A comprehensive statistics dashboard and management portal for administrators to access detailed information and make informed decisions effectively.
➡️ About People Cloud Platform?
A digital platform that streamlines the process when hiring and offering the services of IT professionals. If you’re a business client, you’re getting top-notch experts who help you get your project done. If you’re a vendor or a freelancer, you have the opportunity to get into interesting projects that match your business or skills.
➡️ What was the challenge?
With more clients and vendors starting to use the platform, we realized that the amount of initial research and data is much less in order to improve the user experience of the platform. Being a sole designer, it was also a challenge for me to initiate the whole design process, plan and execute it till the end.
➡️ Action plan
Knowing that there was not much initial user research conduct in the beginning of the product development phase, we consider following scenarios:
⚪ How might we improve the overall user experience of our service especially for clients and vendors?
⚪ How might we actively involve end-users in our research as they are very busy people?
⚪ How might we use our limited resources to conduct and invest in the UX?
⚪ How might we analyze the value of a mobile version of the platform and in which scenarios that version is being used?
➡️ Our Process
➡️ My role
Lead Designer throughout the whole process while collaborating with service owner and the development team.
➡️ Initial Analysis (Expert Evaluations)
Being early in the research phase, we started with expert evaluations to uncover usability, accessibility, and layout inconsistency issues
⚪ Usability
In our research, usability evaluation played a pivotal role in ensuring our product's effectiveness. We used heuristic evaluation. Nielsen Norman's usability heuristics were the guiding framework
⚪ Accessibility
Accessibility evaluation was also one of our commitment to an inclusive design. We used WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools) and Google Lighthouse accessibility testing tool to put our focus on accessibility related issues. Here are few of the evaluations based on the above mentioned tools:
⚪ Look & Feel
Considering the aesthetics and emotional impact of our design, we wanted to shape the look and feel of the product as well. We carefully an assessment of color scheme, typography and designed few new design components that are not only useful and effective but are also visually appealing.
⚪ Design in-consistency
To ensure cohesive and polished user experience, we invested time in examining the layout, components, and alignment with an aim to eliminate discrepancies within the design. Our goal was to establish a visual harmony that transcended every screen, interaction, and element throughout the product.
➡️ Interviews & Analysis
To gain a deeper understanding of user needs, pain points, and motivations we did a few rounds of interviews. At the same time, we have been collecting feedback from the users via our in-app section of 'Feedback'.
Afterward, we synthesized and organized the information into coherent and actionable insights. By grouping common themes, pain points, and user preferences we were able to distill the raw data into meaningful patterns and trends. We got a holistic view of the user feedback making it easier to identify recurring challenges and needs.
Note: Due to privacy concerns, I can't share more details here.
➡️ Wireframes
➡️ Design Critique Sessions
We used to have bi-weekly design critique sessions where my role was to present the prototypes (initially the wireframes) to the stakeholders including the service owners and the development team. These collaborative sessions helped us to get reviews from product requirements and then from the development p oint of view as well.
➡️ High-Fidelity Design
Sign up
The sign-up page was re-designed considering the feedback and evaluation that was done in the beginning. The users were not clear in terms of selection and knowing the difference between a client and a vendor role. So, a clear selection and description were provided.
Home page
The home page has two versions; one when there are no open positions available and the other when the vendor has a list of open positions on their home page. The vendor can easily look into the open positions and add candidates to these positions as per the needs and requirements.
Candidates
Here is the candidates list that the vendor has provided for different positions in a project for clients (these are the customers). The vendor is able to see the candidate's profiles and edit them if needed!
Candidate Profile
Now this is the candidate profile where a tabular element or component was used to display their skills. Another important highlight here is the availability of candidate's matching to the job at the top. With this information, it becomes easier for the people cloud coordinator to access the suitability of the candidate and refer it to the client (the customer).
Feedback
For any business, feedback from their customers is of vital importance. We do get feedback directly from our customers but we have also given this luxury to the customers to give feedback directly from the People Cloud application. Our approach has been to make it as simple as possible so that it doesn't take much time for the customer to provide feedback. I would say, we had a minimalist approach.
➡️ User Feedback
We collected user feedback by showing them the recent changes via prototypes and the users were very satisfied. They started to understand how small efforts can lead to effective changes. The time invested in UX was appreciated by all the team members and end-users.
➡️ How we have been measuring success?
We referred to HMWs (How Might We?) from where we started our research:
⚪ We were able to involve end-users in our research which helped us to build empathy and improved the trust factor.
⚪ Successfully laid the foundation of user research and now we have some solid research behind our decisions.
⚪ Based on small chunks, we successfully implemented new features and improved the previous ones enhancing the overall user experience of the service.
⚪ Integrated UX value in the organization.
As a marketing coordinator, my goal was to elevate the brand presence through integrated social media marketing. Being a UI/UX Designer with a passion for crafting seamless user experiences and a keen eye for branding, I aimed at "Humanizing the brand" campaign.
➡️ My Contributions
⚪ Strategic Planning:
In collaboration with the marketing agency "Wannado", we created a detailed strategy, defined the objectives, content pillars and KPIs to measure the success of the campaign.
⚪ Content Creation:
Considering the audience, I planned the content for two quarters and based on that designed the visually appealing graphics and content using Canva.
⚪ Social Media Post Design:
We were focused on LinkedIn and Facebook as according to the surveys, people in Finland come to LinkedIn twice a week and Facebook is very commonly used platform. We had plans to cover other platforms as well like Instagram and TikTok but they were not considered in these quarters. As a lead designer, my role was to design the posts for both of the platforms optimizing them for different screen sizes. At the same time, we were targeting the WordPress advertisement for Finnish and Swedish market. In that regard, I designed a landing page for these two areas.
⚪ Brand Guidelines Adherence:
Before finalizing and making social media posts, I ensured that all the social media content and language adhered to People Cloud's brand guidelines and identity.
➡️ Results
The social media engagement was increased especially for LinkedIn which was our primary target. We were able to become consistent with the social media posts and gain more followers.
➡️ Key Takeaways
⚪ A strategic approach and a proper planning enhances the consistency
⚪ Humanizing the brand builds trust among the audience
⚪ Being involved in social media content creation and constant collaboration with the marketing agency, I was able to learn more about digital marketing and how it can enhance the presence of a company on social media platforms.