Field apps should be role-based, not a mini ERP

A tour guide needs today’s itinerary and a way to report an incident — not the operations menu on a small screen.

When we designed field apps for a tour operator, the first instinct of everyone in the room was to put the ERP on the phone. We prototyped the opposite: three apps, one per role, each with three or four screens.

The sales app: opportunities, a quote draft, a handover checklist. The guide app: today’s schedule, a checklist, an incident form. The manager app: a risk queue, approvals with a reason, assignments.

All three use the same APIs, tour codes, permissions and audit log as the desktop system. The apps are front-ends, not new systems.

Users tested the prototypes in a week and asked for fewer features, not more. That is the signal that the role boundaries are right.