A case study outlining the work I did as the experience design SME for a customer. I walk through everything from my initial scoping, implementation, and strategic conversations.
And as much as I want to take credit for this redesign, the design was such a small part of the overall project. I think the best outcome of this project was enabling the customer to be able to make informed decisions on their site, and em
Problem:
Customer X’s support site experience was creating staffing problems. From confusing hierarchies, to irrelevant search results being returned upon query—customer X’s own support agents could not efficiently solve their problems in a timely manner.
We were asked to give them a facelift, but it was quickly understood that the design was only a small part of the problem.
The initial asks were:
- Create a new internal communication system that can fit the demand of multiple departments with permissioned content
- Give the site a more refreshed look
- Improve the Agent’s ability to find relevant content
My Role:
I was called on as the Experience SME (Subject Matter Expert). Initially I was asked to scope out a rebrand, but the overall site experience needed work, not just a new paint job.
The way the content was organized fit logically for the legal requirements of the internal teams, but not the actual requirements of the agent’s day to day job requirements.
- Experience SME
- UI|UX Design
- Customer Cross Departmental Coordination
- Content Strategist
The Solution: Empowering the Customer
Designers can’t always be the hero by creating a ground-breaking design that save the day.
This engagement taught me that when it comes to really making a difference, empowering the customer creates a better experience overall.
After all, their success is our success.
The solution ended up to be to create a dialogue between 5 different departments and guide them on how to work together. What we left behind was a plan and conversation that would span departments and years of effort.
We were able to prove that content that works for the customer should be given to the Agents as well. Combining the efforts of the digital and internal teams.
However, as this is a UI|UX Designer portfolio, there were also design iterations.
The Process:
This engagement was more of a strategic effort, however there were actual design and experience asks set out at the beginning that deserved to be addressed.
- Create a new internal communication system that can fit the demand of multiple departments with content visible based on permissions
Creating a new internal communication system:
The Problem:
Creating and managing the banners and notifications was not sustainable. The Agents could not keep track or review notifications as they scrolled in a banner in the header.
The Solution:
By using the structured hiearchy of the site, I was able to create a dynamic system of creating announcements for internal communication that can be updated and edited in each hiearachy for each department.
This design came around based on the asks and feedback from the customer internal teams creating and using this feature.
Feedback:
The customer realized as they move forward with an organization wide site that holds every department’s content, there cannot be a universal only communication system.
The method of creating these notifications were crude and came by because of a singular instance that was created two years prior.
As the usage of the site grew, so did the demand placed on this temporary feature. With the need increasing in complexity and variance the following attributes were added to this new communication system.
- The announcemnts will not appear in the side panel if there are none.
- The announcements are managed just like all other content.
- Permissions are managed just like all other content.
- Icons added to the announcement are automatically updated based on source icon update.
- Announcements are dynamically updated as content is updated.