Project Overview
The goal of this project was to complete a comprehensive audit of the client’s software — a web-based, event planning and attendee management platform within Conde Nast. The audit would help guide a roadmap of eventual updates to the platform.
- My Role:
- UX Research (and Design) Freelance
- Duration:
- 12 weeks
- Location:
- Lower Manhattan, New York City
- Agency:
- DOOR3
- Tools:
- Google Slides
My projects at DOOR3 were a mix of complex, enterprise applications and consumer-facing apps / sites for small/medium businesses.
Summary
Goal
The client needed to overcome tech and design debt and needed help identifying and prioritizing issues with the interface. The short-term goal included a UX evaluation to recommend design solutions. We would later apply the findings in an update to the design.
Approach
The audit included a competitive review, personas, and a heuristic evaluation of the client's platform. I explored 20 competitors. I conducted interviews with stakeholders to define personas by roles, goals, and tasks. Lastly, I identified over 70 usability issues in my evaluation.
Results
The findings were presented in Google Slides, which is primarily how I captured my findings.
Since the main software users were internal, I presented the findings with a focus on the connection between usability issues and productivity.
Step 1: Competitive Review
I identified at least 20 competitors and related industries to gain knowledge of industry conventions and identify potentially useful features.
Findings were organized into 4 categories, shown below, based on functionality or features.
- Overall features (ex: 3rd-party integrations)
- Platform specific features (ex: a list of favorites)
- Design and information architecture (ex: high-contrast colors)
- Additional event capabilities (ex: RFID event tracking)
Summary of competitor features.
Analysis of EventSquid, a competitor.
Step 2: Personas
I conducted interviews with stakeholders to define personas by roles, goals, and tasks.
Three key pieces of information affected the user experience:
- Roles and permissions controlled user functionality and access
- The core user group was internal, and rarely used by their customers
- The platform required extensive training
Internal Actors represent direct users.
External Actors represent indirect users, like clients.
Permissions matrix of roles and access privileges.
step 3: Heuristic Evaluation
I identified over 70 usability issues during the heuristic evaluation.
For the heuristic evaluation, I referenced Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design and Bruce Tognazzini’s, First Principles of Interaction Design.
While many issues were not showstoppers, the total number was a concern. When presenting, I focused on the connection between usability issues and productivity.
My presentation also Included an appendix with additional UX resources on typography, accessibility, and navigation.
Overview page about heuristic evaluations.
Finding about workflow and task order.