Daniel Lock
IBM Planning Analytics
For one of my University models IBM work alongside me as a client. I was tasked with redesigning an aspect of their new planning software Onboarding experience.
I conducted a lot of research including observations, interviews and questionnaires. I used this data to work out several points of pain for the user and then narrowed these down to find the issues I would work to improve. The main three points of pain I found were the buttons, the tour tiles and the guide. The buttons needed to be more descriptive in order to better help first time users understand what each button was for. The tour tiles and little useful information and left the user wanting more. The guide was very hard for the users to find when they first used the software meaning that they felt like they had no help. I decided to look at improving the guide as I felt that it was the most important element for the user to find on their first use of the software, if they cannot find it then they have no idea where they can go to get help.
Research and Findings
What did I do?
I used my research to create personas whom I would aim to create the redesign for. The majority of my research lead to the result that most people missed seeing the guide as it was not too clear to the user where it was and what it was. To make a better connection I used the same colour scheme but changed where it was used in order to better connect the title with other headings so that the user would make the connection themselves. Next I created an animation that would draw the user from the tour tiles to the guide when the first that to use the software (see below), the guide will flash and keep flashing until the user acknowledges that the guide. Finally, I added the guide button to the navigation bar on the left side of the screen. The navigation bar had room already for another button and I felt that the addition of a guide button would help the user find the guide.
