How information architecture grounded in research improves usability and business metrics
2020
6 month
Mybuh.kz
About client
A small company providing bookkeeping consultancy, on-demand accounting services and self-service bookkeeping web application for SMBs.
Business challenge
Web application received many user complaints about navigation and poor wayfinding. Moreover, the old CMS-based system didn't allow for flexibility to change the information architecture. The client sought to redesign the application from scratch, improving both UX and UI.
Approach
✨ Some user research was done prior to me joining the project. It was more focused on the business processes, and provided minimal information on users’ tasks and needs.
✨ Started with small improvements in the interface and interactions to make use of this research data. Fixed UX patterns that worked incorrectly and applied a new design system the client had. While it helped to eliminate some of the friction between users and the system, this approach felt wrong, because it seemed as if some important issues were understudied.
✨ Conducted stakeholders interviews and it was agreed the project required deeper research.
✨ Created a research plan with more focus on users' problems within the product and deeper understanding of their tasks, workflows and workarounds.
✨ Prepared a concept based on the data from previous research to supplement the discovery and test the assumptions.
✨ Kicked-off the recruitment, scheduled the sessions and conducted in-depth interviews with the initial concept ideas as a stimuli.
✨ Prioritised the findings and presented them to the Project Manager to lay the foundation for product roadmap. It was concluded the application needed to be redesigned entirely.
✨ Analysed the tasks users were performing in the current application, their workarounds, goals, and gathered feedback on the concept. Identified areas for improvement.
✨ Brainstormed ideas for redesign. Elaborated on 2 options together with the Project Manager.
✨ Improved the concept based on the user feedback. Made changes to designs and worked on prototypes. Handed over the designs to development.
✨ Would participate in weekly sprints planning, backlog refining and UI reviews.
Lessons
💡 Start any project with the requirements gathering and prior research data review. Don’t rush into immediate improvements. Carefully study all about the project background, take your time.
💡 The needs of stakeholders won’t align with those of the users, therefore, it won’t bring any value implementing them.
