📝 TIKOM APP 📝 — UX/UI Case Study
Project Management & Communication Software
In this case study I will talk about TIKOM, a B2B Software focused on project management and interdepartmental communication for businesses. (Desktop App)
It has been a challenging process and project to develop but the result is a functional product ready to introduce in the market that IĘĽm happy to share.
#projectmanagement #b2b #communication #organization #business
INITIAL HYPOTHESIS
The purpose of the project was to create a software that would solve a current problem and to build a product to help professional teams get their work done more effectively. Through research and design, the aim was to launch a product for organizations to use internally. The product had to help them focus on their work rather than having to deal with complicated tools and learning them. Some other details about the SaaS (software-as-a-Service) are for example, that the product has to be built as a desktop app which charges clients a monthly subscription fee with different plans available.
​The main obstacles: time and finding the right users to interview to get valuable information.
USER RESEARCH​: INTERVIEWING & DESIGN THINKING
I interviewed a total of 7 people aged 25 to 55 years old who are (3) Managers and (4) Employees, as my product is focused mainly on Managers who will decide if my product is valuable for their companies, and also Employees who will be the ones using it on a daily basis.
The most intersting part of the research, in the end, is the findings and information you get from the users. With this interviews I could get a clear idea of what was going on with these users. I didivded it in two areas of focus, Pain Points and Needs so, whatĘĽs bothering them and what they need.
PAIN POINTS
- Programs are not intuitive
- Problems with updates (Surprise updates and users are not in control)
- Too many tools/programs to use
- Problems keeping track of tasks assigned
- Not a good track of employeesĘĽ work
- Slow communication between departments
NEEDS
- Accessing information of other offices and departments
- Intuitive program easy to use
- Efficient Communication
- Cloud Document Sharing
- Tasks received from email
- Keeping track of conversations and decisions
- Calendar for follow up
- Personalization of app
RESEARCH CONCLUSION & PROBLEM STATEMENT
“There is a very slow communication between departments and there is no efficient tracking of employeesʼ tasks and duties. Employees are not used to changes at work, but their companies are evolving with technology and they need to be up to date.”
HOW CAN I HELP MY USERS? WHAT CAN I DO?
By creating a program for interdepartmental communication and for tracking assignments and tasks (Project Management). It would work for Managers, Employees and Human Resources and help with communication in the company.
USER PERSONAS​. WHO IS USING THE PRODUCT?
To be able to focus on a more specific user I created two Proto-Personas by joining all the information I gathered of my users. Their behaviour, preferences, characteristics, needs and problems, all helped create two Personas that would define the users of the product I was going to design.
1.JOHN, 30y/old. Sales & Administration
PAIN POINTS
- Problems tracking & doing all tasks on time
- Gets stressed out with sudden software updates
- Some softwares are not intuitive and can have complex designs
- Has to learn on his own, no resources/trainings & too many tools
NEEDS
- Access to other departments
- Efficient Communication
- Tutorials and FaQ
- Task & work organization
- Calendar for follow up
- Tracking email conversations
2.SARAH, 39y/old. Manager
PAIN POINTS
- Employees are not used to changes and sometimes don’t use company software
- Slow & bad communication between departments
- Hard to keep track of employees’ tasks
- Limited HR department and resources
​NEEDS
- Easy way to Manage Tasks
- Tracking employee’s work efficiently
- Cloud document sharing
- HR communication
- Notifications for “Task Completed” & other actions
Having the two Proto-Personas defined and developed, it was time to go back to the design and find specific solutions to the specific needs of my users. I brainstormed by sketching a few ideas and concepts that could fit well and created a list of features that could help solve the problems mentioned previously on this paper and divided into “Musts” and “Extras”.
MUSTS
- Administrator Area / Employee Area (power and permission distribution) My “To Do List”
- Mailbox: My Team Requests , Other Department Requests, Management Requests
- Chat + Groups
- Calendar: Hand-ins, Meetings, “Work time” (when you plan to do your tasks) Cloud
- Drive area with folder for different departments and offices (connect) Feedback by HR
- Notifications to users when there will be an update (Like Adobe)
EXTRAS
- Efficiency Library (area with tips from experts in Project Management to work better, faster and save time and effort)
- Template Library Area (for Presentations, Dashboards, Mindmaps..)
- Digital signature (fast and efficient)
- Connect other Apps (Personal Calendar)
- Compress Files to Download (Zip) always
- Edit files online/offline and in groups (for bad wifi mode)
- Official training on site or online (courses to stay updated)
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS & BENCHMARKING
To have a better understanding of what is a functional, commercial and viable B2B app, I considered necessary analyzing other apps with similar features or purposes. The research I carried out gave me all the features and details that users needed to work, howev-er, studying what others do could give me insights of what users expect, what they are familiar with and what they know how to use. It is also an efficient way of seeing how big software companies distribute the menus and tools, and also how they group information inside complex programs. For detailed competitor analysis click Here
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE & USER FLOWS
Once the concept, function and all the features were decided and listed, my next step was to imagine what Persona 1 and Persona 2ĘĽs user flow, what they would have to do and how they would use the product and create a map.
APP WALKTHROUGH
DESIGN & ITERATIONS
GRAPHIC IDENTITY & BRANDING
To develop TIKOMĘĽs Graphic Identity I started by defining a list of adjectives/attributes I wanted the brand to represent. The brand image would be a combination of the programĘĽs graphic design and the logo.
PROFESSIONAL, EXPERTISE, TRUSTWORTHY, MODERN, FRIENDLY, DYNAMIC
BLUE: Colour for trust , reliability, professionalism, seriousness, intellect, compromise and sophistication.
CARD SORTING
Carried out a card sorting experiment to make sure the design of TIKOM gave the idea that I wanted users to get when seeing it for the first time. I got 20 adjectives including the ones listed before and 8 users to tell me what adjectives best described the identity of TIKOM.
PRODUCT ROADMAP - FUTURE FEATURES
- Chat Topics
- Add Button in Task Details and Requests
- Alerts for Requests about to expire or Calendar events
- Request Categories (Meetings, Projects..)
- Add E-Signing feature for speed signing
- Extra Features and Development of synchronization with other platforms
PROJECT CONCLUSIONS
- Should have developed more 1 or 2 areas only from A to Z
It has been very hard to develop a whole application with so many different areas. I would have liked ot develop more My Requests and My Board into a big amount of detail.
2. Interviewed more users for more information
The quality of work increases with the amount of users interviewed. Also narrowing down the kind of user being interviewed so a single industry of my choice. In the end all users face different obstacles at work but having them come from the same industry would be better to see pain points patterns .
3. Brainstorming with different ideas and concepts
Due to lack of time I could not experiment with different ideas and concepts to come up with more possible solutions.
4. Spent time developing styles for buttons, text, etc.
It would have saved me some time creating special buttons and features in Figma, the proto-typing app I use, as I did not use to automatization tools to my advantage.
