Design goal: elevate the UX to consume grade so users can complete their goals efficiently and accurately.
Overview
Background + Problem
Fall 2019, we conducted a series of user interviews related to redesign of our core feature, the Content Details page. The Content Details page is the heart of our platform. This is where marketing teams come together to collaborate on the operation of a piece of content. Over the years, we've heard from users different areas of pain when working inside here. So we decided to dig deeper to understand why.
During these interviews, we identified a more significant problem that is affecting content operational teams today. We learned that our users cannot accurately represent their complex content operation process with today's workflow setup. It's optimized to work linearly, and it forces teams to use stages, planned, in-progress, and complete, which doesn't align with their internal process.
Additionally, we heard feedback around the UX of creating and editing of Tasks. Users referred to our platform as "the great land of clicks" and "the Russian nesting doll" because many clicks are required to complete an edit.
Team
•1 Product Manager + Lead Researcher • 1 Product Owner
•1 Product Manager + Lead Researcher • 1 Product Owner
•1 Lead Product Designer + Research Assistant • Illustration Designer
•2 Frontend Engineer (consultant)
Desired Outcomes(s)
Increase of satisfaction and sentiment of users by:
•allowing them create workflows that accurately reflect their content operation
•enabling them to make decisions based off project status more accurately
•simplifying workflow configuration and maintenance overtime
My Role
I led the design direction of Content Stages + UX Task optimization between
March 2020 and August 2020 and collaborated with the Product Manager +
Lead Researcher on all aspects of this project.
Also, I worked alongside the Illustration Designer, Product Owner, and two
Frontend Engineers. And ideated with other Designers, Engineers, and customer facing team members during our design thinking workshops.
I moved on from Kapost during the development of this feature. The expected launch date for the beta was February 2021.
Approach
Discovery Research
We dedicated two sprints on user research to deeply understand the problem
and the personas affected by it. We used preexisting insights collected from
previous NPS surveys and from the Content Details redesign research as a
foundation to kick start our investigation.
The lead researcher and I conducted 17 user interviews with a mix of users
involved with workflow setup and content creation. The data gathered from
the interviews helped shape our hypothesis that would later guide us during
the design ideation + validation phase.
Personas
Primary: Content strategists + Content operations managers - folks oversee the content marketing strategy and create and manage initiatives that align with organizational and marketing leaders’ priorities.
Secondary: Creatives - The creatives' focus is on producing great content; that's the true heart of her job. Reviewers - Reviewers tend to be infrequent users of Kapost, but can also be regular users if, for example, they're on the creative side as an editor, art director, or copy editor.
Hypothesis: We believe that by introducing the concept of Custom Stages with Tasks and Status,
Kapost users will experience a reduction in the overall burden of configuration while efficiently
supporting simple and complex uses cases.
Ideation + User testing
After defining the user problem and creating our hypothesis, we initiated our first design sprint to discover a few design directions we could bring to users for testing.
At the beginning of the sprint, we facilitated an ideation workshop (design studio)
that included product people, engineers, designers, and customer success people.
At the end of this session, we reviewed all ideas and identified the design direction
we wanted to explore.
The second part of this sprint was spent creating + iterating the set of wireframes, reviewing with engineering, making the test plan + script, and scheduling interviews.
We tested our concepts with 20 users. Each concept included a new modal for
creating workflow and It also included:
• Content Status
• Custom Stages with Status (granular reporting)
• Custom Stage settings page
• Improvements to task creation
What didn't work...
The prototypes shown below are some of the UX concepts we shared with users for feedback but didn't validate.
Final Design Direction
Content Stage Settings Page
The new settings page will allow users to create reusable Content Stages (with tasks) a level above workflow creation to enable; efficiency, accuracy, governance, and reusability. This solution benefits the Content Strategist and Content Operations Managers because they will no longer need to create the same set of tasks each time they make a workflow. They can also custom name their Content Stages to better align with their internal process.
This page also includes an "autosave" feature for ease of creation.
Content Type & Workflow Page
The Content Types & Workflow is a settings page where Content Strategist and Content Operations Managers build workflows to guide Content Creators
during the operation of a piece of content.
This page required a redesign to accommodate the new method of creating workflows, including applying predefined Content Stages. Users will still have
the ability to create workflows without Content Stages and only Tasks (as today).
And will be able to create workflows with both Content Stages and Tasks.
Content Details Page
The Content Details page is where the final workflow is displayed to help guide Content Creators and Reviewers throughout the Content Operation Process.
At this stage, users are still allowed to add more predefined Content Stages and Tasks. They can also set a status to the Content as a whole and to each individual Stage for more granular reporting.
The workflow portion of this page was redesigned to account for the new
workflow setup.
Impact + What's next?
We presented each set of prototypes to 22 different users that fit both persona types for user testing, and 20 of the users could see the value of this feature + enhancements.
The other 2 had unique use cases that blocked them from sparking an emotion.
The other 2 had unique use cases that blocked them from sparking an emotion.
The type of feedback that validated our designs:
• "I can already see how I would construct workflows."
• "Content Stages will open a new world of opportunities and replace some of their workarounds like updating workflows on multiple Content Types."
• "Can't wait to get my hands on Content Stages."
• "I can already see how I would construct workflows."
• "Content Stages will open a new world of opportunities and replace some of their workarounds like updating workflows on multiple Content Types."
• "Can't wait to get my hands on Content Stages."
What's next?: We're currently preparing for a private beta launch to select a group of customers that fit this project's personas - to test the user experience further and usability, end-to-end. This feature is expected to launch to the general audience by early Summer 2021.
Design Deliverables
Design deliverables:
• End-to-end Hifi screens
• Design specifications (Style guide + Abstract)
• Long tail designs (first-time user experience, edge cases, zero states,
• End-to-end Hifi screens
• Design specifications (Style guide + Abstract)
• Long tail designs (first-time user experience, edge cases, zero states,
partial and loading states)
