UX Designer based in Pune, India
Studio Management System
Studio Management System (SMS) is a resourcing and project management tool designed to improve the design team's efficiency at Left Right Mind Ltd. through effective collaboration and management at various stages in the design process.
My role in this project was to understand the challenges the design team faced and to ideate and design new solutions that would help designers and managers to track work, get approvals and communicate the project status to the various internal stakeholders involved.
User Research
I started my research with a quick stakeholder interview with the Design Head to understand the goals and the need of the project.
For user research, I recruited three participants - a designer, the team lead and the marketing manager, for semi-structured interviews (each session lasting for 30-45 minutes).
The objective of the research was to understand how the designers and managers at the company collaborated, tracked their work and managed their other daily tasks while working on multiple projects.
Competitor Analysis
Based on the user interviews, 4 tools were identified as competitors. I signed-up for these tools and used them to get a first-time user understanding and noted down all the pros and cons in a competitor analysis spreadsheet. These 4 tools were:
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Jira
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Trello
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Asana
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Monday
Insights
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The participants generally started their day by checking their emails to recollect what was done the previous day and where to resume from.
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To gain approvals for their designs, designers generally sent emails to their reporting manager along with the design file attached and in cases where it was urgent, they sent texts on Google Chat.
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During meetings, it was a usual practice for one of the team members to note down the minutes of the meeting on a notepad, type it on their laptop after the meeting and then share it with all the meeting attendees via email.
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The design team conducted standup meetings every week, where they discuss their upcoming tasks for the week and confirm their allocation to projects with their team lead.
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Allocation within the team meant how much time a designer should dedicate to the various projects they are assigned to. It was in percentages - 25, 50, 75 and 100%.
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For project management, the design team had previously used various tools available but none of them was finalised for permanent use by the team.
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Throughout the organisation, it was a standard practice to fill in timesheets (an internally developed tool) every week for billing purposes.
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The participants preferred using notepads to jot down ad-hoc requests and to create to-do lists.
Synthesis
I synthesised the research by creating an affinity map to find themes and understand user needs. On the basis of the affinity map, I created user personas and stories.
Personas
Name: Ayan
Age: 41 Years
Gender: Male
Occupation: Team Lead - Design
Personality
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Multi-tasking
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Punctual
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Organised
Ayan's story
Ayan is a UX Design Lead at Left Right Mind and works with the Design and Marketing Team in tandem. He reports directly to the Design Manager and the CEO.
Goals
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Know the team’s weekly allocation in a glace
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Keep track of the team’s productivity
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Stay updated on what tasks team members are working on
Frustrations
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Having to track his team's work allocation manually
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Spending a large amount of time daily on work-related conversations with peers
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Keeping track of ad-hoc requests
Name: Zoya
Age: 42 Years
Gender: Female
Occupation: Visual Designer
Personality
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Tech-savvy
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Dedicated
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Robust
Zoya's story
Zoya is a Visual Designer at Left Right Mind who works on multiple design projects at the company. She is married and manages her household and works on a daily basis.
Goals
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Complete daily tasks on time
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Create a balance between personal and professional life
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Plan how to manage escalations
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Managing urgent requirements from client
Frustrations
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Work-life interfering with personal life which directly impacts her health
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No channel for client’s to raise issues, which makes daily tasks complex
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No proper time schedule
Feature List and Information Architecture
Based on the user stories, I created a list of features for the tool and identified the key features that would be considered MVP.
I created an information architecture for the tool based on the features decided for the MVP.
Wireframes
I sketched the initial wireframes in a notebook, tested the flows with a user, and then proceeded with mid-fidelity wireframes in Adobe XD.
Design Solution
Task allocation and transparency
The design team followed the Agile methodology to manage projects. A Team Lead can now assign tasks, their priority and deadlines and similarly the designers can view their tasks and update them according to their project's Kanban board.
Task approvals and details
The design team can mark tasks for approval, upload the deliverable document, get feedback and communicate details related to the task within the respective task card itself.
File Management System
The inbuilt file management system allows the design team to upload their deliverable files directly to the respective project.
Project documentation
The design team can now directly upload business documents such as BRD and recorded meetings and can create MOMs directly within the tool.
Weekly allocation
The team lead can now do the weekly resourcing directly within the tool, eliminating the need for writing down the allocation on a notepad.
Timesheets
Timesheets are important for billing purposes and the design team can directly update their timesheet from the SMS tool without having to open another separate web application.
Dashboard
The Design Head and Team Lead can get to know all the important updates from the design team. They can get to know what was achieved, what are the important upcoming tasks, what is to be approved and what is the team's weekly allocation by just glancing at the dashboard.
User Testing
After finishing the wireframes, I gave users the following tasks and asked them to perform these tasks.
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Aditya S. has completed the task of creating a style guide for the project Linse Capital. How will you review the task and approve/disapprove it?
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You are planning a design sprint for the project Studio Management System and you want to create a task. How will you do it?
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It is the weekly standup meeting and the team is providing updates and discussing work for the week. How will you do the resourcing for the week?
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You are in a meeting where the information architecture for the project is being discussed. How will you create a MOM for this meeting?
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It is Friday evening and you have completed your work. Before leaving for the home you would like to update your timesheet for the week. How will you do it?