Methodify
2017-2019
Sole UX Designer
Sketch, Whimsical
Context and research
Raising the organization’s UX maturity
UX research methods
I was able to create a detailed user persona after conducting research through a variety of methods, including:
User interviews
Internal stakeholder interviews
Competitive analysis
Web analytics (via Inspectlet)
Robust industry reports (eg. GRIT report)
Four costly misconceptions
My research uncovered four widely-held misconceptions that impeded progress within our organization.
More features will boost retention
The organization hoped that building new features would help retain customers.
The reality: New custom features helped convert certain prospects, but cost a lot to develop and did not improve retention.
Users go through a 3-step process
Users employ Methodify like this:
Create survey
Send survey to get responses
Receive (and review) the report
The reality: Methodify neglected the most important step (data preparation).
The app is used a presentation tool
Users would directly open Methodify and present research findings to stakeholders with the app.
The reality: Users use PowerPoint for their presentations, since they have more control. Furthermore, many decks are created for later consumption.
We must be mobile-first
An agency had previously designed a mobile version of the app, and being a “mobile-first company” seemed to be an important point for marketing purposes.
The reality: Most pages were unusable on mobile, and there was no indication that users even cared about that.
Uncovering these misconceptions made it easy to answer the second fundamental question:
Identifying the real problem (and solution)
My research showed that my team had invested too much in the survey creation UX (the previous priority), and not enough in reporting.
Therefore, I made research documentation to help the team understand that users need to:
Manipulate data (to analyze it in creative ways)
Prepare it for a presentation (whether live, or in a document for later consumption)
User Scenario Map showing frustrations with the current reporting UX
User Journey Map showing how users actually want to use our app
Design leadership
In order to raise our UX maturity level, I had to fill an unofficial design leadership role.
Once I determined users’ needs, I ran cross-functional workshops to collect the best ideas on design solutions. We decided to move forward with my recommendations on improving the reporting UX.
I then began our “Reporting 2.0” project by prioritizing functionality and features, and creating user stories and writing acceptance criteria in JIRA, to help the development team implement the designs.
Photo at the end of a design brainstorming workshop
Red routes matrix used to prioritize features
Designing "Reporting 2.0"
Audit and wireframes
I conducted an audit of our reporting UX (with some issues annotated below), and made wireframes to solve a variety of problems. The focus was on data manipulation and preparation (for presentations).
Annotations of initial Reporting Page, identifying problems
Validation
Although I designed dozens of features at Methodify (including customer-specific research methods) “Reporting 2.0” was specifically focused on boosting retention.
During my wireframing phase, I ran usability tests with a paper prototype to validate the designs.
My tests confirmed the new UI was both more powerful and intuitive than the original design.
Comparing the reporting page
Although I designed dozens of features at Methodify (including customer-specific research methods) “Reporting 2.0” was specifically focused on boosting retention.
The new Story Builder
Story Builder, which was fundamental to Reporting 2.0, has two overarching benefits:
For users: Enable users to manipulate data quickly and customize decks, in a new feature that leverages familiarity with PowerPoint (meant to be simpler but not as powerful).
For us: Keep users inside the app, so we can learn more about how we can help them (eg. How do people manipulate or prepare their data for later presentation?)
Key takeaways
Here are the main things I learnt from this project:
Don’t base design decisions on assumptions: Without research, the company had been wasting tens of thousands of dollars on the wrong things. I was able to identify what users need, and avoid costly mistakes made by the earlier design agency.
Don’t work in a silo: Including others in the process helps prevent push-back on designs, and helps people understand the UX better. Furthermore, as a solo designer, the insights I got from working closely with an amazing development team were invaluable. Devs have great ideas for design!
Implement analytics early: We didn't have analytics set up until later in the design process. But it's important to have baseline data in order to monitor how design iterations influence behavior and user sentiment over time.
Low UX maturity organizations aren’t worth it: Having to resort to conducting research outside of work hours exemplifies the context in which my work was routinely impeded due to low UX maturity. However, the organization eventually understood the value of UX, since they hired three full-time UX designers to take my place after my departure.
