THE MYERS-BRIGGS COMPANY (2015-2016)
Desktop web app redesign
CHALLENGE
The Myers-Briggs Company's assessment platform, Elevate, provides practitioners with a full-service management tool to send, manage, and purchase assessments for their clients. Elevate was meant to replace the legacy assessment platform, but because it was difficult to use, customers were opting to stay on it. Ultimately, causing the company to maintain both platforms.
Our team was challenged with improving Elevate's usability, so that the company could confidently upgrade customers to the new platform.
MY ROLE
I was the UX designer on the project, working on redesigning core flows to improve the platform's usability, alongside the UI designer and product manager.
I conducted high-level research to better understand the users and their pain points, designed wireframes for flow enhancements, presented wireframes to internal stakeholders for feedback, refined wireframes, and prepared detailed functional documentation specs for the
development team.
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Elevate web app (before)
1. DISCOVER
When I began this project my goal was to gain a better understanding of who our users were and what challenges they were facing. I started off by leveraging the insight and expertise of people across The Myers-Briggs Company—
customer service representatives, sales representatives, developers—anyone who was willing to speak with me.
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Through these conversations I found that our users were typically:
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PhDs / Academics
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Late 40’s to early 60’s in age
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Not tech savvy
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Caring and warm
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Strong desire to help their clients
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Once I had a better understanding of who our users were, I used Google Analytics to better understand their behaviors on the platform. I found that the majority of users were checking to see whether their clients had completed their assessments and if they could download their clients’ reports. ​
WHERE USERS WERE SPENDING THEIR TIME
70%
CHECKING / EDITING A PROJECT
20%
CREATING A NEW PROJECT
10%
GENERAL ADMIN FUNCTIONS
To drill down deeper into core usability issues, the product manager and I worked with an external vendor to conduct a usability study of the platform.
From this study we found that 56% of users described the site negatively, using words such as complex, annoying, and hard to use. Users expressed issues with navigating the site in general and lacking visual feedback when actions were performed.
I want a site that is easy to navigate (even for users who are not 20 somethings)
Much more clear direction and description of buttons […] clarity in what is happening when I take an action.
Instructions and symbols need to be clearer.
This study gave the team a substantial amount of qualitative and quantitative data that helped to inform the Define phase.
2. DEFINE
In this phase I worked closely with the product manager to clearly define where we would focus our efforts. We decided to prioritize core workflows where users spent the most time, as this is where we would have the most impact to their overall experience. This narrowed our focus to the following workflows:​
1
Managing
projects
2
Downloading reports
3
Creating
projects
Once we prioritized the core workflows, we wanted to clearly define what problems we would be solving. The Discover phase provided us with a lot of valuable data, and we wanted to distill this data into key themes to help guide the Design phase.
From the data, we identified the following key themes:
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Onboarding: users didn’t know how the platform worked at a basic level
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Feedback: users were uncertain that actions were performed successfully
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Guidance: users weren’t sure what steps were required to complete a task
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Visual/Design: users were struggling to read the text on the site / accessibility issues
Once we prioritized the core workflows and had a clearer picture of what problems we were solving, I was ready to kickoff of the Design phase.
3. DESIGN
I began the Design phase with the create a project workflow, sketching out potential designs. Then, I transitioned into Axure RP to build out my interactive wireframes. Throughout this process I would constantly ask myself: how can I make the flow clearer to the user? I wanted to make sure users knew where they were in the workflow, what steps were coming next, and give them confidence that they were heading in the right direction.
I would frequently share progress with my team to get feedback and iterate on my wireframes. Once the team felt like we had a solid solution in place, I presented my solutions to key stakeholders—customer service representatives, sales representatives, and developers—for additional feedback and input. This helped to gain buy-in and further refine the solution. I repeated this process with the edit project workflow, and downloading and purchasing reports workflow.
Project table wireframe
Project details wireframe
Once the wireframes were finalized, they were handed off to the UI designer for the visual design. Throughout this process we worked closely to ensure that we covered all potential cases and scenarios.
Redesigned project table
Redesigned project details
Upon completing the visual designs, we moved into the Deliver phase.
4. DELIVER
In this phase I focused on handing off all necessary documentation to the development team. The UI designer provided the final design mockups through Zeplin and I provided the accompanying written functional specifications. Given that we pulled the developers into our process early on, handoff was smooth.
I worked closely with the development team throughout the development process to ensure that everything was built according to the specifications that were provided. Ultimately, the work was completed ahead of schedule.
RESULTS
The redesigned platform launched in January 2017. The enhancements made to the platform resulted in 56% of customers voluntarily upgrading to the new platform by December 2017. As a result, the company has been able to begin phasing out the legacy assessment platform and has set a shut down date.
Moreover, upon conducting a follow up usability study, the percentage of customers who described the site negatively dropped to 29% (previously 56%). Seventy-one percent of customers described the site positively, using words like clean and easy to use. Seventy percent of customers also gave the new assessment platform a 4 or 5 star rating.
As a team we were incredibly proud of what we had accomplished. We also received kudos from teams across the organization and customers who were previously disappointed with the existing site. This project also resulted in my promotion to Senior UX Designer.
Excited for this beautiful site to get out there. It looks amazing—you guys really did an incredible job with the UI and UX.
- Senior Director of Development & QA
We are so lucky you came to help us. Fantastic!!!
- Chief Technology Officer
NICELY DONE! I know I have been one of your biggest critics, but just looked at your sneak peek—it looks great. A huge improvement, and exactly what we need! Thank you!
- Notoriously Critical Elevate Customer