Challenge

There is a well known web-hosting company in my country. It is valued mainly for their support – if you have any hosting-related problem, you can chat instantly with one of their many support  specialists and you'll almost certainly get things sorted.

However, the company recently undergone a large rise in popularity and their support staff started  to be overwhelmed with all the support requests. Internally, they decided they need to lower number of support chats to keep the quality of support.

Their administration interface was identified as one huge source of confusion (and thus support  requests). So, the challenge became to make smaller incremental changes to eliminate most of the  misunderstanding coming from this interface. That is where I came in.

Selection

In the first “What is” phase we were able to collect a lot of information – we needed some way to  put them together & give them structure. We chose mind-mapping, as seen in Week 3 lecture “Mind Mapping Tool” - as a visual and tangible way to group & sort all the scattered information.

Application

First, we focused on just one part of administration interface, namely DNS (Domain Name System)  settings screens, and gathered together all the information we had:

• personas (there were just two main personas – advanced user administering larger amount of domains and web-hostings and a basic user setting up his own website)

• transcriptions of support chats that dealt with DNS settings (complete conversations  between client and support agent)

• testers' feedback (we asked a group of close webdevelopers, admins and freelancers using  this part of interface daily to review it and give us feedback)

• Google Analytics data

• wiki pages containing help for users

• screenshots of actual interface

• screenshots of similar interfaces from competition

As we work remotely, we couldn't use a large room to put up the information on the walls and walk  around. As an online alternative, we used a trello board (https://trello.com/) where we created  several lists based on the categories of information above and filled 'em with information. Then we  went through them individually and jotted down some notes as they came to us.

After this we scheduled a virtual Hangouts call. The aim was to share observations with each other.  As a tool for collaborative visualisation of this step we used draw.io with Google Drive  (https://www.draw.io) where we put boxes with observations (just like post-it notes) and them  moved them around and clustered (which actually took considerably more time than just writing a

post-it and sticking it on a board).

Insight

Putting together all the available information alone helped a lot. We were forced to put information  from various sources (online doc, Google Analytics, basecamp discussions, support agent  conversations folder) into one place (Trello), which allowed us to get better overview. Thanks to  this we also realized we had more available data than we initially thought.

Hard part was holding the whole process online. Although I am a big fan of remote work, I had to  admit it would be easier to meet & do this in person.

Thanks to this process (which took place very recently) we came up with ideas that will hopefully  help us with solving the challenge and eventually lowering the number of support requests coming  from this part of administration interface:

• low level of knowledge – basic users are confused about the settings → our solution needs  to educate them so they know what they are doing

• scattered settings – current interface doesn't allow to set everything on one place, users can't  find what they are looking for → our solution needs to put things together rather than scatter them more

• UI bugs → there is a list of technical bugs that our solution needs to address and fix

• current interface doesn't give you access to most used features → our solution should accept  what users need most

Approach

Inviting stakeholders can be hard. We ended up being three (me as a designer, the product manager  and a programmer). There should definitely be 2-3 more persons the next time. In such a small  group the ideas didn't flow so naturally and we could easily oversee important insights.

Also, if possible, I'd like to try this in person to see people working in groups, interacting with each  other, moving around in physical space – it should move this process to another level.


Challenge There is a well known web - hosting company in my country . It is valued mainly for their support – if you have any hosting - related problem , you can chat instantly with one of their many support specialists and you 'll almost certainly get things sorted . However , the company recently undergone a large rise in popularity and their support staff started to be overwhelmed with all the support requests . Internally , they decided they need to lower number of support chats to keep the quality of support . Their administration interface was identified as one huge source of confusion ( and thus support requests ) . So , the challenge became to make smaller incremental changes to eliminate most of the misunderstanding coming from this interface . That is where I came in . Selection In the first “ What is ” phase we were able to collect a lot of information – we needed some way to put them together & give them structure . We chose mind - mapping , as seen in Week 3 lecture “ Mind Mapping Tool ” - as a visual and tangible way to group & sort all the scattered information . Application First , we focused on just one part of administration interface , namely DNS ( Domain Name System ) settings screens , and gathered together all the information we had : • personas ( there were just two main personas – advanced user administering larger amount of domains and web - hostings and a basic user setting up his own website ) • transcriptions of support chats that dealt with DNS settings ( complete conversations between client and support agent ) • testers ' feedback ( we asked a group of close webdevelopers , admins and freelancers using this part of interface daily to review it and give us feedback ) • Google Analytics data • wiki pages containing help for users • screenshots of actual interface • screenshots of similar interfaces from competition As we work remotely , we could n't use a large room to put up the information on the walls and walk around . As an online alternative , we used a trello board ( https://trello.com/ ) where we created several lists based on the categories of information above and filled 'em with information . Then we went through them individually and jotted down some notes as they came to us . After this we scheduled a virtual Hangouts call . The aim was to share observations with each other . As a tool for collaborative visualisation of this step we used draw.io with Google Drive ( https://www.draw.io ) where we put boxes with observations ( just like post - it notes ) and them moved them around and clustered ( which actually took considerably more time than just writing a post - it and sticking it on a board ) . Insight Putting together all the available information alone helped a lot . We were forced to put information from various sources ( online doc , Google Analytics , basecamp discussions , support agent conversations folder ) into one place ( Trello ) , which allowed us to get better overview . Thanks to this we also realized we had more available data than we initially thought . Hard part was holding the whole process online . Although I am a big fan of remote work , I had to admit it would be easier to meet & do this in person . Thanks to this process ( which took place very recently ) we came up with ideas that will hopefully help us with solving the challenge and eventually lowering the number of support requests coming from this part of administration interface : • low level of knowledge – basic users are confused about the settings → our solution needs to educate them so they know what they are doing • scattered settings – current interface does n't allow to set everything on one place , users ca n't find what they are looking for → our solution needs to put things together rather than scatter them more • UI bugs → there is a list of technical bugs that our solution needs to address and fix • current interface does n't give you access to most used features → our solution should accept what users need most Approach Inviting stakeholders can be hard . We ended up being three ( me as a designer , the product manager and a programmer ) . There should definitely be 2 - 3 more persons the next time . In such a small group the ideas did n't flow so naturally and we could easily oversee important insights . Also , if possible , I 'd like to try this in person to see people working in groups , interacting with each other , moving around in physical space – it should move this process to another level .