Branding | UX and UI Design
Project Management App
Client: Fictitious company for student project at The University of California, San Diego
My role: Research, UX and UI design
Tools used: Adobe XD, Illustrator, Photoshop
Duration: 2 months
Understanding.
The corporate marketing team plays a vital role in promoting the mission and vision of the organization. It coordinates and produces all materials representing the business. Therefore, it is imperative to find an effective way to serve prospects, internal and external customers while creating a positive experience for the team members.
Despite being a small department, growth is in the horizon and the amount of projects keeps increasing. There is a need to have a project management system that can help plan, organize and execute campaigns more efficiently. A timeline, workload visibility and tasks coordination are missing.
Interviews were conducted with one member of each team and the following challenges were identified:
Lack of visibility regarding on-going campaigns and allocation of resources
Communication is done exclusively by email, translating into some missed messages
Assets are hard to find since those are not stored in one place
Some requests are duplicated due to lack of a central communication channel
Multiple projects emerge at the same time when resources are overloaded
Last minute tasks have become the norm since the amount of current projects are not visible anywhere
Analyzing.
The corporate marketing team is conformed by the following:
Project Managers
Content Managers
Copywriters
Graphic Designers
The duties of the team are:
Defining and managing the company’s brand
Managing customer and market research
Conducting campaign management for marketing initiatives
Producing marketing and promotional materials
Creating content for the website
Monitoring and managing social media
Clients include:
Prospect and current customers
Sales Team
Legal Team
Communications Team
Products Team
Human Resources Team
Public Relations Team
Investor Relations Team
Based on the information provided for the team members, the following personas were developed:
User Stories:
I am: A project manager who needs to deliver the best products and experiences to our clients.
My frustration is: Not having visibility of upcoming and current projects that are managed by other team members.
Therefore, I need: A timeline that is visible to the whole team so I can plan accordingly and avoid repetitive requests.
I am: A content manager who needs to create compelling stories that are effective.
My frustration is: Not getting notifications on-time and having to work on last-minute projects very often.
Therefore, I need: Personal notifications by project, a timeline and visibility of resourced currently used.
I am: A graphic designer who handles multiple requests from different team members.
My frustration is: Lack of visibility of ongoing projects and personal workloads.
Therefore, I need: A project management system that can make planning, resources allocation and campaign assets delivery more efficient.
Functions for each role were clearly established:
Content Managers: Approve content
Project Managers: Submit and approve project
Copywriters: Write content and send for approval
Graphic Designers: Produce deliverables
Ideating.
A storyboard illustrating the interplay between a user and the envisioned system was created in order to simulate the experience and identify possible challenges. Cognitive user actions were included based on the feedback provided by one of the project managers.
Resolving.
To resolve the needs for each role, the following features were included:
An easy to use interface that maintains communication during every stage of the process
A timeline that facilitates campaign planning, organizing and tracking
Personal and team members workload visibility
Personal notifications categorized by project
Campaigns status visibility for all team members
Validating.
Wireframes included user interface objects and data elements based on the production process and the team members needs. Those were tested by one member of each team to detect possible usability issues. Details of appearance and interaction behavior were included to simulate real scenarios.
Iterating.
The result was a high-fidelity prototype made as close to the true graphical representation of the app:
Easy Registration/Login
Projects Visibility and Management
Tasks Visibility and Management
Timeline and Notifications
Concluding.
The following findings made this a valuable experience:
Research is everything. My personal perceptions don’t provide an accurate scope of a problem.
Simplicity is effective. Just by using typography in different colors to indicate hierarchy or interactivity, cognitive load can be reduced.