01
An Overdue Focus on the User
When I joined Dell, they had very recently implemented a UX team to work on internal tools, so things were very fresh and quite exciting. Dell's legacy internal support application called "Delta" was fraught with peril around every corner, often times requiring support agents to utilize 10 to 20 different outside applications in parallel to accomplish daily tasks.
My role was to redesign a critical section of the Delta application: The Technical Account Manager's (TAM) tools interface. To do this, some primary objectives needed to be met. These included:
· Conduct user research to define user characteristics and needs
· Redesign current workflows to meet user and business needs
· Reengineer Delta's navigation system to create order and ease of search
02
Feedback from the Users
Despite some difficulties in coordinating interview sessions (many of our users are overseas), we managed to gain a significant insight into what the users deal with on a daily basis and what would make their day more productive and less stressful.
Support agents are highly motivated to please their customers. To them, this is more than a job, it's a way to help people who don't know where to turn. They derive a significant amount of satisfaction from this.
The Delta Legacy software infringed on their ability to help and was a major pain point in their work day activity. Some of the primary obstacles were:
· Users are dependent on multiple tools (sometimes over 30) to complete the same tasks
· Data is either missing in Delta or not consistent with other tools used
· Systems are not in sync, crash consistently, or freeze
03
Designing to Users Needs
Drawing from these findings, it was clear that a more comprehensive logical and intuitive system was needed that considered every step the user might take throughout the day to ensure their success.
Working together with a UX architect, I translated wireframe workflows into high fidelity prototypes so that business, development and users had the ability to view and interact with the redesigned UI. Their feedback would lead sometimes to further iterations of the design and eventually approval and implementation.
04
Ease of Use
Smartwebs had a history of help calls due to incoherent and confusing user flows. To understand why user needs were not being met we launched an email survey that asked the users questions like “What is the primary thing that frustrates you about using this software”. We also conducted usability lab studies where executives in the field were interviewed and shown different user scenarios and solutions to those scenarios.
Issues like ‘Trouble navigating’ and ‘Losing work’ were among the highest problems users were having with the system. From this feedback, I reengineered the navigation system accordingly. This resulted in prioritized link placement, fewer pages, less clicks, and a clear knoweldge of their location in the system at all times.
I also, suggested an expanding right drawer feature that would allowed the user to reference other pages while staying on the page they’re working on.
01
An Overdue Focus on the User
When I joined Dell, they had very recently implemented a UX team to work on internal tools, so things were very fresh and quite exciting. Dell's legacy internal support application called "Delta" was fraught with peril around every corner, often times requiring support agents to utilize 10 to 20 different outside applications in parallel to accomplish daily tasks.
My role was to redesign a critical section of the Delta application: The Technical Account Manager's (TAM) tools interface. To do this, some primary objectives needed to be met. These included:
· Conduct user research to define user characteristics and needs
· Redesign current workflows to meet user and business needs
· Reengineer Delta's navigation system to create order and ease of search
02
Feedback from the Users
Despite some difficulties in coordinating interview sessions (many of our users are overseas), we managed to gain a significant insight into what the users deal with on a daily basis and what would make their day more productive and less stressful.
Support agents are highly motivated to please their customers. To them, this is more than a job, it's a way to help people who don't know where to turn. They derive a significant amount of satisfaction from this.
The Delta Legacy software infringed on their ability to help and was a major pain point in their work day activity. Some of the primary obstacles were:
· Users are dependent on multiple tools (sometimes over 30) to complete the same tasks
· Data is either missing in Delta or not consistent with other tools used
· Systems are not in sync, crash consistently, or freeze
03
Designing to Users Needs
Drawing from these findings, it was clear that a more comprehensive logical and intuitive system was needed that considered every step the user might take throughout the day to ensure their success.
Working together with a UX architect, I translated wireframe workflows into high fidelity prototypes so that business, development and users had the ability to view and interact with the redesigned UI. Their feedback would lead sometimes to further iterations of the design and eventually approval and implementation.
04
Ease of Use
Smartwebs had a history of help calls due to incoherent and confusing user flows. To understand why user needs were not being met we launched an email survey that asked the users questions like “What is the primary thing that frustrates you about using this software”. We also conducted usability lab studies where executives in the field were interviewed and shown different user scenarios and solutions to those scenarios.
Issues like ‘Trouble navigating’ and ‘Losing work’ were among the highest problems users were having with the system. From this feedback, I reengineered the navigation system accordingly. This resulted in prioritized link placement, fewer pages, less clicks, and a clear knoweldge of their location in the system at all times.
I also, suggested an expanding right drawer feature that would allowed the user to reference other pages while staying on the page they’re working on.
Redesigning the Experience of Enterprise Legacy Software
01
An Overdue Focus on the User
When I joined Dell, they had very recently implemented a UX team to work on internal tools, so things were very fresh and quite exciting. Dell's legacy internal support application called "Delta" was fraught with peril around every corner, often times requiring support agents to utilize 10 to 20 different outside applications in parallel to accomplish daily tasks.
My role was to redesign a critical section of the Delta application: The Technical Account Manager's (TAM) tools interface. To do this, some primary objectives needed to be met. These included:
· Conduct user research to define user characteristics and needs
· Redesign current workflows to meet user and business needs
· Reengineer Delta's navigation system to create order and ease of search
02
Feedback from the Users
Despite some difficulties in coordinating interview sessions (many of our users are overseas), we managed to gain a significant insight into what the users deal with on a daily basis and what would make their day more productive and less stressful.
Support agents are highly motivated to please their customers. To them, this is more than a job, it's a way to help people who don't know where to turn. They derive a significant amount of satisfaction from this.
The Delta Legacy software infringed on their ability to help and was a major pain point in their work day activity. Some of the primary obstacles were:
· Users are dependent on multiple tools (sometimes over 30) to complete the same tasks
· Data is either missing in Delta or not consistent with other tools used
· Systems are not in sync, crash consistently, or freeze
03
Designing to Users Needs
Drawing from these findings, it was clear that a more comprehensive logical and intuitive system was needed that considered every step the user might take throughout the day to ensure their success.
Working together with a UX architect, I translated wireframe workflows into high fidelity prototypes so that business, development and users had the ability to view and interact with the redesigned UI. Their feedback would lead sometimes to further iterations of the design and eventually approval and implementation.
04
Ease of Use
Smartwebs had a history of help calls due to incoherent and confusing user flows. To understand why user needs were not being met we launched an email survey that asked the users questions like “What is the primary thing that frustrates you about using this software”. We also conducted usability lab studies where executives in the field were interviewed and shown different user scenarios and solutions to those scenarios.
Issues like ‘Trouble navigating’ and ‘Losing work’ were among the highest problems users were having with the system. From this feedback, I reengineered the navigation system accordingly. This resulted in prioritized link placement, fewer pages, less clicks, and a clear knoweldge of their location in the system at all times.
I also, suggested an expanding right drawer feature that would allowed the user to reference other pages while staying on the page they’re working on.
