Terraframe

Optimizing the user experience for multiple organizations on one platform.
View Prototype
Who is Terraframe?
Terraframe is a market leader when it comes to GIS spatial data rendering and building data ecosystems.  They are working with the Cambodian and Laotian governments to find a way to track cases of Malaria through compiling information across multiple government organizations.
My Contributions
User Research, User Experience, User Interface, Prototyping
My Role
UX Designer
Platform Details
Desktop Application
The Team
Justin Lewis - Product Owner
Nathan - CTO
Project Status
Released
Project Type
Contract
Results in Re-Design
80%
increase of satisfactory task completion (hierarchy connection)
All
admin users were able to onboard and delegate tasks successfully
Reduced
the need of in-house training through in app help

The Unknown

Deep Discovery Work

User Interviews
Stakeholder Interviews
Metrics Analysis
Comparative Research
Why Re-Design the CGR?
Learning more about the Common Geo-Registry and current climate.
During this Re-design I immersed myself in the complexity of the system and got familiar with the SMEs. From a stakeholder standpoint the issues with the current CGR  boiled down to 3 key problems:
  1. Unnecessary hierarchies were created within the system
  2. Multiple organizations need to have access to make hierarchies and make decisions based on other organization's data
  3. Training caused a lot of overhead
What do users have to say?
Through user interviews we discovered pain points & potential solutions.
Research had been done initially to understand the problem people had with the CGR.  From that research and usability testing we were able to reveal more insights.
  1. The current way of creating hierarchies didn't clearly show a way to create connections to data sets
  2. Lack of contextual clues forced users to 'click around' to find out what things did
Insight:
Users created duplicate hierarchies, not realizing they had already been created and connected
Feature Solution:
Use visual cues to inform users of how hierarchies could be connected to other organization hierarchies.
Insight:
Users didn't understand what to do, right from the start.
Feature Solution:
Show user hints and overlays that describe how to use the product and give indicators and information buttons to help along the way
Insight:
Users had trouble connecting hierarchies and found the dropdowns cumbersome.
Feature Solution:
Add in drag and drop functionality and insure that the GeoObject Types looked modular.
The Conflict:
Lack of connection
View Problem Statement
The Conflict:
Multiple organizations with different priorities
View Problem Statement
The Conflict:
Training takes time
View Problem Statement

Resolving Conflict

Design & Implementation

Sketching
Adobe XD
Cazy 8s
Wire Flows
High Fidelity Mockups
Going to MVP
Once we had established what problems we needed to solve, I worked with our tech lead and program manager to develop features that could potentially solve the problems that had been laid out by our stakeholders and users. I set to work prototyping and wireframing possible userflows that the System Administrator would execute in order to accomplish their tasks.
Iterations
User Flows
Creating a New Hierarchy.
Viewing All Hierarchies.

Solution

CGR Hierarchy Manager

Outcomes

CGR Hierarchy Manager

What I've Learned
Accessibility
Drag and Drop functionality has a significant impact on those with higher accessibility needs.  Although the majority of our user base is able to use drag and drop effectively. I wanted to provide an alternative in order to accommodate for those needs
Usability
Our biggest hurdle was not being able to test with actual users.  While stakeholders and the rest of our team has some great insights into what could be done, it’s important to keep in mind that we are not our users and with usability testing we would be able to more adequately address issues that they face that we are not accounting for.
Specifics Matter
Going straight to High Fidelity Mock-ups often hinders the feedback process because stakeholders often worry that small details that you believe they might not notice are brought up in feedback conversations.  If something isn’t finished, it’s better to stick to lower fidelity so you can get the basic conversations out of the way.
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