Scenid Cloud
Creating a multi-product business management platform
Scenid Cloud is a B2B ecosystem which was commissioned by a German healthcare institution to manage their industry contacts and track and communicate important KPIs internally. It includes a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool, called Customers, as well as a BI (Business Information) tool, called Insights, and other smaller features.
I worked on this platform and the products within for 3.5 years as the only UX / UI Designer. I was responsible for conceptual functionality, visual design and cross-platform continuity. Having started as a UX / UI Design Intern and working my way to Senior UX / UI Designer, I gradually took on more responsibility in communicating with clients and stakeholders and taking part in strategic decision making for Scenid.
Customers
Customer relationship management and customer insights
Role
UX / UI Designer
Team
2 Developers, 3 Stakeholders
Product
CRM tool
Timeframe
2020 – 2023
Customers is a CRM product that helps the customer satisfaction team effectively communicate with customers and explore and share data with each other. Accurate representation of organisational structures and employment relationships enable users to save important business contacts and easily navigate the contact database as well as the comprehensive contact history.
Briefing
A redesign for the existing version of Customers had just been given the go-ahead shortly after I joined the team. The goal was to make customer data more accessible and to streamline the most important user flows for maintaining the customer database.
Approach
Looking at similar products beyond the scope of CRMs, I took inspiration from Contacts Apps which provide a common and simple navigation for contact databases: an alphabetised list.
From the user journeys and rough architecture I sketched out networks of user flows. I used the contact list as a central navigation element, complimentary to search, and arranged all user flows around this main part of the product. Then I created wireframes for all user flows, outlining what types of components would be needed for each screen.
Wireframe new layout
UI framework & design system
For the new UI of Customers we decided to switch to a new framework because it offered more flexibility for design and development and therefore the product itself.
For the design system we tried stay close to the framework, trying not to create unnecessary new components, and the guidelines of Material Design. The colour palette needed to stay in line with the clients CI, but we made the styling easily editable so we could later create different tenants of the same platform for different teams or customers with different colour palettes.
Screen design & handoff
After validating the wireframes and user flows with the client-side product manager, I started converting them into screen designs using elements from our UI library and some custom components based on Material Design. The developers in my team then implemented these designs after a final internal review. Throughout the successive implementation I consulted whenever I was needed.
We tested the product with key users from the most important user groups before launching. The findings helped us tweak certain features and re-prioritise the information hierarchy for some elements.
First iteration of the new Customers
First iteration of the new Customers (Journaling Feature)
Launch & feedback
After safely transferring the customer data from the old system to the new we were able to launch the new version of Customers. With the launch we also established a new feedback loop with the client in order to better meet evolving user needs.
The product eventually took on more responsibility from other software tools within our client’s organisation as further development went on.
Database view of latest version of Customers
Map view of customer database
Custom data tables
Feature refinement and further development
Through our new feedback loop we had a lot of new ideas and input from our client and the users within their organisation which we reviewed regularly. That way we were able to provide users with regular updates that led to more user engagement and involvement throughout the years after the launch.
Learning how certain features were being used allowed us to expand on those functionalities beyond the scope of the initial launch.
Updates
To implement updates and develop features requested by users we worked in an overlapping 3-week-sprint cycle with 1 week for planning and coordinating with the product manager, 1 for design and 1 for development. I was responsible for the design part, following a double-diamond workflow.
I scheduled user interviews to find out more about a request or to test newly developed solutions. Aside from solving user feedback, I made sure new features or updates were consistent throughout the product and didn’t create any new problems elsewhere.
What I learned
Having worked on this product for over 3 years, I learned a lot about nurturing stakeholder relationships. I learned how opening up feedback channels can lead to more user insights, higher acceptance, and overall a more collaborative atmosphere. If users feel more involved, they’ll participate more.
I learned to streamline and simplify complex processes and adapt them to ever evolving user needs. Just as user needs grow and evolve in tandem with the product, so too does the design system. Overall, I learned a lot about what it takes to create a platform from scratch and how to maintain it as well as the structures necessary to enable user activity to varying degrees of access.
Insights
Business Information System
Role
UX / UI Designer
Team
2 Developers, 2 Stakeholders
Product
Business intelligence tool
Timeframe
2021 – 2023
Insights is a business information system commissioned by the same client as Customers. It lets teams create custom visualisations from their own data sets to keep track of their KPIs. Users can create their own dashboards and share them with other users. Insights makes an organisation’s data visible and accessible to its members and teams.
Briefing
Next to Customers, our client also wanted a new version of their BI tool, Insights. With the new version our client wanted to be able to create dashboards tracking importing KPIs on their own and adapt them to changing demands and data sets. Our shared vision for the product was for users to be able to create dashboards from any data set, using any kind of visualisation.
Process
Allowing users to visualise their own KPIs brought varying degrees of complexity. Therefore, the new version of Insights was developed in 3 stages across the space of 2 years: first dashboards, then data input and lastly custom graphs. Each stage built upon the previous as to incrementally increase functionality and followed the same process during production.
Dashboards
We built the dashboard system first as a proof-of-concept for co-creating dashboards. For this we interviewed key users to get a better understanding of how they were currently accessing KPIs and what the dashboards would be used for. Additionally, we looked at other BI products and collaborative tools that used shared canvases. We also researched general use and best practices of BI dashboards to contextualise our efforts.
Data input
In order to allow our client to manage their own data sources for the KPIs displayed on their dashboards we implemented a data input system during the second stage. After getting briefed on the requirements we assessed the technical implications and concluded that we would create a unified upload process for all input types. My developer teammates went through the upload process with me, so I could understand what the necessary steps were and how data was stored in order to build the foundation for visualisations.
Graph editor
Lastly, we built an editor to allow users to create custom visualisations from their own data sets. We discussed with the project managers how this part of the product would fit into their organisational structure and workflow and who would be working with it most. In talking to some of these potential users we learned how they approached data visualisations and what details they focussed on.
Screen design
All parts of Insights connect to each other and to the rest of the platform through a menu in the navigation bar which also houses basic information and functions retaining to user identity. Because the dashboard, data input and graph editor systems were built successively yet separately, it was important to have the big picture in mind for the designs.
Although they are laid out differently to facilitate different user flows, these differences also help users with orientation within the product. The dashboard system and graph editor are both canvas-based, but while the graph editor highlights the tools and settings to construct a graph, the dashboard system draws the attention to its contents rather than its functions. Customers has features with similar functionalities that share these characteristics.
Launch & feedback
We did a final round of testing, making sure all our client’s use cases were covered and tried. And after all intranet data sources were connected, Insights was launched and open to use.
The graph builder completed our original vision of Insights. It was now possible for users to use their own data to create accurate visualisations with a visual editor.
Although my time ended just as the new version of Insights launched, the response and feedback I witnessed was generally positive. The tools we were providing to our users were received by some as useful and by others as eye-opening.
What I learned
Working on the layout and visual language of a complex editor taught me to balance many components to create a pleasant and coherent crafting experience. Researching graphs and human perception of visual information has changed my perspective on interface design in general. I was able to bring this knowledge into the project and learned how visualisations are constructed. Sometimes learning about technical foundations and constraints are not only necessary but can yield surprising results that ultimately benefit users.
The complexity and fuzziness of problems impacts our ability to assess how much time or effort it takes to solve them. These unknown factors also extend to communication within teams. I learned that in approaching problems with a lot of unknown factors close iteration loops as well as clear communication within a team are increasingly important as team members’ ideas of the product in question can differ widely.