Integrating
Services Pricing and Quoting
This project’s objective was to obtain support, system performance, and user experience improvements by integrating a legacy suite of pricing and quoting applications into a single application.
Platform: Desktop Java Client
My Role
Lead UX Designer
2017 - 2018
I designed an integrated UX application architecture, modified the Information architecture of the legacy applications, added functions, designed new task interaction patterns, and specified customizable features.
I led a team of up to three UX and visual designers in defining the detailed design for integrating pricing and quoting functions in the new application.
Research / Design Activities
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Design Thinking Mrthodology
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Agile Process
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Participatory Design
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Azure and Sketch Prototypes
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Multi-user journey mapping
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Icon Development
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NPS, Satisfaction, and UMUX Lite metrics
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Design Playbacks with Stakeholders
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Usability Testing
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Executive Reviews
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Design Communication with Management, Users and Development Team
Doing it
The Design Journey Began with a Design Thinking methodology
The Business Vision
Understanding the Business's needs
I identified a group consisting of managers, the product owner, business analysts, and technical architects who could provide me with an understanding of the motivation, needs and goals for the project from the business's perspective.
Early collaboration with the group revealed a general vision and some specific expectations
Business's vision
Obtain efficiencies and improvements by incorporating the functions of several applications into a single application.
The varied users of the legacy applications would all use the same new, multi-purpose application.
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The User Interface of the new application would be customized by user-role to provide users with the functions they needed.
Business's expectations
Technology upgrades
Improved system performance
Make maintenance and support easier and less expensive
Increased consistency of calculations
Improved usability
Understanding the Users' needs
With the help of the executive product owner and business analysts I recruited a user panel consisting of users for each user role across geographies and lines-of-business.
Early collaboration with the various groups revealed some specific expectations related to the Business's vision
User's expectations
Improved system performance
More control over updates
Increased consistency of calculations
User Activity Research
This research obtains information about and models how users do their work
Methods included combinations of group interviews and contextual inquiry sessions
Users as Authors
The user's job was primarily one of authoring a pricing plan and quote for other users and customers to use to make decisions.
The user's created outputs that depended on and related to inputs from other users and customers.
The quality of the user's outputs depended on :
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Domain expertise acquired in through training
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Domain expertise acquired through working experience
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The quality of the inputs they received
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Mastery and understanding of the application used to create the outputs
User Differentiation based on Work Assignments
Some users worked on large high-complex projects and needed many of the functions and features of the application.
Some users worked small simple projects and needed only basic functions provided by the application.
User Personas
Data from user research was used to create user personas
in the following general format
Name
Title
Education /Training
Experience
Location
e.g., North America
e.g., 10 years
e.g., B.S. Finance /
Company training
Background
About this User
Statement
Motivations
Goals
About this User's Work
Responsibilities
Challenges / Pain Points
How Evaluated
Needs / Wants
Required process thinking
operational
strategic
Work time distribution
50% Work on existing projects
30% Work on new projects
20% Administrative activities
"My work involves ..."
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"I try to ..."
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"I am satisfied when ..."
What motivates this user?
e.g.,
peer recognition
creating something new
career growth
This part of the persona comprises psychographic information about the user
This part of the persona adds information about the user at work
Putting it Together
Defining an Integrated UX Architecture
Incorporating the functions contained across multiple applications into a single application required a unified User Interface architecture.
The integrated UX Architecture needed to manifest the Business's
envisioned integration concept and support both the Business's and User's needs and expectations.
Modular
Function and Task analyses with regard to different user roles and personas provided the basis for defining functional modules.
Modules comprising functions used by all users are included in a common standard architecture.
Role-specific modules are used to customize the standard architecture as needed.
Customizable
The standard architecture is automatically customized to user roles in two ways:
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1) role-specific functional modules are displayed or hidden,
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2) the options available to user's in functional modules that are common to all users are tailored.
To meet these needs, the architecture's design incorporated both structural and functional properties that accommodated integration and future enhancement.
Scalable
The architecture incorporates structures which are able to add functions without modifying the standard design or interaction patterns
Contextual Navigation across Functional Modules
Although major functions and tasks were organized into modules, completing more general workflows employed functions in more than one module.
This need was accommodated by including direct module-to-module navigation at specified task points
Functional Modules
(Primary Navigation)
Common Actions
Working Area Displays and Controls
Status Bar
Continued Design Thinking collaboration with smaller groups of users led to insights about how users managed their output and transitioned into their work.
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I used these insights to identify approaches to enhancing management of outputs, simplifying sharing and facilitating work context transitions.
Insights from Users
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Users produced many iterations before finalizing a case
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Users worked on several cases concurrently
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Users generally stored iterations locally and shared using email.
Design Guidance from User Insights
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Make transition to work-context simple
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Provide users with context to improve the continuity of work
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Improve iteration management and sharing capabilities
Facilitating Users' Engagement with their Work
beginning with the Landing Page
Early Concept for Landing Page
Open
Open from server
Save
Close
Displays and Controls for updating software versions and business files
Work and application related news items of interest to users
Links to help resources and user communities.
Easy access to and control of files on server
Quick and simple access to recent files
Iterations and Variations
UX and Visual Design
Designs rendered in Sketch in collaboration with a visual designer
Usability Testing
