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FEB - SEP 2023
I took part in the creation of a new dashboard for a Fintech solution which allows banks to monitor incoming customer requests.
Summary
Services
- Creation of Archetypes
- Information Architecture
- Benchmarking
- Rapid prototyping
- Wireframing
- Desktop SaaS design
- Agile UX
- QA testing
Deliverables
- IA Workshop
- Wireframes
- High-fidelity prototype
Wins
- A first version of the dashboard which is now already used by customers.
- The high fidelity prototype is being actively used to demo with prospective clients.
Making sense of data
When it comes to customer requests in the Fintech realm, metrics and insights are key when it comes to monitoring success. Yet, we were faced with a big amount of data which needed to:
- Be presented in a clear way;
- More importantly, be skimmed to the essentials for our users’s tasks.
Providing relevant KPIs
When I onboarded the project, the product consisted on a complex table with the data from each incoming request. We were tasked to take the data from the table to evolve the product into a new analytics dashboard which could successfully synthesize complex information regarding the incoming requests so that employees could track relevant metrics and evaluate their current policies. The metrics needed to be shareable with the higher-ups for internal meetings.
How we solved it
With my team (Design Lead, 1 UI Designer, 1 Product Design Intern) we employed Design Thinking principles to deliver a product that would be user centric as well as feasible: the development team was involved across all stages of the project. We had frequent design critiques which helped us collaborate effectively to reach the end result.
Starting from the users’ perspective
As we already had ongoing communication with our client, we firstly created 3 Archetypes which represented the different user groups, including
- Their role
- Their skills
- Their business needs
- Their personal objectives
We then validated our profiles with the client to make sure that we weren’t missing any relevant information for the dashboard.
Getting the Information Architecture right
As the dashboard needed to cater a relevant amount of information to different users, we brainstormed a structure that would
- Group metrics according to topic
- Be organized by using progressive disclosure as to not overwhelm the users and help them focus on the task at hand.
By sharing the map with the client right away, we were able to further understand their mental models as well as their needs for this new tool.
Using benchmarking, but critically
By doing an analysis of dashboards in different realms and employing best practices, we were abel to create a first version that would be well organized and that would easily enable users to navigate and filter information when needed.
Working with branding and design system
As this is a product that is intended to be sold to multiple clients, we employed the company-wide design system that was being built by our internal team. At the same time, we carefully added a few branding elements for the client inside the platform to reflect the fact that the platform is partially adapted to their specific needs.
The final solution - outcomes and personal takeaways
Complex data, made simple
The final result we achieved is a dashboard which provides:
- An overview of all incoming requests with relevant metrics
- In-depth views aimed at providing relevant data for specific archetypes
- Complex filtering and export features.
It helps all users to quickly find and export the needed KPIs for their internal processes.
We worked hard to make sure every metric or graph was included for a specific reason. The copy and infographics were optimized for each piece of content to ensure better understanding.
As a result, the demo of the product is now being shown by higher-ups in several meetings with prospects.
Lean wins the race
The actions which helped us go smoothly from Figma to code were:
- involving the developer team in early discussions
- personally taking part in their day-to-day Scrum ceremonies,
- Establishing a continuous dialogue between teams when developing new features
This way, me and the team were able to ensure that our designs were first of all feasible as well as coded as intended. I was responsible for ensuring the publishing of a smooth final version of the platform and therefore furthered my knowledge and skills in the field of Agile UX.
Keeping the product user-centric
To ensure that our approach user-centric, we carried several conversations with our stakeholders on the client side together with the developer team throughout the process, which helped us create a product that was valuable to the end users.
The initial phase which involved the creation of archetypes was crucial to keep our focus on the end-user while defining the IA of the platform.