Ally Noormohamed

My Role

I researched a proper information architecture to support how users naturally work, and I created a new visual design accompanied by a product style guide.

Problem

Absolute had started redeveloping a newer application before the company hired the UX team. The development team designed both applications. The new, incomplete product was inserted as a list of choices in the primary navigation with the older application. As a result, it was confusing for users leading them to continue using the older, more complete application resulting in a lack of adoption of the new application. In addition, this prevented the company from adding features to the new application.

Another issue was that the information wasn't categorized how users wanted it.

In addition, the UI didn't work how users expected. For example, a typical interaction design issue across both applications was using action-selection instead of selection-action. As a result, a user had to select the action, then the object to perform the action, which is the opposite of modern applications.

Discovery

After I joined the UX team, I conducted card sorting to understand how users naturally categorize information. As a result, I learned that they need a task-based information architecture—for example, the administration tasks under an administration section.

Next, my team and I tested a concept prototype to validate the new information architecture. Despite a few minor usability issues, which we fixed, it tested well with a total average System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 80.

Solution

I created a high-fidelity prototype of the web experience and mockups for the web and mobile experience so my team could communicate the design vision to the company.

In addition, we defined a new navigation pattern to support the new information architecture for the web and mobile experience, including quickly accessing global actions and improving the layout archetypes for the web experience.

Finally, I updated the product's visual design to be on-brand, accompanied by a style guide.

Results

Despite some technical challenges in combining the different application technologies and frameworks, the company shipped the first version of the new web application in 2017, resulting in greater user adoption and the ability to add new features.