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UX Design

Designing an enhanced report experience.

  • by Craig Witte
  • 24 July
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Our objective is to create a unified, modern, and distinctive visualization experience for all our data assets and products.

Experience goals

We aim to provide a technology that is:

    Simple, easy, and consistent: Users should find it straightforward to use, with a consistent interface.
    Always available and continuously improving: The platform should be accessible whenever needed and evolve over time to enhance user experience.

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User personas

Tom: Account Manager (Sales)

    Tom focuses on analyzing product trends, both for our offerings and those of our competitors. He examines successful tactics, such as pricing strategies, to adjust his sales plan and engage with retailers.

Arianna: Revenue Management

    Arianna’s role involves understanding event performance. She aims to identify and correct underperforming areas, replicate successful tactics and evaluate overall trade performance against KPIs and objectives.

Maya: Brand Manager

    Maya’s responsibilities include assessing how retailers perform compared to competitors or benchmarks. She investigates top tactics and event drivers in the market, with a focus on geographic locations.

View here - the illustrated user journey of Maya.

    This was something I wrote and illustrated, then presented to leadership to help them understand her journey better.
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Key insight #1

User pain points:

  • Users spend too much time searching for reports across different apps.
  • Extracting key insights from reports is challenging.
  • Optimized data descriptions and report discovery are crucial.
  • A connected experience is needed to streamline transitions between user sub-goals.
  • Key insight #2

    Current architecture challenges:

  • Users must manually select relevant apps without system guidance.
  • Building more apps is not a scalable solution.
  • Multiple paths to create a report confuse users.
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    Recommendations

    Streamlined user journey:

  • Eliminate the concept of separate apps.
  • Create a truly connected experience by simplifying transitions between sub-goals.
  • New taskflow:

  • Based on MVP features for a product launch in five months.
  • A single flow for building reports, eliminating the need for multiple apps.
  • Add additional persona: Richard (Retail Category Manager)

  • Richard, our new persona, spends significant time creating and reviewing reports. He aligns perfectly with the “Report Viewer” role.
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    Design process highlights

    Wireframes and ideation:

  • Explored filmstrip views for report flows.
  • Prioritized insights and full-width display for wide reports.
  • Adopted a card pattern for report templates in the marketplace.
  • Design thinking and iteration:

  • Dual-track agile
  • Regularly demoed ideas to leadership.
  • Incorporated feedback into high-fidelity wireframes, now that product features are becoming more clear.
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    User testing part 1

    Over a two week sprint:

  • Prepared test script (scenario context, key definitions, hypothesis, goals and test points), storyboard, and prototype.
  • Tested with senior category managers from large CPG companies.
  • Positive feedback on Report Viewer usability.
  • View here - the test script here.

    View here - the storyboard script here.

    User testing part 2

    Methodology:

  • Software used: LookBack
  • 9 total participants, panelists from large CPG companies.
  • Tested over video chat with 2 moderators.
  • User testing part 3

    Feedback and Refinement:

  • Users completed tasks as expected. Report Viewer was praised for its usefulness and usability.
  • Users didn't understand the filtering in the Marketplace. They didn't know it was a button to be clicked to them they thought it was more informational.
  • Filtering functionality needs better communication.
  • Most exciting reactions to the look and feel. Users are happy to not have to select an app to get started.
  • Product scoring index: Effectiveness 4, Ease of use 3.8, Overall (including other measures) 3.4
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    Results

    Marketplace filtering was improved to be more informational with a updated title and a sentence below stating how the filters work. Remove the edit icon next to filters, instead show all available filters. A tool tip was added as a hover state on each filter so users will know what each one does.

    With high-fidelity designs completed and ready for handoff to development teams. This project represents NIQ’s fastest major product build and launch—just five months. With a unified visualization experience and trusted data, our customers will unlock meaningful growth opportunities.

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