Product Studio Platform (PSP) Dashboard for (i.e.,)
Role
Lead UI Designer, UX Contributor
Skills
User Research, Prototyping, UI Design
Result
Design Proposal with Mid-fidelity prototype
Team
Product Manager
3 UIUX Designer
The Product Studio Platform (PSP) is a dynamic workspace designed to enhance collaboration, motivation, and internal growth within teams. It seamlessly blends virtual office experiences with real-world interactions, fostering innovation and strengthening community engagement.
Goals
Develop a dashboard interface that fosters a sense of community and motivates employee engagement.
Provide employees with a simple, intuitive way to monitor performance, track career growth, and access HR resources.
Create a customizable, user-friendly solution that enhances productivity and fosters collaboration.
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Business and User Needs To align the design with both business objectives and user requirements, we defined two core needs:
Business Needs:
Motivate employees to engage with the dashboard for improved performance tracking and collaboration.
User Needs:
Employees want an intuitive way to track achievements, monitor career growth, and receive recognition.
Stakeholders
Primary Stakeholders
I.E. (Innovative Enterprises) Employees:
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Full-time Employees: Dedicated to I.E.’s core operations, involved in various internal and external projects.
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Part-time Employees: Balancing work responsibilities at I.E. with external commitments.
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Remote Employees: Operating from different locations, requiring tools for effective virtual collaboration and transparency.
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Freelancers/Contractors: Collaborating with I.E. on specific projects and needing clarity on deliverables and performance tracking.
Secondary Stakeholders
I.E. Management and Leadership:
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Team Leads/Managers: Overseeing project teams, responsible for employee development, feedback, and performance tracking.
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HR Professionals: Focused on employee motivation, talent management, and ensuring a streamlined onboarding process.
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Executive Leadership: Concerned with the overall growth, efficiency, and strategic direction of the company.
Clients:
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Corporate Clients: Interested in the outcome of projects and employee contributions through clear impact reporting.
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Collaborating Agencies: Working alongside I.E. to deliver client projects, relying on effective communication and transparency within the system.
Competitor Analysis
To inform our design process, we conducted a thorough analysis of existing dashboard solutions in the market. Here are four key competitors and their respective strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths:
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Highly customizable workflows: Users can create detailed and flexible workflows to suit their team's needs.
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User-friendly interface: Visually appealing and intuitive design makes project tracking seamless.
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Extensive integrations: Offers integrations with a wide range of tools like Slack, Google Drive, and Zoom, enhancing efficiency.
Weaknesses:
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Overwhelming for new users: The vast feature set can be confusing for those just starting out.
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Pricing: High-tier pricing may be prohibitive for smaller teams or startups.
User Interviews
Due to constraints in accessing I.E. employees directly, we leveraged previous research conducted by I.E. and supplemented it with interviews from employees at similar organizations. This approach allowed us to gather relevant insights into employee experiences and expectations regarding dashboard tools.
We collated and analyzed our research into themes to prioritize the elements we would focus on to further develop and design for.
In order of priority, there was an interest in the following:
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Ideation Phase
Persona
By creating a persona, it’s much easier to imagine the type of person we would be designing for. We developed a primary persona.
Problem Statement
Employees need a simple way to understand their place in the business and the value they bring.
How Might We
How might we inspire employees to habitually interact with the PSP dashboard in their day-to-day work life?
Storyboard
A storyboard was created to illustrate how a user like Angelo might interact with the dashboard.
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User Flow
The dashboard’s user flow is crafted to streamline interactions on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
Daily: Employees track their calendar, project updates, and team communications.
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Weekly: Focus on time tracking, learning, and development.
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Monthly: Career opportunities, HR & payroll, and performance reviews.
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Sketches
Sketches Early ideation focused on layout and navigation, with an emphasis on accessibility, customization, and transparency. We explored different ways to centralize key features like performance tracking, career growth, and HR tools, while allowing users to easily customize their dashboard.
Mid-Fidelity
Prototype
We created lo-fi wireframes that focused on basic structure and navigation. This prototype was tested with five participants to gain insights on usability and flow. We received key feedback around customization and gamification features, which led to further iterations.
Usability Testing
After completing the mid-fidelity wireframes, we conducted usability testing with five participants via Zoom. We observed their interactions with the dashboard through screen sharing as they completed specific tasks, allowing us to analyze how intuitively they navigated the interface.
Task 1: Dashboard Exploration
We began by asking participants to freely explore the dashboard and to share any questions or points of confusion. Key areas monitored included:
IE Hub, HR, Career, Learning, and Opportunities sections.
We posed additional questions to gather deeper insights:
Feature Appeal: "Are there any features you are particularly drawn to, and if so, why?"
Access Preferences: "How would you set up easy access points for frequently used features?"
Tile Organization: "How would you rearrange or modify the tiles for a more logical layout? For example, would you swap the 'Current Projects' tile with the calendar?"
Feature Usefulness: "What are your thoughts on this feature? Would you find it helpful or likely to use it?"
Below, I have detailed the changes made to the wireframes based on insights gathered from this usability testing.
Participants in the usability testing also completed a System Usability Scale, or SUS survey to provide quantitative feedback on the overall usability of the platform.
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Customization: Participants valued the ability to personalize the dashboard by rearranging tiles. This informed our decision to improve tile movement and visual indicators.
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Frequent Tools: Users preferred quick access to tools like calendars and project updates, so we made them more prominent in the interface.
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Mixed Feedback on Gamification: Some users enjoyed badges and goal trackers, while others felt pressured by them. We addressed this by giving users more control over which metrics to display and how to interact with them.
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SUS (System Usability Scale) Results We measured usability through a SUS survey, scoring an average of 79, well above the industry standard of 68. This highlighted that our testers perceived the dashboard as highly usable.
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Here, I also started putting together a design System.
What are the next steps for the PSP dashboard?
Our next step will be to conduct usability testing with I.E. employees to gather insights on their experiences and feedback on the proposed dashboard. Based on their input, we will make necessary adjustments to refine our design.
We also aim to enhance personalization features, allowing employees to further customize the dashboard to their preferences. This includes options like increased tile mobility, as well as customizable elements such as background themes and color schemes, making the dashboard a versatile solution for daily office tasks and information access.
Additionally, we plan to improve the dashboard’s flexibility for adaptation to other companies. Having already conducted usability research and testing with employees from various organizations, we are well-prepared to make this tool scalable across different business environments.
