The Project
A legacy workflow application suffered from "icon overload" in several of its primary displays. The displays comprised data grids and lists of records. Over time, the function of the lists was overloaded with indicators consisting of icons, colors, fonts, or some combination of these to signal workflow conditions. The cognitive load of so many indicators (~40) necessitated an in-app legend - and accompanying printed mouse pad! - which provided only limited relief.
The GlimpseUITM represents a replacement of the lists and indicators with a proper dashboard. Rather than a typical KPI (Key Performance Indicators) dashboard, however, the elements for this "operational dashboard" were designed as individual summaries of the underlying workflow records. In this way, the multitude of indicators from the original list displays were re-imagined as dashboard "cards" that provided drill-down to a filtered list of records that all share a common workflow characteristic.
My Role
Interaction Designer responsible for conceiving and designing the specification for the new "operational dashboard."
Interesting Challenges
The primary challenge for this project was not the design itself, nor communicating the implementation to development teams, but overcoming the misconception of the design among Product Management as a typical KPI dashboard. If construed as a KPI dashboard, the design fails to solve the underlying workflow goals. However, once understood as an operational dashboard showing aggregated data for entire classes of actionable records, the design was recognized as a significant improvement over data grids and lists as the primary landing page.
In order to communicate the correct intent as an operational dashboard, I created a walkthrough of hand-drawn sketches that demonstrate the range of operational summaries and interactions possible.
Results
The design was adopted and implemented as part of a visual and interaction redesign of the application.
Notes
The Project
A legacy workflow application suffered from "icon overload" in several of its primary displays. The displays comprised data grids and lists of records. Over time, the function of the lists was overloaded with indicators consisting of icons, colors, fonts, or some combination of these to signal workflow conditions. The cognitive load of so many indicators (~40) necessitated an in-app legend - and accompanying printed mouse pad! - which provided only limited relief.
The GlimpseUITM represents a replacement of the lists and indicators with a proper dashboard. Rather than a typical KPI (Key Performance Indicators) dashboard, however, the elements for this "operational dashboard" were designed as individual summaries of the underlying workflow records. In this way, the multitude of indicators from the original list displays were re-imagined as dashboard "cards" that provided drill-down to a filtered list of records that all share a common workflow characteristic.
My Role
Interaction Designer responsible for conceiving and designing the specification for the new "operational dashboard."
Interesting Challenges
The primary challenge for this project was not the design itself, nor communicating the implementation to development teams, but overcoming the misconception of the design among Product Management as a typical KPI dashboard. If construed as a KPI dashboard, the design fails to solve the underlying workflow goals. However, once understood as an operational dashboard showing aggregated data for entire classes of actionable records, the design was recognized as a significant improvement over data grids and lists as the primary landing page.
In order to communicate the correct intent as an operational dashboard, I created a walkthrough of hand-drawn sketches that demonstrate the range of operational summaries and interactions possible.
Results
The design was adopted and implemented as part of a visual and interaction redesign of the application.
Notes
Skills
Demos / Artifacts
Axure Prototype
Scanned paper-pencil sketches are assembled into a browsable Axure prototype used to communicate the concept across User Experience, Development, and Product Management.
View on Axshare