How 3 young designers are changing the User Experience for Cetaris.

Michelle Farley - Lead UX Designer, Yu Shin Was - Digital Designer and Demi Pinsonneault - UX Designer talk about the Design Process and Product Process at Cetaris.

Cetaris is a Fleet Maintenance and Asset Management software solution for large enterprises. They record and track customer maintenance practices. The company was formed in the 1989 but has the heart of a star-up company says Demi. It gives juniors lots of responsibilities to learn and grow. They have team building events, out-door events, birthday lunches and are involved in raising money for charities and silent auctions.

Design Timeline:

1989 Cetaris began. Used only developers. Did not know the value of design.

2015 hired first UX Designer. Needed to prove the value of design.

2016 hired second UX Designer and UI Developer. This improved quality. But did not necessarily shorten the release date.

March 2017 new website launched.

July 2017 hired Digital Designer to work on first marketing video.

September 2017 new video launched.

October 2017 new product beta application launched.

Since the launch of the new website the focus has been on marketing initiatives and growing organic SEO.

Projects

Logo redesign. It looked dated and needed a fresh update. Owner wasn’t interested in changing it but Demi insisted and pushed back and designed a new logo. New logo looks fresh with an environmental feel and everyone likes it.

CMS. Needed work. It had multiple navigation systems and duplicate content. It was not responsive. Changed to Craft CMS. It was simple to use and responsive. It was a mobile first design with relevant content. After the launch the leads disappeared. Usability testing showed that filling out a form to request a demo was a struggle and people gave up. Removed “Recaptcha” and right after got the demo requests coming in. Take-away is to always do user testing.

Cetaris’ Blog had issues after changing to Craft CMS. They forget that they were users too and needed to test own experience. After the testing the site was a big improvement.

Cetaris Fix is a marketing video to introduce Cetaris Fix. Explain the application for existing and new customers. Yu created branding guidelines for the production of the video. This insured people associated it with Cetaris and kept branding consistent.

Cetaris Fix is a mobile first responsive application. The challenge was to create a brand for a product that didn’t exist yet. Part of a product set that will grow. Not even know what the products might be only know that they will be there. Michelle was given an application design that needed a lot of work. First thing she needed to do was gain the respect the developers and the product owner. Not attack the design. Make it seem like it was their idea. Worked with developers in small bits. Needed to focus on one user role. Then did product testing with developers and product owner. Resulted in making things bigger and clickable. A better user experience overall.

Product Design Process

Research

1. Site visits to get to know users
2. Interviews with stakeholders
3. Interviews with customers and users

Define

1. Structure
2. Scope
3. Process
4. Flow

Ideate & Design

This is when layer design, interaction design, visual design comes together. Done on a white board. Getting different ideas. Bouncing ideas off people. Show developers. They may have a different idea based on their system requirements.

Prototyping & Development

This is done with Sketch, Invision and Zeplin.

Test

Get user feed back. Testing the software with people all over North America. Done every Friday for an hour with different people each time. Create a script to follow. First question is “what do you do first in using our app? Or “how do you use our app?”

Design System

It is not something that is static. It’s continually changing, continually updating. It is a road map to where we are going. Helps the team by making a component once and you have it to use over and over again. Makes everything more consistent. Helps you move faster and more efficient. Finally develop a Style Guide.

Development Process

Together they work collaboratively across teams. Being together in the same room makes it easy to go up to a developer and ask a question. The process is circular. They work in an Agile methodology verses Waterfall methodology. They plan, design, build, test, review and launch in small pieces. Build smaller functional pieces in 2 weeks. Helps to do things quickly.

Challenges of Enterprise UX

This relates to software that users need to use. For example in doing their job 9 to 5. Users are now more aware of software. Know it’s not their fault when they can’t understand things and demand more from it. You can improve this by customizing their website. Turn off features that they don’t need. Or design more advanced features. Software should not make their work harder.

Things to Remember When Designing

• Keep notes of what you forgot to design so you don’t do it again. Learn from your mistakes.
• Be aware of states. For example there is no hover state on an iphone.
• When showing Error Messages tell the user why it’s an error.
• Showing all the different form states in your fields is important to the process of good design. (Tip. Good to show this on your portfolio)
• Create your document first. Use a content writer if possible to help write for your product.
• The first time a user uses your product the fields will be empty. This is an opportunity for on boarding with your client. Walk them through on how to use the application.
• When something is loading and the user sees nothing show him a loading screen to avoid frustration. Think about engaging your user during that downtime.

Some Words of Wisdom to end with...

Take care of yourself. Take a break when you need one not when you feel like procrastinating.

Change is okay. Do a different program. Go into a role you didn’t go to school for.

We all come from different professional backgrounds. Include that in your portfolio.

If someone uses an acronym and you don’t know it ask right away. Don’t wait to ask later when it becomes awkward.

You need to have a passion to want to grow. You don’t know everything and need to show that you are willing to learn.

Ask questions. Don’t pretend to know you know. We know that you don’t.

Relax and network with the 22 people in your course. You may be working with them or someone may be working at a place you want to work. Keep connected.

Michelle Farley - Lead UX Designer
Twitter: @Farley_creative

Yu Shin Was - Digital Designer

Demi Pinsonneault – UX Designer
Twitter: @50purrcent