Template Solution

Role

IA, Research, UX architecture, and Visual Design

Tools

Pencil and paper, Axure, Sketch, and Figma

Too many templates, no way to get to them

As the platform began to grow, the need to classify and put some order to all the resources surged. We gave users a lot of templates based on their own use cases, but we didn’t offer these in a catalog or in any type of order. It was a giant, uncategorized list with, in some cases, very cryptic and confusing titles.

The issue got raised by one of our design partners, as it happened, I started thinking about how we could create a solution that was simple and searchable.

With three prototypes in hand, I began a small roadshow with users to gather their feedback. Some ideas got shot down on the spot but also gave way to different discussions and raised more issues that were not under consideration at the time.

Back at my desk, I finally had a full wishlist of requirements, indispensable items, and nice-to-have components.

The delivered product was in the end

a carefully designed experience based on research,

client validation and passion to give the user the best experience possible.

The time came in to cherry pick the best of our prototypes, take into consideration all the feedback given by our users and also the input given by our project managers. Distilling this information was no easy task, so I created a small matrix and prioritized all these points until I had a functional model.

The next step into this was looking for some inspiration and taking a peek over the fence to see what our neighbors are doing, after all, it’s not like we’re reinventing the wheel!

The solution

After doing a benchmark study on our competitors, it became clear that most of them had the usual elements, and that this was a common paradigm and an already established mental model in our users.

So then the search for inspiration became something different: what could I do that was within this paradigm and was also a delightful experience while delivering all the functionality that was already expected?

Templates exist both as a standalone first class citizen and in a contextual version inside the Intelligence tenants
Smart filters let the user find what they want quickly and efficiently
Comprehensive object previews have all the relevant information to let the user avoid opening and closing templates

Final Notes

What worked

What could have been better

Looking towards the future

  • We did give the users what they needed
  • Overall acceptance among users was above and beyond expectations
  • We set out to organize our huge template catalog and we sure did it
  • The catalog can still use more work in terms of taxonomy and where we put things
  • We need a better understanding from the PM group to work around categories and improve the overall search process
  • Preview can be improved to include a larger window and more preview options
  • More research needs to be done with users to figure out how to better classify our templates
  • This, in turn, will give us more flexibility around primary search filters
  • Give the users the ability to create and save templates, have a My Templates section
  • Allow the user to share within and out of the org group their own template creations
  • Marketplace for crowdsourcing templates