Industry

Healthcare

Client

Cobre Panama

CobreSafe: Health management mobile application

Intro

CobreSafe is a mobile health management application developed for Cobre Panamá, one of the largest mining operations in Latin America and part of First Quantum Minerals. The product was designed and deployed during the COVID‑19 pandemic to protect workforce health while enabling the safe continuation of critical industrial operations.

The application was built using Microsoft Power Apps as part of a broader Microsoft digital ecosystem, including Dynamics and Power BI. It provided Cobre Panamá with a centralized, real time system to register daily health data, assess risk, enable contact tracing, and support regulatory compliance across a geographically isolated mine site with a workforce of approximately 7,000 people.

From a UX and UI perspective, the project required rapid delivery, extreme clarity in interaction design, and scalability across thousands of daily users with varying technical proficiency.

An MS article featuring this app

Challenges

The COVID‑19 pandemic introduced a significant operational risk for large scale industrial environments, particularly mining operations where on site presence is essential and isolation is logistically complex.

Cobre Panamá faced several interconnected challenges:

  • Mandatory daily health screening for thousands of workers

  • Manual or fragmented reporting processes that were slow and error prone

  • Limited real time visibility into workforce health status

  • High risk of rapid viral spread due to shared transportation, facilities, and shift patterns

  • Regulatory pressure to demonstrate rigorous health controls to national authorities

The mine had previously experienced positive COVID‑19 cases and a preventive shutdown, making a reliable digital solution critical for reopening and continued operation.

From a design standpoint, the challenge was to create a mobile experience that could be used daily, was self service, worked reliably in an industrial environment, and supported complex backend logic such as risk scoring and contact tracing without exposing that complexity to the end user.

Solution

CobreSafe was designed as a modular mobile application developed on Microsoft Power Apps, tightly integrated with internal data systems. The UX architecture centered around five core functional modules, each aligned to a specific operational need.

1. Health Questionnaire

The Health Questionnaire served as the primary daily interaction for employees. The UX prioritized speed, clarity, and consistency to reduce friction in repeated use scenarios.

Design characteristics included:

  • Linear, single column layouts optimized for mobile input

  • Simple yes or no and multiple choice controls

  • Immediate validation to reduce incomplete or inconsistent data

  • Language designed for clarity and low cognitive load

The goal was to ensure accurate self reporting while minimizing time spent per session.

2. Risk Assessment

User responses were processed in the background to generate a risk classification used by health teams to determine next actions. The UI intentionally abstracted the scoring logic and instead focused on clear outcomes and instructions.

From a UX perspective:

  • Results were communicated using clear status indicators

  • Language avoided technical or alarming terminology

  • Visual hierarchy emphasized next steps rather than raw data

This helped maintain user trust while supporting operational decision making.

3. Health Passport

The Health Passport function acted as a daily clearance indicator for site access. It was designed for rapid visual verification and immediate understanding.

Key UX considerations included:

  • High contrast status indicators

  • Minimal information density for quick scanning

  • Accessibility in variable lighting and field conditions

This feature reduced uncertainty at access control points and streamlined on site movement.

4. Contact Tracing

The Contact Tracing module supported administrative workflows by leveraging centralized employee movement and health data.

UX design focused on:

  • Structured data views optimized for speed and accuracy

  • Clear relationship mapping between individuals and exposure events

  • Reduction of manual cross referencing

This enabled faster identification of potential exposure chains and accelerated response times.

5. Notifications and Alerts

The notification system delivered targeted alerts, health instructions, and action plans to employees.

UX design emphasized:

  • Clear priority signaling

  • Explicit calls to action

  • Consistent message formatting to prevent confusion

This ensured that critical information was received and acted upon quickly.

Technical and Platform Constraints

Design decisions accounted for the capabilities and limitations of Microsoft Power Apps, including component availability, performance constraints, and rapid iteration requirements. UX artifacts were closely aligned with implementation to ensure feasibility and speed, supporting delivery during an evolving crisis.

Impacts

CobreSafe delivered measurable operational and health outcomes that enabled the safe continuation of mining operations.

Key impacts included:

  • Adoption by approximately 3,500 collaborators during initial rollout, with expansion planned across the full workforce

  • Daily digital health registration across the mine site

  • Real time visibility into workforce health status

  • Automated contact tracing that supported rapid containment of potential outbreaks

  • Successful reopening of operations with no reported positive COVID‑19 cases after May 8, 2020 during the monitored period

The platform became a reference point in Panama for the application of low code enterprise technology to health and safety management in industrial environments.