Portfolio - Steve Pick
Contents
Contents 1
Application design - MYOB LiveAccounts payroll 2
Form design 8
iPad prototype 11
Mobile prototype 13
Online loan application 14
Contextual Enquiry – Civica 18
Personas 20
Analytics 21
Application design - MYOB LiveAccounts payroll
Project
Design a payroll module for MYOB’s entry level online accounting software.
Process
· Review competitor products
· Review other internal MYOB payroll products
· Read reports reviewing different payroll products
· Interview MYOB staff around payroll, what worked, what didn’t
· Install and test the primary competitors
· Early paper screen designs to review with product owner and others
· Balsamiq mockups
· Usability test mockups
Design considerations
The target audience for the payroll system was small business owners just starting to have to pay staff.
MYOB already had a product in New Zealand which was losing market share to a competitor product. The feedback was that the competing product was easier for people with no payroll experience to use and successfully complete their first payroll.
Mockup
Early mockup of the employee details page and then final page.
Finished page. (Yes that really was the colour palette)
Help system
I introduced visible help on the right hand side of the screen. The goal was to provide a level of comfort to inexperienced users. Often if information is not visible then it doesn’t exist. People are often reluctant to read a system help system via ‘?’. There is also help at the top of each key page to providing a quick overview. The user can minimise this when they are ready, and the system remembers the state for next time. They can revisit the help via the ‘Show overview’ link at the top right.
Landing and main data entry page
The payroll landing page was design to be as simple as possible, and to remember your defaults and last actions.
A. Set your payroll frequency and dates
B. Select who to pay
C. Start the pay run which involves adding the hours worked for each employee.
Form design
Toll Online consignment screen
The initial designs for the consignment screen were done before I joined Toll. It was done in consultation with two business units who were the first to migrate to the new screens.
When we engaged with the next business units to be migrated we found they did not consider the screen design suitable for their customers. They were quite strong in their objections.
There primary requirement was that the form fit on one page.
Challenge
1. Find out exactly what design these business units required.
2. Try and negotiate and change in the screen design with the development team and project managers.
Process
1. Review the business feedback and mockup new designs
- Socialise the designs and iterate based on feedback
2. Review the new designs with the development team, and modify as required to achieve the least cost/time outcome for the business
- This process initially involved spending time convincing the team that the requested change was actually worthwhile.
Current screen
Version 1
Version 2
iPad prototype
GE ran some training on idea generation over a couple of months, with a focus on generating ideas to improve the business. The training involved theory/ideationsessions and then actual data gathering to generate and validate our ideas. At the end of the training each group committed to try and test out one of their ideas.
My group chose to focus on improving the in-store loan application process.
Process
· We visited stores to talk to sales people and back office staff about the current process
· We spoke to GE staff from the relevant touch points to find out their thoughts on the current process
Problem & Hypothesis
Problem: The loan application process takes about 30 mins, and for sales staff this is time that they are not on the floor earning commissions.
There is also a high rejection rate, meaning they have to then investigate other means of finance, and spend even more time.
Hypothesis: If we provide a quick and easy way to prequalify customers, the store staff will spend less time on futile loan applications, and will be more likely to use our product.
Solution
Develop an iPad prototype for staff to use in store to prequalify customers.
Trial
The prototype was implemented in 2 stores to test out the idea with real staff and customers.
iPad app
Earlier version
Mobile prototype
Stock take prototype
A simple jQuery prototype to test out a design for stock checking at dealers site.
Online loan application
Challenge
How to improve the GE loan application process in store.
When people make an interest free purchase at some retailers, the process involves applying for a GE loan.
Approach
Understand the problem
· We visited stores that use our software and spent time talking to them about the process and what worked, what didn't.
· Spoke to help desk staff about typical calls and problems they encountered
· The product owner provided us with their perspective and goals.
· Review the history of changes/requests for the current form.
· Run a usability test with 5 people to gauge for ourselves how the system worked.
Mockup and test design ideas
My approach was to simplify the form visually, and make help text and hints visible as required, so that the user didn’t have to hunt for information, or guess, and ensure that the prompts/help text addressed the key problems that had been identified.
Original
Redesigned
Single column layout vertically aligned.
Changes
Original page
New design
· Show help when the field receive focus
· Place prompt text at top of section in blue with red text
User Feedback
· I didn't know you could enter 000's for a missing mobile number.
Contextual Enquiry – Civica
At a customer site observing how they use our software.
The goal of contextual enquiry is to observe people using your software for their daily tasks, and allow them to tell you about the good and the bad of the experience. You can also gain a lot of insights just from watching how they interact with the software. Issues that they may not even be conscious of can become apparent.
Some of the tasks are done only once per year. They created these notes to help them with the task next year.
Personas
An example of a persona created for MYOB LiveAccounts. This was based on discussions and site visits with a number of customers who used our product. It was designed primarily to educate the development team. We actually got a couple of bookkeepers to visit and talk to the dev team about their jobs, and how they used LiveAccounts.
Analytics
Errors occurring in the last 30 days on our main data entry screen.
19/03/2015 2