Simpplr | Doris Tao

Simpplr Dashboard

Brief

Our client company Simpplr is an AI-powered employee experience platform designed to streamline internal communications and enhance employee engagement through personalized intranets.

We are working on redesigning the Simpplr’s user dashboard to enhance End user engagement.

Team Members: Annie Zhang, Doris Tao, Eli Marietta, Tanmaie Kailash

Term Project

Duration: 16 weeks

My role: I was involved in all stages of the research process, lead the ideation and design phases, and conducted evaluation tests

Year: 2024

Simpplr's Dashboard

Information on Simpplr is organized in individual sites. Existing enterprises have anywhere from five to one hundred sites within their Simpplr platform. To interface with these sites, End users mainly interact with their home dashboard. This home dashboard typically consists of a navigation bar, a carousel, and a feed.

Screenshot of Simpplr’s existing home dashboard, taken from a demo video on their website

Stakeholders

Our stakeholders are divided into two groups: internal and external. Each group is further categorized into managers and end-users.

The end-users are those who consume content on the home dashboard but do not have the ability to customize it, unlike App Managers.

External Stakeholders

Division leaders who personalize individual sites

Internal Stakeholders

Decision-makers who chose to use the platform

Client company End users

Simpplr managers and employees

Problem Statement

How might we tailor the home dashboard to better support the work tasks of End users?

End Users are those users that consumes content on the home dashboard, but not have ability to customize dashboard, unlike App-Managers

Research Activities

Survey

Contextual Inquiry

Cognitive Walkthrough

Comparative Analysis

1. Survey

Goal

Gather insights into user preferences, opinions, and behaviors related to the current Simpplr home dashboard.
Identify areas for improvement in the dashboard.
Enhance the user experience on the Simpplr platform.
Increase productivity for end users using the platform.
Boost engagement and adoption of the Simpplr platform.

Why

It enables the efficient collection of quantitative data from a large number of users in a shorter period of time.
It ensure anonymity and confidentiality, encouraging honest and unbiased feedback from participants

Why not?

Self-reported data, which may not actual End user behavior.
Generalizability: Recruitment of Simpplr employees only, n = 18
Unable to dig further into responses to determine motivation behind reported behavior

Presentation of Data

2. Contextual Inquiry

Goal

Develop an understanding of End users' overall work process.
Identify the role the home dashboard plays within this process.

Why

Strengths of Interviews:
- Learn how and why participants use the Simpplr home dashboard.
Strengths of Observations:
- Observe potential opportunities for adding completely new functionalities.
- Support work tasks that are currently carried out elsewhere due to existing constraints.

Why not?

Small sample size (n = 3)
Not possible for us to observe any physical tasks

Contextual Inquiry through Zoom

Affinity Map to Analyze the Interview Data

3. Cognitive Walkthrough

Goal

Identify learnability issues with the dashboard.
Assess how effectively users can complete key task flows on the dashboard.
Improve overall user understanding of the dashboard functionalities.

Why

Evaluate the learnability of the current home dashboard.
Identify immediate pain-points that could be alleviated by reducing complexity.
Analyze each screen’s functionality step-by-step.
Assess whether the dashboard fully supports users in completing their tasks.
Provide insights for future improvements to the dashboard.

Why not?

Recognize that we are not the actual users and therefore cannot fully reference their actual mental models.
Note constraints on access to software, which limited our freedom in exploring different task flows.

Cognitive Walkthrough Main Tasks

The manager wants to add tile

The End user wants to use the research function

The Manager wants to change the layout for the whole department

4. Comparative Analysis

Goal

Understand the competitive landscape of the latest intranet trends.
Identify common features in competitive products that could benefit Simpplr.
Collect ideas from products with goals or uses adjacent to Simpplr.
Determine useful features from these adjacent products for potential integration.

Why

Understand best practices efficiently, without the need to implement and test ourselves.
Gain ideas for differentiating from direct competitors by exploring a variety of products.
Open up possibilities for what all products we could consider for inspiration and innovation.

Why not?

Lack of real user feedback of using these apps
Some apps contains in Simpplr’s app launcher

Optimized Analysis

Research Synthesis

Based on our research findings, our group generated insights and organized them into an affinity map. Using the higher hierarchy of the affinity diagram, we compiled a detailed list of user expectations for the project deliverables

Findings

Description

End users need dashboard personalization options

The system should allow for a range of personalization options

End users need to parse the interface in a swift manner

The system should support quicker comprehension through providing clearer visual feedback, labels, and descriptions

End users need a way to de-prioritize content posting tiles on their home dashboard

The system should highlight useful defaults for End users

End users need a way to filter their feed differently

End users need a way to hand-pick their related and cared-for content

End users need a way to teach the recommendation algorithm what they aren’t interested in

The system should maximize End users’ agency in content curation

End users need an easier way to access their “Favorites” and apps they’d like to launch

The system should minimize the number of clicks required by End users

User Persona

Trevor Johnstone

Age: 32

Job: Sales

" I want the home dashboard to be ultra-integral to my workday, to be tailored to my needs."

Context

Trevor works a 9-5 job, and is passionate about his career
Trevor moved to a new state for his job
Trevor values efficiency and productivity in his work
Trevor doesn’t like being distracted during his workday
Trevor is knowledgeable about the tech industry
Trevor uses the Simpplr employee experience platform

Goals

Locate files quickly
Learn recent or exciting company news
Identify unfamiliar colleagues
Support colleagues’ accomplishments

Motivations

Gather information to inform work tasks
Stay informed about company developments
Maintain a good relationship with his colleagues

Painpoints

Needing to sift through irrelevant information to find what he needs
The unappealing aesthetic of the product
Finds the information architecture and available features unclear

Usage

Checks the home dashboard

Creates knowledge-sharing posts

Search for files and blogs

Utilizes the app launcher

Searches for colleagues

Interacts with posts on the feed

Cheers colleagues' birthdays

Saves content with bookmarks

Card Sort

We spearheaded card sorting with 15 participants utilizing Useberry.

Why？

We chose card sorting because our turning point necessitated a reimagination of Simpplr’s information architecture and we wanted to ensure our new design corresponded with End users’ mental models. Furthermore, we carried out this method in a remote, unmoderated environment so we could gather data as quickly as possible while minimizing the possibility of influencing participants.

Participants

Our participants were End users who were employed by either Simpplr or Simpplr’s clients.

Simpplr employees: 10 participants
Simpplr’s clients: 5 participants
- Nutanix, UKG, Ivanti, Silicon Labs

Salient Findings

Event had the greatest affinity to company news, which we accounted for in our prototype

Design Process

Ideation

Sketches

Sketch Feedback

Mid-Fi Wireframe

Wireframe Feedback

Prototype

Sketch Methods

We worked collaboratively on the ideation process. First, we explored the worst ideas to broaden our thinking. Then, we used the Crazy 8 method to generate better ideas. Finally, we applied the Crazy 4 technique to allocate more time for refining our ideas.

After ideation, we gathered all our ideas and created a matrix map to identify the key flows that we would focus on designing.

Final Flows We Pick

Add Tiles

Empty tile -> add tile -> project tile -> configure tile -> pin tile

Knowledge

Home tab -> Knowledge tab -> Sort/Filter and Click into news story

Favorites

Home tab -> Knowledge tab -> add a blog post to favorites -> accessing favorites

Reloading to see new content within the search results tile (can be focused on the home dashboard)

Mid-Fi Prototypes

Add Tiles

Favorites

Knowledge Filters

Reacting

Mid-Fi Feedback

Method Target

Our goal with this method is to ensure the design's clarity, utility, and information architecture.

How ？

A set of questions for Add Tile -> Knowledge Filters -> Favorites -> Search Tile

Participants

Four general users of intranets - clients

Two users of Simpplr - experts

Feedback Affinity Map

Optimized Feedback

End users like being able to control their own dashboard
End users would like a color-adjustment function which could assist users with visual impairments
End users would like a robust filtering system to control what knowledge they can see
End users would like a way to change the layout of knowledge articles to show more content (e.g., a grid as well as a list format)
End users would like the ability to further configure tiles on their home dashboard
End users question the utility of the “Search Results” tile as currently designed
End users like the organization of content into tabs, but may need more explanation on the distinction between them

Final Prototype

Add Tile

To offer more personalization options for end-users, we've added a home tab that allows them to engage with the layout. This highly customizable feature enables users to edit the content on the page, giving them greater control. This not only enhances user experience but also helps attract customers and increase retention.

Knowledge Tab

To enhance the user experience with company-shared news, we’ve added four filters to the Knowledge tab. These filters allow end-users to track the most popular posts, followed authors, and time increments of reading. They can also sort posts chronologically, search for posts by tags, and adjust the page's presentation format. Additionally, we’ve fixed the layout of the most important news on the right side of the page, which cannot be altered by users. To make it easier for users to navigate our design, we’ve included hover notes for all cases.

Favorites

Based on previous user research, end-users rarely used the favorite feature due to its difficulty in manipulation. In our design, we've made this feature more visible and easier to use, and we’ve added filters to help end-users easily find and save what they want to keep.

Social Tab

During the design process, we aimed to allow end-users to post their own content and interact with others by reacting or commenting on posts. On this page, users can also celebrate their colleagues' birthdays or share their latest achievements.

Overall Layout

The overall layout of the webpage is fixed, consisting of a header and a sidebar. Users can toggle the sidebar on or off, with some default functions pre-set. Notably, we’ve designed the search bar to be larger and more prominent, addressing the users' frequent need to utilize the search function.

Final Evaluation

We performed 5 heuristic evaluations and 5 moderated usability testing sessions via Zoom and UserTesting.

Heuristic Evaluations

Why?

We chose heuristic evaluations because we wanted to quickly determine larger usability issues and integrate common heuristics into addressing them.

Participants

1+ years of professional UI/UX Design experience
Countries: US, Germany

Goals

Measure system usability against Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics
Uncover pain points

Analyzed Painpoints from Affinity Map

Users needed more visual feedback and readability --- 2.5
Users wanted more robust features --- 2.5
Users were confused by prototype limitations, and particularly missed when backtracking was not a wired out flow --- 2.8
Users needed additional explanations, or more simplified logic for certain flows --- 2.9

Average Rating Scores

Usability Testing

Why?

We advocated for usability testing because we wanted to (1) validate previous design decisions (2) uncover pain points, and (3) gain a holistic understanding of the system’s usability. Moreover, this method allowed us to perform research in an environment where we could directly observe as well as make participants feel more comfortable to share due to the more personal nature of moderated sessions.

Participants

Utilized company intranet
- 1+ months
Countries: US, Canada, UK
Ages: 25-44

Goals

Validate previous design decisions
Uncover pain points
Gain a holistic understanding of the system’s usability

Validation

End users valued the system’s capacity for personalization

End users appreciated the accessibility of the screen reader function

Painpoints

End users found content within tiles to be confusing, particularly when adding it

While End users found the Favorites drop-down easily, they faced issues while opening its corresponding tab

Outcomes

Improved the SUS score by 73%
Contributed to the overhaul of Simpplr’s information architecture
Validated previous research findings such as End users’ desire for personalization

Future Steps

Make prototypes more visually friendly including the iconography, fonts and visual hierarchy

Make the whole design more logical and easy to learn

Improve the onboarding process for a better first time user experience

Ensure the home dashboard has a good balance with other features in Simpplr