Sustaining Operational Success:
The Redesign of Buildium’s Admin Tool
Context:
The Admin Tool is the core of Buildium's internal operations, it’s an internal site that’s deeply integrated into the workflows of customer care managers, agents, engineers, and product managers. This essential tool not only manages customer accounts but also drives Buildium's operational excellence and overall success.
What is the Admin tool?
For 8 months (1/2021 - 9/2021), I led the project's design and research efforts. I cross-functionally collaborated with a scrum team consisting of a UX architect who also served as my product manager, three software engineers, a QA engineer, my UX manager, and a UX researcher.
I was responsible for:
Moderating research calls
Facilitating team alignment sessions
Wireframing + low-fidelity mockups
High-fidelity mockups
My role & the team:
As the tool's functionality expanded, its design was unintentionally overlooked. Consequently, certain features and UI elements within the tool became disjointed, lacking intuitiveness, and visually outdated. This ultimately resulted in slower user performance and poor usability.
What’s the problem?
Our goal:
Reduce time on task and cognitive load for Admin users.
Discovery + Research
First impression
Upon my first encounter with the admin tool, I was greeted by a sense of initial overwhelm. Its complexity and outdated interface were apparent. In order to effectively approach the project and gain a deeper understanding of the tool, I set out to talk to the people who used it daily.
The original Admin home page
Unlocking user insights
To kick things off, I partnered with one of our researchers to craft a research plan and a moderator guide. Our aim was to conduct user interviews, which served a dual purpose: closing my knowledge gap on the tool and identifying user needs, behaviors, and pain points. Following this, I conducted 10 interviews with internal users from different departments. These interviews not only unveiled significant pain points but also allowed me to gain a better understanding of how the tool was used and who its core users were.
User interviews + notes
The original search results and activity page
Consistently observed high-level pain points from all users:
The top navigation is unintuitive and confusing
The account search is the primary function of the Admin tool, but the experience felt disconnected and cumbersome
The account activity log was cluttered with information and had poor discoverability
Ideating + Prototyping
Streamlining the top navigation menu
I independently conducted open card sorting workshops with the same users from my interviews, aiming to create a more intuitive top navigation structure and improve the information architecture, ultimately alleviating user confusion for a smoother experience.
Switching gears
Page audit via Google Sheets
Evolution of the activity search
Designing the new account search experience
Top: Different home page iterations
Bottom: Account search experience wireframe
Simplifying the search:
Recognizing that users rarely utilized the provided filtering options for searching, I opted to remove them. This decision led to a cleaner interface and a simplified, more straightforward search experience.
Account ID accessibility:
Users were frustrated with the multiple clicks required to access account IDs, a crucial piece of information that should be readily available. To resolve this issue, I placed account IDs directly on the search results grid, enabling easy copying and significantly reducing task time and clicks.
Consolidating icons:
Users were unclear about the function of the icons on the results page, which occupied valuable screen space and was not primary information for the grid. To address this, I organized them into a quick menu for improved clarity and efficiency.
Introduced a new loading approach:
The existing infinite scroll for search results severely impacted performance. To address this issue, I recommended implementing a "show more" loader.
Decluttering the activity log
Users found it frustrating that the activity log lacked time filters, requiring them to scroll endlessly to locate specific dates or action types. To address this challenge, I introduced two filters: one for date ranges and another for action types, simplifying the process of finding the data they needed.
My engineers and project manager informed me that altering the menu structure was beyond the project's scope, prompting me to pivot my approach. Instead, I collaborated with engineering to conduct a page audit. This audit revealed several underutilized pages in the tool. We subsequently deprecated these pages, resulting in a significantly streamlined menu. This, in turn, led to a more user-friendly, intuitive, and less confusing navigation experience.
Weekly collaborative design syncs
To ensure alignment, I conducted weekly team huddles to share designs, gather feedback, and discuss feasibility with my engineers. This approach ensures everyone is informed and eliminates surprises later on.
Validating the designs
With the wireframes finalized, the next step was to validate our new designs. Collaborating with my researcher, we created a usability test plan and conducted five sessions with the same participants from our interviews. The sessions were a clear success, as users were able to perform nearly all tasks with ease and confidence. One adjustment we made following the sessions was related to the eye icon next to the account name. Its purpose was for users to click it and then be directed to the customer’s Buildium account. However, that was unclear to users, prompting us to remove it.
The eye icon removed and replaced with a login column
Development
Overcoming design disagreements
For the initial release, we launched a soft beta to 15 core users to assess performance and the redesigned features. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive.
Evolution of the Admin home page
Continue incrementally releasing to more users
Validate if we successfully met our goals by getting quantitative data around time on task and revenue
“It’s going to be much easier to train new agents on how to use this tool now.”
Evolution of the account search experience
“Searching accounts has become so much easier and the ability to copy account IDs on the grid is a game-changer.”
Next steps: gradual progression
“I love how the navigation menu is consolidated and is not nearly as overwhelming as before.”
While I maintained regular communication with my engineering team, I still encountered pushback for certain design decisions. Specifically, they questioned the necessity of the button that allowed the user to navigate back to the previous page, they believed the browser's back button would suffice.
To address this, I taught my team the importance of the User Control and Freedom UX heuristic. This discussion served as a valuable teaching moment, helping the engineers better grasp the importance of user-centric design decisions, even when they might appear minor.
A successful release and redesign
Takeaways:
I learned to not let a ‘NO’ be the last of my efforts. I was able to pivot and figure out my next best option for improving the top navigation menu.
Team alignment is fundamental to a project's success. Syncing weekly with my team helped there be no surprises at the end.
Pushback is inevitable. I’m happy I was able to successfully advocate for users and turn a design disagreement into valuable teaching moments