**Please be aware that this project is governed by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with a client, which is a fictitious entity utilized for demonstration purposes of a real project.**
Overview: Silver Group Bank requires a pair of fresh dashboards to facilitate the efficient management of their upcoming platform launch, known as "Groups."
Background: Silver Group Bank has launched a revamped, modernized, cutting-edge version of Groups—a platform where users can create or join groups that align with their interests and generate content. This initiative aims to foster a healthy and communicative work culture. Within each Group, there are three distinct roles:
Owners: Owners possess the authority to manage groups comprehensively. They can accept or deny posts, review flagged comments, adjust member roles, add multiple members simultaneously, and more.
Moderators: Moderators are responsible for adding or removing members and making decisions for those with lower positions (i.e., members).
Members: Members are users who belong to a group and can post content but have limited administrative privileges.
While Owners and Moderators have the capacity to make changes within the Groups, the current system is outdated and extremely time-consuming. There is an urgent need for a modern platform that simplifies member management for users.
Objective: Silver Group Bank aimed to cultivate a stronger sense of community within their workplace, and to achieve this, they introduced "Groups" – a platform enabling individuals to form their own groups and freely share content aligned with their passions.
The primary goal of this project was to develop dashboards that empower specific users to efficiently oversee the members within the "Groups" platform. The existing methods for accomplishing this task were severely outdated and cumbersome to use. The minimum viable product (MVP) was scheduled for delivery by August in preparation for the platform's launch in November.
Design process
Research
User stories:
User stories were created to gain insights into user behavior and to better understand how various users would utilize the platform:
As an owner of a group, I want to be able to add members to my group in bulk so more users can enjoy and contribute
As an owner of the group, I want to be able to edit the roles of moderators and members and designate them with new roles as needed
As a member of a group, I want to be able to filter through who I want to export from a community for research purposes
As an owner of a community, I want to be able to review flagged comments and make a decision based on what I feel is appropriate
Surveys & Interviews:
As "Groups" was a newly developed platform, there was limited prior research available. To ensure a positive user experience and facilitate smoother interactions, I initiated primary research by engaging with the company's super users – employees. This approach aimed to pinpoint any pain points. The research process involved conducting surveys and interviews to gather valuable insights, which were subsequently synthesized for further analysis and action.
User Pain Points:
During the research synthesis, the following pain points were identified and became the focus of our design efforts:
Absence of Comment Review: Owners of groups lacked the ability to review flagged comments independently and make informed decisions. Flagged comments were automatically deleted, even if they weren't inappropriate.
Content Filtering/Search Limitation: Users were unable to filter or search through submitted content within a Group. This limitation hindered owners from effectively managing content, potentially resulting in content getting lost.
Metrics Shortfall: Users had no access to metrics for multiple Groups. Instead, they had to manually calculate metrics for each group, which proved to be a time-consuming and tedious task.
Cumbersome Member Role Editing: Changing a member's status in a Group was a cumbersome process for owners. It required navigating through an external system, making it inefficient.
Lack of Bulk Member Addition: Users lacked the ability to add multiple members to a Group in a bulk manner, necessitating a manual, one-at-a-time process.
Analysis
Problem statement:
Owners, moderators, or any users tasked with member management within Groups face significant challenges. The outdated platform makes it exceedingly time-consuming for them to enact changes, add individuals, approve content, and perform other essential tasks.
Executive summary:
Groups is rolling out a cutting-edge member management platform, poised to empower users with a modernized solution for efficiently overseeing and orchestrating activities within Groups.
Use cases:
Ideation
Design Principles:
User Empowerment: Prioritizing user control ensures that users can efficiently manage their groups in a manner that suits their preferences and needs.
Enhanced Usability: Addressing the shortcomings of the previous design, the focus is on creating an intuitive and user-friendly interface that facilitates ease of learning and task completion.
User-Centric Approach: Placing the user's needs at the forefront of design, the goal is to develop solutions that effectively address user problems and provide meaningful value.
Future narrative:
The objective for this member management dashboard is to provide users with a consolidated platform where they can effortlessly accomplish a multitude of tasks without the need to navigate through numerous screens for even the simplest of actions. Our design focuses on key components to ensure this efficiency:
Content Management Dashboard: Streamlining content-related tasks for easy access and management.
Comment Moderation Dashboards: Simplifying the process of monitoring and moderating comments within Groups.
Community Metrics: Offering comprehensive insights into the performance of user communities.
Bulk User Export: Facilitating the export of user data in a lump sum for streamlined record-keeping.
Role Editing: Enhancing the user experience when editing member roles within Groups.
Bulk Member Addition: Enabling users to efficiently add multiple members to their Groups in one go, reducing manual effort.
UX User flows:
To ensure that I am able to accomplish all of our goals with this project and prioritize the user, I created 3 main user flows to outline the way that each task will be done. Before creating the final flows, we did some usability testing to ensure that all of the pain points of the users were touched on, and they were able to successful complete the task. The three main flows include: Dashboards, Member management & Adding members in bulk.
Design
Following the initial research phases, I gained a clearer understanding of the UX experience, prompting me to proceed with very rough sketching to start establishing a foundational concept for the screen designs.
Low fidelity wireframes
Mid fidelity wireframes:
Following the initial rough sketched wireframes, I transitioned to creating high-fidelity wireframes that comprehensively incorporated all intended features for the actual screens. These detailed wireframes were presented to stakeholders to verify alignment with their requirements. Subsequently, we conducted two rounds of usability testing to ensure the functionality and user-friendliness of the wireframes.
Usability testing:
I conducted usability testing by inviting participants to interact with the wireframes, collecting valuable feedback to assess the user-friendliness and functionality of the wireframes. There were 3 main insights that were found from this testing:
Users want to be able to filter through the content so they can find new/old content
Users wants to be able to have the option to either export one type of user in the group or all (Owners, moderators, members)
Users want to have both option for adding users manually and with an excel file on the same page
High fidelity screens:
In conclusion, the high-fidelity screens were meticulously crafted by integrating all content and adhering to the design system. After a final review with stakeholders to ensure their satisfaction, the screens were confidently handed off to the development team for implementation.
Handoff
Throughout the course of this project, I took the lead in conducting weekly meetings with both stakeholders and the engineering team. These meetings served as a platform for discussing new design updates, iterations, and ensuring that the design seamlessly aligned with the engineers' requirements. My primary objective was to foster effective communication within the team, ensuring everyone remained well-informed about ongoing changes and adjustments. I consistently provided updates on my research findings, insights, and how these would be integrated into the design. Overall, the team expressed satisfaction with my leadership on this project, appreciating the regular updates and open communication.