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Channel Portals are our fourth major upgrade to the Portals application. Over the last 5 years, we've been interviewing users and a common request is to be able to share a multi-page Portal (a microsite WYSIWYG builder application) that is filled with product information with their product team. Once we developed our PIM(Product Information Management) system, we were able to begin ideating around a solution for distributing product information. Channel Portals are currently in the development stage. We are targeting Q2 of 2022 for the initial MVP release.
The first step in the process was to perform some exploratory interviews with current users. Paired up with a UX researcher, we interviewed current users who create and use product information as well as PIM systems. The majority of the users did not currently use our system for their product content.
Personas are created to represent the users for our collective applications. These personas are created as a collaborative process that is owned by our UX Research team. As a UX Designer, we are heavily involved in the persona creation process and continuously update our personas as we need.
During this session, I worked with the research team and the Product Manager and determined several user flows for Channel Portals. These initial flows were used as we moved into more focused team sessions.
The next step in the process was to benchmark and do a competitive analysis on what users are currently experiencing for Channel Portals.
During this session, I facilitated an exercise that involved all stakeholders to gain buy-in for features and to incorporate ownership in the project.
Utilizing Sketch, I created some initial wireframes to get feedback from users on how some initial UI elements would look and work. It is important to utilize a low quality prototype for testing because users will respond with questions and comments about the structure as well as the original concept compared to only performing high quality prototypes.
This is an example of the work that was needed to keep our components library up to date. Patterns is our UX/FE collaborative library where we create, edit and reference components that are used throughout our collective applications. Each Pattern is designed and tested for AA accessibility compliance, as well as usability.
During my research and design process, there is an ongoing accessibility process. It isn't one static step, but a philosophy to maintain high standards of accessibility for all users. Our software standards are to create WCAG 2.1 compliant, and I am an advocate at our company to hold our development process to these standards.
The example below is a color contrast checker being implemented into our software. It is one of the first accessibility tools being designed for our users.
After low fidelity mockups and logos were tested and validated, I made updates to the process, flow, and UI. These updated prototypes were presented to the user during moderated and unmoderated tests to again validate their usability.
As we continue to work on this process, I am creating specs and user flows to hand off to our front end developers and our full stack developers. We have constant contact with them, but to ensure proper grooming, pointing, and development, I have created a structured process for my personal hand-off process.
After running an additional round of user testing, we have developed our first step towards realizing our MVP. This is an example of our WYSIWYG microsite in Edit mode.
