CLIENT
WAND
FOCUS AREA
Software as a Service model and business strategy
USER
Marketing Individuals and General Managers at Quick Serve Restaurants and Chefs at Campus Dining Halls
METHODS
Cognitive Walkthrough, Heuristic Analysis, Deep Dive, Contextual Usability Testing, User Personas
MY ROLE: Coordinated a Cognitive Walkthrough on the current software, conducted Contextual Usability Tests, created low and high fidelity wireframes, revised training approach for onboarding new customers, outlined a phased implementation plan,, designed user personas, and produced a detailed findings and recommendations report.
OPPORTUNITY SPACE
Evaluate a SaaS product that was reactively developed to accommodate the business’s growth and ever changing user types
Assess the way in which users were being introduced to the software
Determine what users were accessing in the software to do and how we might be able to more easily facilitate common tasks
IDEATED SOLUTION
Provided recommendations that allowed users to access role based data and quickly complete necessary tasks
Generated a comprehensive and holistic training approach for new customers
Created a dynamic dashboard and suggested data integrations to facilitate restaurant tasks
INTRO:
Digitizing Deliciousness
You pull up in line at Einstein Bros after craving a Cinnamon Sugar bagel and a black coffee. But, after looking up at the digital screen displaying their menu content, you can’t help but order the Bagelrito after its rotating image stares down at you looking all melty and delicious. WAND not only provides companies like Einstein Bros and many other restaurants with the hardware to display compelling menu content, they also offer a Software as a Service where customers can maintain and update all of their menu data in addition to receiving 24/7/365 support.
The company’s end-to-end solution is designed to come into contact with people ranging from chefs working in campus dining halls all the way to corporate marketing managers creating the branded assets. The complexity of managing massive amounts of menu data along with the varied types of users, has created a software that is more robust than most users need.
RESEARCH:
Wondering about WAND
WAND wanted the software to be more user-focused, but also wanted to create strategic business plan that would help the company continue to evolve. I worked on a team with 4 other researchers and designers to evaluate the existing software and provide recommendations for its future state.
Screening the Space
We began by creating a Deep Dive document where we explored other digital menu board companies as well as other SaaS models to gain insights on what was working in this space and what wasn’t. What we found was there are many other menu board options for customers, but what creates a positive experience with a SaaS product when there is a:
Strong onboarding process - onboarding is a first impression, and customers can’t go into the experience being confused.
Navigation should be minimal and intuitive - access to the software should be determined by the type of role the user has.
Way for help to always be available - create an easy way for customers to get the answers they are looking for.
Powerful and customizable dashboard - users need to be able to immediately access relevant data and tasks.
Studying Scenarios
With these general insights in mind, we conducted a cognitive walkthrough of the software to determine if people were able to complete baseline tasks. We found that users would need significant training in order to be able to complete the most of the general tasks in the software.
Engaging with Employees
We began by interviewing WAND’s internal staff members who work with the customers on a daily basis. They provided us with an overview of how the software works and along with a list of the major pain points expressed by customers. The main pain points were focused around the fact that the software had A LOT of functionality for users who were only using it to complete one part of the process of getting a menu board up and running.
We then met with the WAND customers who were interacting with the software on a daily basis. They indicated that while the software works great once they’ve spent some time getting used to its features, most people took about 6 weeks to become comfortable with its functionality. Users indicated this was due to the sheer complexity of the software, the unfamiliar terminology used, and the order in which they received training. We chose to conduct a survey to determine how to replace the existing terminology. During the interviews, users’ comments ranged from requesting all search results appear on one page instead of multiple to asking that WAND create an internal tool to aggregate menu data. Although the suggestions varied, they all centered around three key areas:
Design Clarity
Customer Interactions
Data Centralization
DESIGN:
Editing what’s Existing
After getting an idea of what challenges people were experiencing and where improvements could be made, I created initial wireframes to visualize possible solutions. The wireframes were reviewed with my team and we chose to focus on creating a tabbed task flow for users to complete steps in the menu board creation process in addition to reworking common pain points people were experiencing with the UI.
Wireframe illustrating how users could manage the assets uploaded
Personifying the Participants
After speaking with WAND users, we determined there needed to be role-based access given to different people playing a part in the menu board creation. I designed user personas to exemplify the job duties and motivations for each of the user groups. These not only informed our design decisions but also aided in demonstrating the ability to break the seemingly infinite types of users into only three access roles.
Framing the Future
In addition to creating wireframes of the key user flows, it was also necessary to consider the long term business strategy that would allow WAND’s customer base to continue to grow and evolve. A phased roadmap was created that encompassed the steps suggested to implement our proposed changes. Beginning phase changes would include the small updates to the site’s terminology and provide help language to users learning the software for the first time.
The middle stage included a revised training approach. Since customers were being trained on the software before they have access and can fully comprehend what it is capable of, I created a training approach document that outlines how training should be rolled out to new customers.
The final stage included creating a dynamic and customizable dashboard, so WAND customers would easily be able to access and act on data relevant to them. This stage also included recommendations for future data integrations. Since people in the restaurant industry are busy, they have little time to spend making sure all of their restaurant data aligns. The WAND software does not integrate with the restaurant’s registers, inventory, or sales analytics, and we recommend creating those integrations, so users spend less time updating data in more than one place.
The client was seeking a phased approach to updates, customer insights, and details regarding design suggestions. We compiled all of our research insights and designed concepts into a comprehensive Findings & Recommendations report for the client to review and reference in the future.
CONCLUSION:
Clarifying Complexity
While the idea of digital menu boards is fairly simple, the inter-business relationships and complexity of the software creates a much more complicated experience for customers than initially anticipated. It was crucial to understand that using this software was only one small portion of our users' job, and we focused our designs to create an expedited process where users could interact with the software in ways that were relevant to them. While the intricacies behind the software remain unchanged, users need to be exposed to a version of the software that is centered around completing specific tasks and less about having access to every piece of the puzzle.