Embedded Files
Over the course of business development work, users need to create "sets" as they propose, run and renew programs for their non-book retail partners. In order to create these "sets," users need to input different types of metadata and characteristics about that particular program and the titles they'd like to curate for it. This requires a series of forms and inputs that a user must first navigate before they get to their desired stage, the curation of titles.
I. Design Review
We knew we needed to reorganize the workflow for creating a Set, so I began by holding a design review to go over the problems, constraints and potential solutions.
We outlined two primary candidates, a guided wizard and a sectioned form on a full page. From here I was able to map out prototypes.
II. User Interviews
I created three primary options for users to respond to: a step-by-step wizard, an accordion form, and a full page exposed form.
We gathered that while the full page had more information to take in, it set expectations more clearly for users. In the wizard or accordion form, they did not feel sure about how complex the next, hidden steps would be.
III. Revisions
Now with the knowledge that we would move forward with a single, exposed form, we had to reckon with the intricacies of the components within the form itself.
The primary sticking point was the component that enables users to specify the types of titles they would like to curate from.
Our primary issues were guiding users through complex inputs, readouts of selections, previews of results, as well maintaining context despite the nested effect of all of this information being one step in a full form.
IV. User Interviews
I presented another set of revisions to users that oriented around different options for the criteria system to mitigate that information overload.
Meanwhile, the developers worked on an MVP version of the feature and ensured that it populated results correctly and performed well.
V. Design Review
Now that we had the results from our A/B testing with users, I went back to the team for another design review. I recontextualized the problems we were aiming to solve from the MVP design, provided interview highlights and outcomes, and then presented the full suite of proposed revisions for the component.
The team loved the changes as well as the simplicity of using this component globally across the platform wherever users needed to edit selections.
VI. Revision Handoffs
Since we had deployed an MVP version of this feature and this was a cosmetic redesign, I wanted to make the desired revisions as clear as possible for developers. I approached this spec sheet as a checklist calling out the things that needed to be moved or changed, and included the old and new modules to make sure it was clear what could be left alone.
VII. Deployment
And finally we deployed the revisions and replaced other instances on the platform with the new global component so that future changes could be pushed consistently.
Users moved through the form much more quickly and could easily navigate editing their selections elsewhere on the platform thanks to the consistent & clarified UI, and our team was satisfied to finally have the full form in a state we were happy with.
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