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heading can be marked as ‘in progress’ which turns the button yellow if the inspector feels there is more information to be added to this heading, or it can be marked as ‘complete’ which turns this button green. This visual cue, along with a percentage value, serve as a very rewarding indicator as the inspection and subsequent report are completed together. At a glance, a surveyor can see exactly which headings have been completed and which are still in progress.


keyboard, handwriting to text recognition, and even through voice dictation. These adjustments can be made faster than writing it by hand and this ability to quickly insert text and phrases was the second key factor and the last piece needed to prove our concept in the field.


With an early version of InspectX software loaded onto a touchscreen tablet, my business partner Peter Muir and myself ventured out to inspect a small vessel early in 2016. We had our familiar clipboard with fieldnotes on standby but neither of us picked up the pen, instead pressing buttons and making our selections directly on the tablet. The process proved natural and fluid and after that first assignment I clearly remember us both laughing out loud at the absurdity that we just managed to complete an entire report in the field without at all compromising on our content or quality!


working on a version that could be customized and tailored for use on many different types of survey inspections. This of course, did not occur overnight. The next couple of years saw continuous progress and additional enhancements that have all proved extremely valuable. Peter had accumulated an enormous database of information during his 26 years of surveying and we agreed to include all of this content as an option with the program for other surveyors to build upon. This content can be modified and new phrases can be added at each surveyor’s discretion. From the ground up, the layout of the entire program has been designed with the needs of a marine surveyor kept in mind. The buttons are large and easy to read, and the navigation and entry is designed to operate entirely by touch. There is a dark background with bright contrasting colors to help screen readability even in bright sunlight. We designed a color scheme where the buttons change color to represent their status and level of completeness. As information is entered, a


The powerful benefits of these colored buttons were not fully realized until we started to put the software into practical use. Unlike handwritten fieldnotes, this software now functioned as a reminder to inspect certain items and this served to increase consistency and reduce the chance for omitting an important item. In addition, the ability to mark a heading as ‘in progress’ proved to be incredibly useful as information could be entered on any item but left ‘in progress’ as a visual reminder to demonstrate, verify or add further information at that particular entry. This helped to improved consistency and accuracy during the inspection in a way that handwritten field notes could never match. We are frequently reminded by other surveyors using InspectX just how valuable these colors have become to their survey process.


Once we realized the full extent


of how much time this would save, we knew there would be other surveyors that could benefit from this system. We began


52 | The Report • March 2019 • Issue 87


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