This page will detail my time as an intern with Marketeq Digital and will broadly go over the projects I worked on. While I cannot show exact screenshots of what I designed I breakdown the process it took to complete each project sprint and what I learned from each project.
User Dashboard
The Goal
I undertook the task of updating a dashboard design for a platform with a unique requirement: no data graphs. The goal was to maximize productivity and avoid overwhelming new users with empty graphs.
The Process
To start the design process, I conducted a design audit of micro features found in best-in-class enterprise SaaS platforms like Monday.com, Tray.io, and Paragon. Additionally, I explored dashboard designs, landing pages, and home pages of platforms such as Evernote, Craft, and Ableton. I really wanted to understand the feel of apps with great landing pages/dashboards, as well as the inverse, apps that users didn't necessarily like too much and this research laid the foundation for my future design decisions.
Collaborating with the design team, I created a customer journey map to understand user emotions. I then created two lists of features, a competitive list that detailed all the features that direct competitors had and an innovative feature list, a list of features that popular apps like Craft and Evernote had.
After finalizing and organizing the design audits and customer journey map, I selected innovative features that aligned with the platform's vision. We chose features based on ease of implementation and addressing negative user emotions with competitors.
Using low-fidelity wireframes, I incorporated the competitive feature set and innovative features. The wireframes were designed with layout inspiration from the design audit to create an encouraging and intuitive dashboard.
To wrap up the sprint, I handed off the mid-fidelity wireframe design to our senior designers, who created high-fidelity designs ready for implementation.
Key Takeaway
The thing that stuck with me most from the importance of information architecture and keeping the user's emotions in mind at all times. Without the challenge of having no data graphs on the dashboard, I may have followed suit with other applications that inundated users with a bunch of stats that they may, or may not, need to see immediately. But with the added challenge, I was able to uncover user needs that transformed the dashboard into a memorable design that a user could enjoy using.
Integration Management System
The Feature
In my next sprint, I was the sole designer developing a workflow management system(think Zapier for big business) that provided a seamless user experience with both broad and detailed control options.
The Process
I initiated the process by carefully examining the technical requirements document to grasp the essential functionalities. I had already known about competitors like Zapier, but needed some time to fully understand how the needs changed for the end user, which in this case was bigger businesses. To gain a better understanding of user needs, I conducted design audits of direct competitors' workflow management systems. This research helped me identify the important features that users expect. Based on this information, I collaborated with my design lead to create basic low-fidelity wireframes to establish the initial structure of the system.
Following this, I conducted in-depth research on how competitors organized their management tools and noted all the essential features. This research allowed me to comprehensively map out the user journey and ensure our product aligned with industry standards. I took into account the location of each feature in relation to its relevant section to ensure a cohesive user experience.
Next, I categorized the feature set into must-haves, nice-to-haves, and will not haves through card sorting. This categorization guided my subsequent research and design decisions. I audited layouts from both direct competitors and best-in-class apps with exceptional UX and UI. By combining these audits, I optimized my design and created the best possible interaction for users.
During the process of auditing layouts, I paused to create user flows that outlined the interactions between different sections of the management system. This exercise helped me better understand the feature list and determine which nice-to-have features should be elevated to must-haves. It also provided inspiration for layout ideas and further shaped my understanding of how users would interact with the system as a whole.
Throughout this process, I iterated on each section of the management system, treating it as its own sprint. Despite the complexity of this project, I took ownership and successfully completed it by leveraging the completed research.
In the subsequent weeks, I audited micro-features that could enhance the design, drawing inspiration from the best-in-class platforms. This iterative process led to the creation of a new section in the management system, which required further design audits and user flows.
Once each section of the management system was complete, I progressed to updating my wireframes and refining them to a mid-fidelity state. I then handed off the design to a senior designer, who elevated it to high-fidelity and made it ready for implementation.
Key Takeaway
The key idea that I really took away from this project is the difference between competitive features and innovative features, and the importance of knowing them. Truly great products, not only compete, but bring something new to the table. Sometimes it's better UI, sometimes it's a smoother task flow that is inspired by a product in a completely different industry. As a designer, you have to take account for not only what the user expects to see in your design, but also delight them with something that they remember.
© 2023 Eddie Farfan's UX Design Portfolio