christine forni
ux + UI design
Project Overview
Vixxo collects a lot of data through their mobile and web apps, and much of it goes unseen and untouched by the business and clients alike. In order to increase transparency, provide more value to clients, and use data to drive improvement internally, the design team and data team partnered up to create a tool to allow clients and technicians explore data relevant to them.
Initial Research
To start I wanted to talk with both service providers and clients to understand what they would want out of a data tool, so I could work from there with the engineers to determine what would and wouldn’t be feasible. I met with internal managers of both user groups and they walked me through the types of reports they were often asked to create and share, as well as what data needed to remain internal only. This feature had been frequently requested over the years, so we had a lot of direct feedback from users I could comb through as well. I used the data from the managers and users to create a ranked list of goals/functions for the feature. The main priority was to enable users to see their key performance indicators (KPIs) and understand what data points contributed to those indicators, so they felt empowered to make meaningful decisions for their businesses to improve those KPIs.
Design Phase
From there I collaborated with the data engineers to determine what data points were available to us, which were okay to share with users, and what we would need to best represent the users' goals. They then used those points to create a variety of data visualizations using PowerBI to show users' KPIs and areas of interest. I selected the ones that would be clearest for the users and provide a variety of information across them.
The major considerations for the design were:
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create value by providing relevant data to each different user group (service providers, clients, internal)
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make reports easy to understand and navigate
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provide clarity into the data points driving KPIs
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allow flexibility and growth within the design (variables in user permissions, potential to add additional reports)
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maintain data security
The users of the tool varied greatly in technical expertise, so I wanted the tool to be easy enough for less savvy users, but detailed enough to provide new insights to power users who actively manipulated data already. There were also a lot of design constraints due to PowerBI being the primary design tool, and needing to figure out how to show and hide information by user permissions and relevancy.
I iterated on various layouts for the visualizations provided by the data engineers, designing a homepage for the data tool, as well as expanded data pages that allowed the users to drill into the KPIs and view more granular data. I created a style guide for the data visualizations so that they would feel like their own new tool while seamlessly fitting with VixxoLink’s existing branding, which the data engineers were able to use as reference when creating the pages and visualizations in PowerBI. Once they’d created the pages we shared the tool internally to get feedback. The designs were approved and I worked with the development team to embed the tool into VixxoLink.
Implementation & Outcome
On launch, we gained a ton of positive feedback from users, as they had been waiting for a KPI-driven data feature for a long time. Using our analytics software, we were able to see a high percentage of adoption across both user groups, as well as trends in use around business cycles, showing that the tool was being used for key business decisions as intended. We later on expanded the tool to include additional reports based on its initial success.
Through this project I learned a lot about designing data visualizations and working with data analysts. Collaborating with a new department was a lot of fun and provided a lot of insight into the challenges of making complex data consumable for a variety of user groups. I also got experience creating a cohesive design language within the constraints of a new program, and making an embedded experience blend seamlessly with our web app.
