Redesigned the Dashboard to achieve 23% reduction for Time on task and improvement in SUS score from 59 to 87.
User Research, UX Strategy, UX Evaluation, Visual Design, Usability Testing
The Background
Simdaa Technologies is an emerging Business Analytics company, dedicated to providing data-driven insights in the form of SAAS Dashboards. For the past 3 years IT-MIS Dashboard which provided day-to-day insights into the health and efficiency of the IT systems had been shipped and was live for one of its clients. This project was focused on identifying and enhancing User Experience opportunities for the IT-MIS Dashboard.
My Role
UX Researcher
UX Strategy
Interaction Designer
Visual Designer
Product (Users)
B2B Dashboard
(18,430 Users)
Company
Simdaa Technologies
Duration
11 Months
Tools
Figma
Microsoft Excel
The project started with understanding business prospects and User Research
Direct and Indirect User Interviews were performed to understand areas of friction and explore opportunities, Stakeholder Interviews were performed to understand Simdaa technologies' current as well as future business and resource prospects. Heuristic evaluation and SUS score test were performed to identify, quantify and benchmark the User Experience.
Key Research Insights were derived
User Research was conducted with 4 key Users: Chief Information Officer (CIO), Senior Leadership Team (SLT), IT Leadership Team (IT-LT) and Agents.
98%
New Users found the dashboard to be complex and hard to navigate
22 Issues identified
22 Severe Issues were identified during Heuristic Evaluation
86%
Users felt the need to quickly switch between tasks
After research, the opportunities were narrowed down
Along with user expectations, Simdaa Technologies’ quest to maintain healthy and seamless relations with client was a priority hence research was boiled down to following opportunities:
Reducing Complexity
How might we reduce the complexity of dashboard?
Gradual rollout
How might we ensure a seamless transition to the new dashboard?
The Solution
To ensure seamless transition to new dashboard (Gradual Rollout), the project was divided into two phases
Phase 1
To ensure smooth transition, visual redesign was introduced initially so that users can get acquainted with new design language. Guidelines were developed for the components of the dashboard and its pages.
Phase 2
This phase included change in the Information Architecture, Data Visualization and cards of the dashboard.
Visual design was established in Phase 1 to eliminate issues related to readability, contrast, hierarchy and consistency,
Heuristic Evaluation showed highest severity for “consistency and standard” along with “minimal and aesthetic design”. In order to align design direction, Stakeholder expectations, gather feedback, identify strengths and weaknesses of possible design directions. initial design review was performed with Stakeholders
Change in Information Architecture(IA) led to 74% reduction in time on task required to switch between 5 types of Tickets.
The old design had Flat Information architecture which led to confusion in 98% of new users. The new Information architecture was hierarchy based architecture where 5 types of Tickets were identified and clubbed onto a single Ticket Analysis page reducing the number of pages from 21 to 6.
The Impact
The redesign of dashboard led to overall reduction in time on task by 23% which is estimated to save 3,300 Manhours and more than INR 5 Million. The increase in SUS score from 57 to 83 suggested substantial increase in User Experience of the B2B Dashboard
If I had a chance to redesign the dashboard.....
I would have created Mid fidelity prototypes and would have performed cognitive walkthrough of the process with users to gain deeper understanding of day-to-day tasks of users.
I would have pushed the company to switch to develop web based dashboard wherein detailed user activity could have been tracked.
Due to limitation of current technology, having unique login for individual user was a challenge which could have been resolved during the initial phases of design