Re-Structuring Dealfront's "Connect" Product for Seamless Enhanced User Experience
Introduction
This case study focuses on the re-structuring of the "Connect" product, a pivotal component of Dealfront's offerings. The primary objective was to transform "Connect" into a cross-platform solution that integrates seamlessly with all Dealfront products, thereby enhancing the user experience.
My role
As a member of the design team, my primary objective was to:
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Re-structure the existing "Connect" product
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Enhance the user experience by making it intuitive and value-adding
The process
User Research and Analysis
A critical component of re-structuring Dealfront's "Connect" product was understanding the user's perspective. To achieve this, comprehensive user interviews were conducted. These interviews provided invaluable insights into the personality of our users, their interaction patterns with the existing "Connect" product, and their pain points and needs.
User research detailed
Findings
Understanding
Where are we today?
Understanding the Existing "Connect" UI and Project Decomposition
Before diving into the user interface (UI) redesign, it's crucial to first examine the current state of the "Connect" product. This involves breaking down the overarching project into smaller, manageable components to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the new "Connect" will interact seamlessly across Dealfront's suite of products.
Information Architecture
During our user research, we carried out a card sorting exercise to better understand user priorities and data organization. The insights gained were particularly useful in making design decisions, especially for the header, based on how users interact with the tool.
Feature inventory
Feature inventory is a comprehensive list or catalog of all the features, functionalities, and elements that make up a product, application, or website. This inventory serves as a foundational document that helps product managers, designers, and developers understand the scope of a project, prioritize tasks, and ensure that nothing is overlooked during the development process.
Summary of Learnings
Start: The users interacting from top navigation connect's product then user the search or home page to view company profile.
User Interaction: Currently, users interact mainly through scrolling on a single page.
User Pain Points:
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Data Quality, users are struggling with the accuracy of the data.
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Time Consumption: The current system requires users to spend between 2-5 minutes assessing or verifying each prospect.
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Cross-Check of Products: The need to cross-check products is another time-consuming task that users find unnecessary and frustrating.
Product Limitations: Multiple databases, products were built with different technologies, poor products UX/UI. all the products look different and no plan to align them.
User research Insights
Personas: Highly active, tech savy, ambitious, very creative and analytical
Needs:
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One Source of Truth: Users are seeking a single, reliable source for their data to eliminate the need for cross-checking and verification
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Reliable, Up-to-Date Data: Users need data that they can trust to be accurate and current. This improvement would reduce stress and increase trust in the system
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Powerful Filters: Users want more control over their data. Providing powerful filters would allow users to manage their data more effectively and efficiently.
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CRM Integration: A seamless integration with the CRM system is a critical need. This feature would streamline the workflow and reduce the duplication of tasks.
User Behavior: Once the user reached an emotional side is triggered 'luck of trust' then the user changes to linked to verify if the correct information is up to date and correct.
KIPs
Qualitative : Luck of trust, frustration and fear that the data is not accurate and incorrect people are contacted. Senior complains
Quantitative: Time: 2-4 mins Company profile assessment 2-5 mins Contact assessment
Proposed Designs
Design Objective and Guiding Principles for Connect
Informed by comprehensive user research, our primary design objective is to strategically address and alleviate the pain points experienced by our current user base. By doing so, we aim to deliver enhanced value, thereby fostering a more engaging and satisfying user experience.
Core Design Principles:
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Simplicity:
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Rationale: Complexity often serves as a barrier to user engagement and satisfaction.
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Implementation: We will prioritize intuitive interfaces and straightforward workflows to ensure that users can accomplish their goals with minimal friction.
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Speed:
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Rationale: Time is a valuable commodity for our users. Slow load times and cumbersome processes can deter user engagement.
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Ability to familiarise with the system and find information fast is also important as with time it becomes a product of habit.
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Implementation: We will optimize backend performance and streamline front-end elements to ensure rapid data retrieval and smooth interactions.
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Increase Trust:
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Rationale: Trust is the cornerstone of user loyalty and long-term engagement.
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Implementation: We will incorporate transparent processes, secure authentication mechanisms, and user-friendly privacy settings to instill confidence and trust in our platform.
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Start:
Global navigation: user will be able to access company and contact information from anywhere in the platform. However the challenge here is to align every product result set to ensure its seamless and consistent across the system.
Page Structure:
The user research has yielded invaluable insights that have directly informed our decision-making process. These findings will enhance the user journey by streamlining the ability to discover and evaluate companies in an efficient manner.
The Header: section of a company profile is crucial for user engagement and decision-making. This area prominently displays the key details that users initially look for. By concentrating these essential details in the header, we can guide users' focus to quickly assess the relevance of the targeted company profile. This placement not only streamlines the user journey, but also significantly reduces time and frustration, enabling users to make more informed decisions faster."
Our user research revealed that the staged approach to assessing companies significantly impacts user satisfaction. By initially focusing on four key details—company name, location, industry, and employee size—users can quickly determine if a company aligns with their requirements. This process not only saves them time but also minimizes frustration, as it allows them to decide early on whether to continue with further research or not.
This finding succinctly captures the user behaviour in a two or more stage evaluation process and highlights the specific criteria that are most important to them.
Navigation: Tab components will be used to navigate and breakdown down all the information into relevant groups such as Overview, contacts, finance, signals and news. Tabs reduce mental load and allow fast access to information.
Page behaviour: When users scroll down the page, minimizing the header while retaining only the key company details serves a dual purpose. First, it reassures users that they are viewing the correct company profile, eliminating the need to scroll back up for verification. Second, this feature reduces cognitive load by allowing users to focus on additional information without the mental burden of remembering or cross-referencing details, such as those found on LinkedIn. This design choice enhances the user experience by making the navigation more intuitive and efficient."
While the initial project phase lacked a meticulously defined scope, plan, and objectives, this complexity has not deterred us. Despite these challenges, the content inventory, we developed has served as an invaluable guide. It has enabled us to prioritize and articulate the critical elements integral to each stage of the project, providing a strong foundation for future improvements.
Cross-Product Alignment
Ensuring a consistent and seamless user experience across multiple products was a key focus of our design strategy. To achieve this, we conducted a comprehensive cross-check of all existing products to evaluate their features. This allowed us to identify elements that could be seamlessly integrated into the new 'Connect' platform without requiring significant changes to the existing views. The goal was to create a unified user experience that feels intuitive and familiar, regardless of the product being used.
KIPs
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Measuring Design Success
To ensure that our design objectives are met and to quantify the impact of our proposed solutions, we have identified a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Qualitative : Luck of trust, frustration and fear that the data is not accurate and incorrect people are contacted. Senior complains
Measurement Method: Usability studies and sentiment analysis on user feedback.
Objective: To streamline the contact assessment process to within 2 minutes.
Measurement Method:Time-tracking analytics on the platform.
Conclusion
It has been an honour to contribute to a project of such significant scale and complexity. While the team demonstrated strong collaboration, the project faced challenges due to an absence of well-defined planning, structure, and scope. This experience highlights the need for these foundational elements to complement teamwork for a more effective and streamlined project execution.
Furthermore, the project has illuminated the indispensable value of strategic planning and roadmapping. These tools have been instrumental in aligning all team members and stakeholders toward a unified direction. It is also worth noting that a well-defined process and organizational structure are essential for achieving success, particularly when operating under high demand conditions.
An additional key insight for this project has been the imperative of fostering strong customer relationships. Our clients have demonstrated a willingness to be active participants in crafting solutions, thereby enriching the project's outcome. Establishing a community around our product and maintaining transparent communication channels are not merely best practices; they are essential strategies for ensuring customer satisfaction. Furthermore, involving customers in the validation of new concepts and ideas through rigorous testing has proven invaluable for both product development and customer engagement.
In conclusion, I am confident that the project is well-positioned for future phases. I believe the team will successfully realize the vision for 'Connect' to become the one source of truth for Dealfront users, thereby adding value to their work and streamlining their processes.