Dashboard for the Content Specialist persona 

Summary:  Designed a digital dashboard for the content specialist persona with the most with the most essential information widgets for this personas work requirements, as part of the existing PIM product.

Result: The development management team would take the design forward for development and later for launch of the product.

Tools used: Teams interviews| Card sorting | Balsamiq | Figma | Target group:  persona of the dashboard.

My work: Desktop research | Interviews with internal experts | Sketching | Prototyping | Testing and final presentation.

Insights: I learned that designing for an assumed user whom you cannot contact is a risk of making incorrect assumptions, where misunderstandings can occur if one solely relies on internal resources. It's not guaranteed that the user needs a dashboard; they may require something else. 


Background

Inriver a B2B company specializing in PIM systems. The UX design team developed five distinct user personas, each facing unique challenges and requirements in their daily tasks based on their varying roles and usage of Inriver's PIM product.

My focus was on enhancing the dashboard for the content specialist persona.
If feasible, aim to incorporate gamification features into this persona's dashboard to enhance the overall user experience.  

Problem statement 

The personas were based on the design team's expertise, insights and their previous interactions with similar user profiles. 

However, limitations arising from hierarchy policies and information security prevented direct engagement with individuals embodying these personas within Inriver's customer companies.

Solution

Designed a detailed interactive prototype dashboard for the content specialist persona using Figma.

The prototype was tested with product owners and a feature manager overseeing products.  

The content specialist persona.




Research 


My desktop research yielded valuable insights on various topics, including general dashboards, UX dashboards, top dashboards in 2022, best practices and pitfalls in BI dashboards. Additionally, I explored UX gamification, top gamification trends, and gamification dashboards. 



Following my discoveries, I shared my current findings and the lessons I had gained... 

...along with my suggestions for the design team on a weekly basis. 


Simultaneously, I conducted internal interviews with various teams:

I aimed to understand the content specialist's role, their essential information needs, and how to represent this data as widgets. 

Despite varied responses, I gathered all insights for my research. I also checked for a comparable dashboard, but none were available then. 




I organized 2 cardsorting workshops, one in person and one digitally via Teams, with the same participants – including UX designers, BSA professionals, and learning academy members. The aim was to identify crucial information widgets for the content specialist's dashboard, fostering group discussion.

The digital workshop was more efficient, enabling broader engagement, clearer discussions, and easier visualization on the Teams whiteboard. Afterward, participants selected the top 6 essential information widgets for this persona. My research indicates that maintaining 5 to 7 widgets on a dashboard ensures user-friendliness.




Define


I had amassed a substantial amount of research data, although not directly from the actual persona user. Still, relying on my research, I needed to determine the six most relevant information widgets for this persona and assess the feasibility of incorporating gamification.

Upon identifying and naming these widgets, I proceeded using the "How might we..." approach: 

Throughout the process, I collaborated closely with the UI designer, a product owner, and a product manager. Due to time constraints, I opted to concentrate solely on the content specialist persona's dashboard.


I sketched a potential dashboard layout in Balsamiq, initially considering gamification from my research. 

However, I later decided to focus solely on my "How might we..." questions. 

The product's effectiveness and positive experience are crucial, without depending on extra features that might not enhance the final outcome. 




Ideate

Ideating and creating a low-fidelity design in Balsamiq for the content specialist dashboard's functionality and appearance.

 
Ensuring the dashboard's UI aligned with the new UI design being developed by the design team for the entire PIM product was crucial.

 
Consistently held weekly Design meetings and shared my low-fi prototype with both the design team and developers to gather feedback. 



Prototype

The six important information widgets on the landing dashboard page for the content specialist was "Recently open", "My bookmarks", "Evaluate metrics", "PIM metrics", "Tasks" and "Actions required" - each one with different and important information and action calls for the persona. 



Here are the other sections of the prototype, including interactions and navigations. 





Test

I tested the prototype with a product feature manager and product owners, chosen for their UX expertise and, more importantly, their profound understanding of the persona's challenges and needs. 

The feedback:





Summary:Designed a digital dashboard for the content specialist persona with the most with the most essential information widgets for this personas work requirements, as part of the existing PIM product.