Desktop tool for an interactive PropTech software used to draw property and share with others to explore and edit - online, immersively, in 3D.
PROBLEM
Our client requested a redesign of their new online sketching tool to improve overall usability and increase the number of token credits they sell to their customers.
ROLE
Product Designer | Researcher
UX Design, Visual Design, User Research, Information Architecture, Prototyping, User Testing
6 week timeline
SOLUTION
Our goal was to provide a redesign that was intuitive, organized, and reduced any ambiguity the user may face during usage that would also lead to an increase in token sales. We focused on two elements:
Similar icons grouped together
Menu Organization
Informative yet unobtrusive popups
Modal Redesign
PERSONAS
Our team discussed the following with our client to help us narrow down on one persona -
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User Pain Points - What have past users had the most trouble with when using the program?
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Business Goals - What are Scribe's business goals?
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Timeline - What can realistically be done within our timeframe that will make the largest impact?
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Product Goals - What are short/longterm goals for the product?
After discussing the above points, the team decided to prioritize intuitive and accessible design for the “Average Jo-anna" user
INITIAL USER RESEARCH & CONSTRAINTS
My team and I interviewed 5 users that met similar characteristics of our persona, Joanna, to test the usability of Scribe's current product.
Research Questions (Condensed & Summarized)
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Thoughts on Home Page?
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Where would you go on this page to learn some tips and tricks about how to use Scribe?
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How would you increase your screen to full screen?
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How would you share this document with others?
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How many credits does it take to share this document?
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How would you download this document?
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How many credits does it take to download this document?
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What would you do when you run out of tokens and need more?
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What pricing plan would you purchase to be able to share and download a second project?
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Where would you go to update your account information?
Constraints
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There are elements on the page controlled by Web and elements controlled by Unity (hosting server)
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Our client believed design changes within Unity would be too large for our timeframe
Competitor Analysis
JOURNEY MAPPING - DRILLED DOWN
This is not a typical journey map! I wanted to create a drilled down visualization where I could study what Joanna's pain points and opportunities may be within the Scribe product, itself, based on the user test results. I really wanted to understand what broader areas of the process we could approach to tackle the usability issues we were seeing.
MAIN INSIGHT
When asking users to complete tasks, we found the majority of errors occurred in icon recognition and overall navigation. The test results, Scribe's business goals, competitor analysis, and our map caused us to narrow our scope to Menu and Modal redesign within Web.
VISUALIZATION
We created this simple end to end flowchart that Joanna would be following from entering the website to exporting her designs.
Flowchart
IDEATION
Users like Joanna want to be able to quickly learn new software while putting in minimal effort. To design for minimal effort is to design for efficiency, speed, and intuition. We aim to prioritize consistent design and provide as few distractions to the users as possible while they're in their sessions within the program.
Lo-Fi mockups
DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS
Based on our first round of usability testing and competitor analysis we conducted, we made the following improvements:
Improving Composition & Layout (Before)
The initial program lacks compositional flow and forces the user's eye to dart across the page towards all 4 corners without rhyme or reason. This exessive cognitive load contributed to the users' difficulty in navigating the page and completing tasks.
USER RESEARCH - PART 2
My team and I tested the same 5 users on our redesign and saw the following test results:
Initial Test Results
Redesign Test Results
AN INCREASE IN USABILITY BY 30%
MAIN INSIGHTS
HIGHER VISIBILITY = BETTER USABILITY
We wanted to provide as much context to the users to help them complete their tasks within Scribe as well as increase the number of token credits purchased in the program. This meant distinguishing icons from each other, creating proper labels and tooltips, designing unobtrusive modals, and giving users access to pertinent information all on one screen to help them make better and faster decisions. Higher visibility directly correlates to better usability and an increase in token credit purchases.
THE FINAL PRODUCT
STYLE GUIDE
NEXT STEPS
PREVENTATIVE CARE - I would want to place focus on crafting an onboarding experience that could inform potential users about commonly used functions and highlight any new or unique features. By proactively educating users prior to them entering the sketching tool interface, I believe we could potentially see a drastic improvement in usability and usage of all the features and functions Scribe has to offer.
SO WHAT DID I LEARN?
Good Design is Good Business
It's always an exciting challenge balancing user and business objectives but what I've come to realize is, in the words of Laura Klein, "It’s a mistake to think about business objectives and user objectives in antagonistic terms." The way to achieve business goals is to make those goals relevant and easy for the users to achieve...often cultivating a symbiosis between both parties.
Thanks for sticking around till the end and hope you enjoyed this case study. If you have comments, feedback, or just want to know how the hell to pronounce my last name, feel free to reach out to me at veda.gottumukkala@gmail.com. Cheers!
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