City Operations Hub

For this project, I contributed to the design of the Operations Hub area of a complex city management Software as a Service (SaaS) system, consistently advocating for user needs while working within pre-established system patterns.

For this project, I collaborated closely with engineers, project managers, and product owners to achieve project goals in an Agile environment.

Contributions: UX Design/Product Design

Date: 2023

Background

I joined the project after it had already been launched, tasked with improving the UX of the Operations Hub of the platform.

The platform, designed for small and medium-sized cities in the Midwestern US, is a complex SaaS being migrated to a new framework.

Since most of the team was global, project leadership thought my contributions here as a US-based team member would be helpful in assuring usability.

Ops Hub Users

Shortly after joining the project, working closely with one of the client product owners, I generated user personas so we could better understand and empathize with the end user of the system.

Design Process

Since I joined this project after it launched, I worked within an established design system, using pre-established design patterns.

However, I actively advocated for user needs and suggested ways we could improve the user experience while not expanding project scope.

Step 1: Review requirements

Working within an Agile environment, I would start by analyzing the written project requirements and any visual mockups provided by the product owner. Here is an example of a mockup that was provided for the Permits area of the Hub.

Step 2: Visualize the flow

I would proceed by creating a user flow diagram to envision the flow.

Step 3: Define user journey

In this case, I also created a user journey to help build a more user-centered experience for this complex flow.

Prototype/Mockups

For each feature requirement, I worked closely with the engineers, project manager, and product owner for Operations Hub to create mockups and a prototype showing the flow. We’d work together to update and optimize things, getting them ready to ship.

The main Permits database view, with filterable grid. User can easily toggle between Permits and Permit Types.

Utilizing the pre-established pop-out style, a user can add a new Permit to the system. The various required sections that include optional information, such as Dates or Associated Properties, are sorted in collapsible sections to reduce information overload.

Confirmation is provided to the user that the ID they've entered is unique.

Recommended Next Steps

Conduct usability testing with actual end users to gather feedback and improve usability.
Improve the UI to make it more visually pleasing and accessible.
Optimize for mobile devices (if found to be necessary based on user needs).