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Reflexion, Digital Society School

UX DESIGNER / UX, UI, & MAKING / Sep 2018 - January 2019

I conducted my graduation project at Bugaboo. Bugaboo is a large corporation with many different departments all separated onto different floors. Since the organization is so large, different departments don’t know what one another are doing, creating a siloed organization. The Digital department of Bugaboo wished to be the catalyst of change for this dilemma, leading by example by increasing their transparency and information flow to other departments by creating a dashboard. This wish manifested itself into a graduation project that I conducted within the Consumer Experience team of Bugaboo.

A little
context

ROLE
UX Designer

TOOLS
Sketch, Adobe Illustrator, Typeform, Excel

METHODS
Paper prototyping, Co-creation, User testing, Design Thinking

DATES
February 2020 - May 2020

Process
Design Thinking Method
I followed the Design Thinking method throughout this project to create a tool to solve the silo problem of Bugaboo. Letting user research be my guide, I brainstormed and designed multiple solutions. I then tested these ideas via usability tests and developed a high-fidelity interactive prototype based on the findings of user testing. Using the Design Thinking Method really helped me to plan my process with different techniques and activities for each defined piece of the method.
Research
Desk Research. To information about how organizational siloes impact organizations and also how others organizations promote information flow between departments.
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User Interviews. So that I can better empathize with the people who will be using my solution. Their input will impact what goes into the dashboard alongside will validate or invalidate the need for such a tool in the first place.
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Questionnaires. Large volume of information about how people currently work, their perception of the Digital department, and how they interact with the department.
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Persona creation. Visualizing the distinct needs of specific departments at Bugaboo.
The aim of this research is to determine whether there is a problem with information flow between departments and how that problem impacts the organization, to determine what kind of information would be useful to users by empathizing and researching them, and also to determine how best to display this information within a dashboard.
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The research attempts to answer 3 primary questions:
1. Is there an information flow problem between Digital and other departments?
2. What are the major pain points that users face regarding information acquisition?
3. What kind of information do users interact with from Digital and how do they get it?
Aims of research
Choice of methods
#1 Users don't know who does what
People don't know the different teams of Digital and the roles of these teams which makes it hard to interact and entrenches siloing.
Insights
#5 Too much reliance on single points of contact
Single points of contact between departments improves efficiency at the expense of transparency. The lack of interdepartmental interaction furthers siloing.
#4 Cultural fragmentation exists within Bugaboo
This limits possibility to collaborate between departments, and also hinders overall transparency leading to a less efficient organization.
#3 Users lack  knowledge of Digital’s plans for the future
This limits possibility to collaborate between departments, and also hinders overall transparency leading to a less efficient organization.
#2 Users not aware of site updates
Despite the impact the site changes have on their job, users are not made aware of upcoming and recent changes to the Bugaboo website.
Armed with a list of various things that users need, I matched these needs up with tangible pieces of information or content that already exist which can be pulled into the dashboard to satiate these needs in an effective manner. A secondary purpose is to ensure that the Content I add actually exists within the Digital department. If it isn’t implementable, then it isn’t useful.
Moving from my research insights, I created a POV user needs chart to really define what the needs of my users are. The insights I developed are useful and important but they are not specific enough when it will come time to define what needs to exist in terms of content within the dashboard. From these user needs, I created a Content Chart of information that will be incorporated into the dashboard. I used a formula to determine what kind of content needed to be included.
Match needs with content
Ideating
Braindump. I did the 6-3-5 brainstorm to get the “creative juices” flowing and to involve some Bugaboo employees (users) into my ideation phase as well because I thought cocreation would be a useful thing to incorporate. Beyond that, the only way to do cocreation activities is through online mediums because of COVID. So, I thought a braindump via the Miro tool would be best fitting.
Choice of methods
The Better Mindmap. The purpose of The Better Mindmap is much like a normal mindmap, it’s a way to brainstorm in a different way but in a more structured manner. It involves certain parameters through which you can diverge. More can be read about The Better Mindmap from the creator themselves in this article:The Better Mindmap. More specifically to my project, the purpose of this was to spur on a diverging process that could provide unique solutions that was still missing in my process.
Sketching concepts. I did a modified version of the 6-up sketch activity. I split an A4 into 6 different sections and sketched 6 different ideas on the paper. From there, I took the pieces of the idea that I thought were unique and thought best fit my user needs and created one concept from those 6 different concepts that align best with my user’s needs that I had previously defined, and also the technical constraints that have been put on me (Read-only dashboard). So I went from 6 different sketches to one sketch that was a hybrid of different elements in the 6 sketches.
Solution
Based on my user research and ideation, I arrived at a solution. A customized dashboard, customizability is based on the trigger of having such a variety of user needs, for it to have information outside of just data (like weekly learning sessions) based on the service design trigger of ‘Entertaining’, and that I wanted the dashboard to provide an opportunity for learning to the user. This concept combined with the user need/content match activity created a good framework from which I could start wireframing a dashboard.
Customizable dashboard
With the results of the card sort, I evaluated my current information architecture against the information architecture suggested to me by users through this card sorting activity. I focused most heavily on the 3d models and the Dendrogram “Best Merge Method” that the Card sorting tool provided me with. I found them to be the most understandable as a visual person myself, and it allowed me to focus more time on implementing the IA rather than analyzing the cards.

One main difference between the information architecture in my initial prototype and the IA provided through the card sort was the location of Team updates. I had these located in the News section of the dashboard. However, users grouped this within the Teams section. I agree with this, I find it logical, and so I determined to move the Team updates to the Teams section of the dashboard.
In order to create an information architecture that user found intuitive, it was integral for me to analyze my current IA against how users would personally group the information/elements within the dashboard and to resolve any disputes between the two architectures. I included this is in the evaluating phase because it was done after I had created an initial Information Architecture, so the activity was used to evaluate my current IA against the IA created via the card sort.
Info
Architecture
The plan
Card sorting outcomes
Usability testing
Evaluate mid-fidelity prototype
I began prototyping my solution based on the Content chart I had created alongside the design requirements developed. I created 3 different iterations of my solution, sandwiching these iterations with usability tests. Because of COVID-19, I had to get a bit creative with my usability testing. To conduct the tests remotely, I uploaded my prototype to Sketch Cloud and asked my users to interact with the prototype through the prototyping functionality of Sketch Cloud.
Conducting usability test
I recruited 5 Bugaboo employees for each round of user testing. I made sure to include Bugaboo members from every department that interacts with the Digital department. Sessions were conducted via Microsoft Teams and Sketch Cloud. Each session lasted 45 minutes.

My goals for the testing were:
1. Test discoverability of different components within the dashboard
2. Understand how users feel about this dashboard
3. Learn more about what users might want to include in the prototype
Iterations
Solution - Create a List view of tickets that fits user mental model
Key Finding #1 - Users have different preferences for ticket display
Initially, I believed that users would like to view the Tickets in a table that they could sort via different parameters. However, during testing a few users who were used to the JIRA project management system explained that they preferred that style of display. After researching JIRA's ticket views, I created a List view of tickets alongside the original Table view, allowing a user to toggle between the two views.  
Solution - Add a self-select onboarding experience
Key Finding #2 - Users don't always understand how to customize their dashboard
During two usability tests of the second iteration, users expressed confusion when I explained that the dashboard was customizable, asking where they could customize content. This is despite there being a prominent Add Content button on the homepage. This made me realize that the customization aspect of the design was going to waste currently.
The decision to include an onboarding process in which the user decides on topics to display in their Homepage was made to ensure that the customization aspect of my Concept could be utilized early on by users in their journey.
Solution - Implement module tabs on cognitively heavy pages
Key Finding #3 - Some pages stress user's cognitive load
Users stated that they felt overwhelmed by the amount of information on the Tests and Releases page in the 2nd [and 1st] round of user testing.
The decision to split the information up using the module tabs was decided upon when looking for various solutions on how to break up these pages. I consulted the book Designing Interfaces, which explains that module tabs are a good solution when content is of similar size, only one tab is necessary at a time, and the content is similar to each other. My situation fits this description perfectly! So I implemented module tabs.
Solution - Include average time to resolution for issues
Key Finding #4 - Users need to know when issues will be resolved
A customer service representative expressed that a good addition to the Tickets page would be info on when a ticket will be resolved.
My first solution to solve this problem would be to give a specific estimate of time for each issue. However, this is not a feasible solution because there is no supporting tool or information to provide this estimate. What I can do though, is to provide information that is already collected by JIRA about issue resolution time. This led me to include the average resolution time for issues based on their priority alongside the average number of days an issue is in the Work in Progress status.
Final
Design
My final design encompassed opportunities to address the user needs that I defined utilizing the insights I discovered in research. Through my user testing sessions, I was able to refine many different pages of my dashboard and even added new content, like the average time to resolution for issues. Although developing this dashboard was outside the scope of my project, I ensured that every piece of content within the dashboard was based on real and tangible information that could easily be developed when the time came to move from design to working dashboard.
Home Screen.
Customizable content and theme.
Teams.
Information about the Teams of Digital and the ability to contact team
members.
Tests.
Information about A/B tests conducted at Bugaboo as well as teams responsible.
Tickets.
‍ Info on site issues and logged tickets. Information about ticket resolution time and overview info.
Releases.
‍ Information about site releases both upcoming and most recent.
Lessons.
‍ VODs from 'Learning Sessions' where a team member of the Digital department leads coworkers in an activity.
Roadmap.
‍Quarterly initatives for the Digital department and a product roadmap visualization.
Reports.
Weekly and monthly reports showcasing Digital performance and high-level changes made.
Reflection
The Card Sorting activity is something I would have liked to do differently in my process by incorporating the activity earlier on in my process. I did it after the first iteration of my prototyping, and it would have certainly been better to do it prior to this phase since there was no basis for the Information Architecture initially, other than my intuition. However, I was able to make the best of it, and was still able to implement the outcomes of the card sorting method to modify my Information Architecture to more closely align with my user’s mental models. Another issue I ran into with card sorting was not thinking far enough ahead. I initially did the card sort through Miro, but realized I had no way to analyze these results in an effective manner. This forced me to manually copy the results from Miro into a different card sorting tool that actually allows for quick categorization and analysis.Beyond that, it would have made more sense to do a Closed Cart Sort because I had already defined specific categories within my dashboard. However, if I had indeed done that, I wouldn’t have found the need for a new category that consists of different reports and updates from various departments because users would just use my predefined categories
The user testing and iterative phases of my design process could have the potential to change some aspects of the working culture within the Digital Peleton team (Consumer Experience, Operations, Merchandising). During the feedback portion of my final presentation, my boss’s boss, Thomas, remarked,

“What I find most interesting is your methodology that you’ve applied. Instead of just doing something, you’re iterating, testing different things. I think this is, for all of us, a great example on how we should be designing the Product Detail page, or how do we design a landing page. Actually getting out there and getting feedback, that is for me the interesting thing that I think we need to do more of.”
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While this potential change will not be spurred on by the products I created specifically, the process that I followed and explained does have the potential to make an impact on how the Digital Peleton works. Hopefully, leading to a more UX Mature organization in which more user testing, and user centered methods are employed when working towards the creation of products and content.
Culture shifts
Improving my process
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