Due to privacy restrictions, this project has been edited to remove all proprietary information. This product has been developed.
With the influx of employees working from home during the pandemic, the need for remote device management increased also. This application was created to support IT Help Desk employees looking to remotely support devices. I was brought into a team of 12 developers, a Scrum Master, and a Product Owner. The team had already started development and was relying on mockups made in PowerPoint to communicate desired features.
The application was created to address many pain points for the IT department in charge of maintaining end-user devices, like the following:
End-Users with new devices needed a way to enroll them without being required to call the IT help desk.
IT help desk employees have to rely on a variety of applications to support users, switching from application to application costs time. IT help desk employees must adhere to service level agreements that stipulate how much time they have to resolve a ticket, so every second counts.
Requirements Gathering
To learn more about my users I spoke with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in Device Management. Using the assets created in PowerPoint the SMEs and I worked together to highlight key user flows.
Competitive Analysis
I studied other device management systems to understand how they handled displaying large quantities of data. I learned that these applications had robust filtering systems to allow the users to get granular with the devices they manage.
UI Design
Due to time constraints, I began designing the interface based on a combination of what had already been developed, SMEs' recommendations, and competitors' features.
Contextual Inquiry
I conducted 3 contextual inquiries with users of the retiring web applications to better understand what pain points, if any, do the users have with the current system. I found the following:
Usability Testing
While designing, I built rapport and identified key contacts for IT help desk users. I conducted 5 moderated usability tests and used metrics like task completion rate, error rate, and the average number of errors. The information gathered in the testing also helped me to form a clear persona. I found the following:
UX Workshop Facilitation
Based on the usability tests and metrics, I facilitated a brainstorming session for the developers to collaborate with me so that we could create a solution that was feasible and usable. We also used the workshop to discuss accessibility and some developer tools we could use to make sure our product adhered to WebAim guidelines.
Challenges
The team was new to collaborating with a User Experience Designer, this meant that I needed to learn quickly how to advocate for my users in a way that allowed the team to be receptive to my recommendations. I had to explain that a few SME's opinions were not a sufficient representation of a user, since the SMEs would not be using the tool.
If I had the opportunity to start over again, I would do more facilitation for the team around UX best practices and collaboration. The team had never been exposed to usability testing until I conducted it later on in the process. I could have been more influential in advocating for my users if I appealed to the teams' logic, by using data at the beginning.
