ve understood the new rule. This helps KiwiRail track the level of awareness regarding changes to rail operating rules and procedures. Managers can even set up teams inside the app and see how up to date staff are with the latest rules at a glance.

Let’s talk about keeping your team up to date

If you operate a large team across many locations, health and safety may be a challenge for you too. Apps like Shield can be used for all sorts of content, from rules and procedures to product updates. Any situation where you’ve a nationwide team who need to be kept in the loop on new developments, there’s a good chance a bespoke app could help.

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