PAUL PATEL

Dashboard redesign
Network Support application

In late 2019, I was tasked to redesign the Network Support Application dashboard.

As a Product designer(UX/UI), I collaborated with the Product/Program Managers, Technology Managers (DevOps, Support Engineers, and System Architect to improve the current user experience to reduce Support calls by 30%.

Average call per day
3000

Average cost per call
$450

The Problem Statement
I am...
Support engineer trying to solve client’s issue in timely manner and monitor potential security threats.

Trying to...
traverse through the application to find the case details, comments, search, and monitor Event Analysis.

But...

It is difficult for me to find all the information once I log into my account.

Which makes me feel...
Frustrate, lost, and it slow me down.

My role

I collaborated with the Product and Engineering teams to create user journey maps, conduct research, develop wireframes, and build interactive prototypes. I also led a team of visual designers and content strategists. My main responsibilities included:

Conducting a heuristic evaluation to identify any usability flaws in the existing design.
Empathizing with users and understanding the challenges they face while using the product.
Defining the problem by examining relevant data.
Ideating and brainstorming potential solutions (hypotheses).
Conducting whiteboard sessions with stakeholders to illustrate the proposed solutions.
Creating flowcharts and prototypes to demonstrate the steps users can take to complete a task.
Testing the proposed solutions through extensive user testing.

As part of my role, I also participated in sprint planning and brainstorming sessions, working within an Agile environment (Scrum) to structure sprints and add UX stories and subtasks to the JIRA board. This structure helped us to identify important details and provide regular updates to the Scrum team.

User Journey Mapping

The most difficult aspect of this process was to persuade the stakeholders - including Product Management, Marketing, Development, Sales, and Technology Support - to collaborate and participate in a three-day workshop. The objective of the workshop was to map the journey of new requirements in a way that was logical and practical. During this process, I played the role of a translator between engineering and line of business.

Finally, on the third day, we engaged in conceptualizing the ideal user journey and the value proposition to enhance the current user experience.

Note: The image resolution is intentionally low to protect confidential information.

Customer Journey

Sharing the journey across the organization is the key: everyone should know the basic journey and be able to articulate the pain points and shine points.

Qualitative User Research

The interview with the Technology Manager and a group of 3 support engineers helped gather data (Calls per day and duration), feedback, and identified user expectations.

Key Findings:

App lacked visual appeal to display security threats between the Web client and the Web Server.
Poor user experience hampers productivity and adversely affected the bottom line($450 per call).
App did not provide a quick overview of client security posture(file upload/downloads, version updates, license renewal/expiration date, and potential threats).
Add dashboard customization to add/remove panels add default option.
Add dashboard customization to add/remove panels add default option.

Whiteboard sessions

Scheduled weekly whiteboard sessions with the product and dev partners. We were working to improve the search experience for the user and improve speed. It was a difficult task since we had to rely on multi-servers and systems, it involved multiple line of business. We had to draw the effect of different search prioritization schemes and come up with the idea of a "global" and a "field level" search to reduce payload on the server to display results and reduce response time.

The whiteboard session helped draw focus on the problem by collaboration. The process generated multiple ideas and use cases. Finally, we came up with intuitive search options for the users.

Note: The image resolution is intentionally low to protect confidential information.

Flowchart

Event Analysis and Case Management Flowchart:

Wireframe and enhanced features

Based on the user research, data, and business requirements I built low-fidelity mock-ups(FIGMA) to test our hypothesis.

1. Cards with Drag and Drop feature

The cards work well to separate information(Large data tables). We added drag and drop functionality to customize the layout.

2. Search filter

I added a date and time picker to the search, along with checkbox categories to reduce the load time and produce quick search results.

3. Customize Case Details

Customize card information per the Support Engineer's(L3) preference

4. Add/Edit Comments

Added functionality to add, edit or delete comments on the primary page.

User Testing

For the 1st iteration, we had 3 support engineers test the new flow by sharing FIGMA interactive prototype link. Test session(30 min) helped to go from hypothesis to more concrete results.

Key learning:

It was easy for the user to modify the dashboard by adding and subtracting categories to customize the Case Detail card, it was a huge win.
The Global and local search and filter were easy to locate and use.
CTAs under the "More Comments" section not obvious and users requested a button or better color or icon treatment for visibility.
Tables needed to be sortable and have customizable columns.
70% of tasks completed related to the overall concept of the product. 30% interaction was difficult for the user and it required further enhancements.

Final result

In the quarter after launching Network Security Application Version 2.0, the business experienced an 18% reduction in calls with the duration of calls decreasing from an average of one hour to 36 minutes.