Guided Learning In Automated Systems

Year

2023

Client

Professional Services - BlueRock enterprise product

Role

Lead UI & UX Designer

Deliverable

How I provided a new way of work, leveraging design thinking that provided a 30% time-saving

Visit Live Website

How I was successful

I led the implementation of a guided step-by-step process that directed users through a focused journey, prioritising a single user path in line with the 80/20 rule. This approach, while requiring complex flows to revert to Excel, proved to be the most viable solution for the business.

Thrown into the deep end, I gained invaluable experience—from designing UI for accountants who work with numbers daily, to confidently voicing my ideas in stakeholder meetings, and incorporating automation into an outdated workflow.

‍

Challenges I Overcame

I took an active role in shaping the product’s direction by not just following the product manager's initial plans, but by refining and iterating on the main user flows. This resulted in an experience better aligned with business goals and a more controlled user journey.

I developed a comprehensive design system, including prototyped interactions for the main flows, and experimented with micro-interactions to enhance user satisfaction. In addition to designing the full application UI, I assumed a product management role, asking critical questions and challenging assumptions throughout the process.

‍

Key Learnings

More user interviews don't necessarily lead to more insights. Instead of simply agreeing to conduct additional interviews to please others, I've learned to stand my ground and advocate for a more manageable number that yields meaningful results.

More products don't always simplify the process. It's crucial to ensure you're addressing a real business problem and that you can directly tie KPIs to the solutions you're delivering. Staying focused on these priorities leads to more impactful outcomes.

‍

user story #01

As an Accountant, I want to identify any issues with past BAS, so that I can pull the historical issues through

user story #02

As an Accountant, I want to view a high level summary of my clients accounts, so that I can focus on giving them the most valuable service

user story #03

As an Accountant, I want to see if my client has paid fees from their past BAS, so I know the exact figure to pull through into the current BAS

user story #04

As an overseas Accountant who is not familiar with this client relationship, I want to understand an overview of the client so that I can complete this process in a timely manner

user story #05

As an Accountant, I want to be able to interact with BAS application, so that I can highlight and inspect data values

user story #06

As an Accountant, I want to recognise the structure of the application as it relates to excel, so that I have little downtime in being able to complete my work in a new system

one

Inconsistent timesheets billed

two

Multiple ways of work

three

Complicated offshore onboarding

‍

Business Problem

For accountants working across multiple teams within the business, completing Business Activity Statements for clients either monthly or quarterly was a critical yet cumbersome task.

This process was heavily reliant on manual checks of extensive data sets, a task that begged for automation. The lack of consistency in this process across different teams led to significant challenges.

Teams performed the same job in vastly different ways, making it extremely difficult to merge teams and communicate processes effectively, especially with offshore accounting teams.

These inefficiencies hindered productivity and coordination, demanding a solution to automate the data checks and standardize the process across the business.

One

Decrease the time taken to complete a BAS by 30%

Two

Create a one-way-same way approach

Three

Improve the way of work for accountants

‍

Measuring Success

This project was a difficult one to balance, on one hand we needed to automate the process that relied heavily on manual checks, we could automate the process completely, and take humans out of the equation - but an audit trail still needed to be made, and the integrations between some platforms would make it difficult to completely automate.

As a middle ground, this product needed to save at least 30% of time to make it a viable business objective.   

The project went through numerous stages and iterations over the course of a year - from a simple excel re-creation with better visual cues reducing cognitive load, to a phased release, to finally project halting due to lack of investment purposes in a tumultuous time

Product Roadmap

Research the process

Due to constraints, we faced challenges in gathering users to complete tasks in the time we needed. Consequently, our workshops focused on having users recount their actions, or going through a 'mock' workflow with excel as a prompt

Additionally, I facilitated a secondary workshop where users highlighted and tagged the essential data they needed on each Excel worksheet. Initially, I believed this combination of workshops would provide us with detailed information to facilitate actions. However, I now realise that mapping static worksheets distracted from the primary goal of uncovering critical decisions and actions within the broader process.

A more effective approach would have been to observe and record accountants completing these steps in Excel using the 'think aloud' technique. This method would have allowed us to understand the actions on a deeper level within the workflow, essentially putting ourselves in the accountants' shoes for that hour.

‍

DEFINE

Service Mapping

After extensive workshops with 16 participants from various levels of the accounting department, I was able to identify the most common workflow. By mapping these processes to the different programs and tools used (beyond just Excel), we uncovered potential integrations and areas for automation.

Through this step, I learned the importance of tracking time within processes. By analysing the consolidated service map, I identified the most time-consuming areas, allowing us to prioritise features for the product release. This also validated how our design efforts contributed to achieving the overall business goals of saving at least 30% time

INSIGHTS

Present Insights

During the workshop process, I realised that interviewing all 16 participants provided little more insight than if we had focused on just five. As the sole UX Designer, I recommended reducing the number of workshops to better manage the workload and iterate more effectively with a select group of product champions.

However, the business chose to continue with more workshops to capture insights across all departments and highlight process differences between teams. The insights revealed common pain points and outliers, which the product manager and I presented to stakeholders.

ITERATE

Guided Step Approach

After I presented the initial MVP product to the CIO, I was challenged on the viability of the application - which at this point seemed to be just a nicer version of excel, with some automation thrown in.

At this point I went back to drawing board, and with the product manager on leave, I took it upon myself to discover how this application could really make an impact.

I then championed a guided step-by-step process that directed users through a focused journey, rather than giving them free reign. This approach allowed us to prioritise a single user path - and while more restrictive, it would greatly benefit other business goals of allowing a fool-proof method in training new accountants on the businesses way of work

AGILE DELIVERY

Development of phase delivery

After collaborating with the dev team and exploring what was possible in the realm of our tech stack, I presented designs of the initial phased release approach to the CIO.

Using easy to digest slides, I focused on features and phases that myself and the product manager had concluded would have the most impact to time saved across the process.

This phased approach would prove both easier to implement than one entire new process and product for users, and allow the team to use agile methodologies to add value to the business at each step

Next Steps

User Testing with GST Flow (Phase One)

Test the GST widget with real users using a Figma prototype to validate time-saving within the process

Validate Wider User Flow

Ensure the new features integrate seamlessly with Excel processes, improving workflow rather than hindering it

Documentation

The project was paused in March 2024 due to pre-EOFY budget consolidation. The next step is to document the Figma system thoroughly so other designers can easily continue the work.

Final Notes

This project gave me valuable experience in balancing business needs, stakeholder perspectives, and developer constraints. I was pushed out of my comfort zone when stepping in for the product manager during their leave, facilitating meetings with developers to understand and adapt to constraints.

I employed best-practice workshops and various data sorting methods to validate my understanding of complex accounting flows. With automation and AI on the rise, working on this truly innovative project gave me such an invaluable experience

Next Project

View next project