Case Study / Product Design / UX Research
CAR AND
DRIVER
Testing Platform
Role
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
2015 - 2017
Team
4 Designers, 6 Engineers, Editorial Team
Methods
Ethnographic Research, Journey Mapping, Design Studios, Iterative Prototyping
During this journey you will learn about their current problems and process. A process of 15+ years that consist of capturing and analyzing data manually through the use of numerous dated tools and legacy systems.
This story is the beginning of a remarkable transformation that introduced UCD (User-Centered Design) principles and our new HA design methodologies by PUTTING OUR EDITORIAL TEAM IN THE FRONT SEAT.
01
DEFINING THE
PROBLEM
Our assumption when asked to digitize this process was to simply centralize all their manual process into one single tool.
Having a tool to just copy and paste their current inputs from the PDFs and Spreadsheets was not going to solve the problem, it went beyond that.
It was not until we observed them constantly while doing their current job that we realized the need to implement a tool that would solve for ease of use, intuitiveness, speed, accuracy and efficiency.
Design Thinking Activities
Pain Points
WHAT WE DISCOVERED
Not reliable, current PDF crashes sometimes
A lot of frustration when losing data
Editors spend more time gathering data than writing reviews
Easy to miss clicks or skip fields
Do not have visibility of the entire process
Unaware of who completes certain tasks
Scrolling is an issue
Work in silos
02
ETHNOGRAPHIC
STUDIES
Observing Our Testers in Action
"After maintaining a constant communication with them we discovered how TRUST and HUMILITY can help uncover the true pain points and needs of our key users"
03
JOURNEY
MAPPING
Track Sheet - User Journey Map
YMM / In-Depth Editors - Proto-Personas & Stages
Max Boost - Other Testing / Visibility / Practical Space
Key Discovery
"One of the most surprising aspects of this project was to find out how our own editors that work in the same office did not know what their colleagues did in terms of areas of work"
By practicing UCD, our editors realized the value and effort that we were putting into this tool and eventually opened up to create that change together.
04
THE
SOLUTION
Prototype Explorations
The prototype below explores some interactions with larger boxes and touch targets.
05
OUTCOMES
More integrated
EDITORIAL TEAM
Motivated
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Purposeful tools for
OUR EDITORS
Enhanced
TRANSPARENCY
Increased
CREDIBILITY
Fun
ENVIRONMENT
Reflection
It is important to emphasize the benefits of always working with your key members from inception to delivery and to have a mindset of iteration.
One of the advantages of applying discovery, design thinking and any methodology around this mindset is to articulate to the team the importance to look at this framework as something flexible and non-linear.
Some of the methodologies and activities applied to this project were not limited to a specific list or order. All activities may be different as long as you clarify the purpose and value for the user.