This project aimed to improve the workflow of kitchen sellers by allowing users to export floor plans and import them directly into their CAD planning tool. The team faced challenges in scaling down designs to fit within technical constraints while maintaining the same level of functionality, but the cross-functional team worked collaboratively to overcome these challenges.
The design team had recently embarked on a series of field studies aimed at better understanding the needs of our users. These studies involved observing our users as they went about their day-to-day activities, using our product to complete workflows in their capacity as kitchen design consultants.
During the course of these studies, we identified an opportunity to improve the user's overall workflow by eliminating redundant work. We quickly realized that our users were creating floor plans in our product only to recreate them in a separate CAD planning tool later in the process of the appointment. This duplication of effort was causing frustration and inefficiencies.
To tackle this challenge, we decided to develop a new feature that would allow users to seamlessly export the floorplan they had created in our product and import it directly into their CAD planning tool.
At the beginning of the project, my main objective was to understand a user’s workflow with particular regard to their digital pathways and habits when not using our product. I established a dialogue with the Head of Service at our biggest customer, who had extensive knowledge on the topic. I led a workshop early in the discovery process where we mapped the user journey of a kitchen selling appointment.
During this project, I spent a considerable amount of time designing and refining user flows in close collaboration with the customer and developers. As a result, I designed a user flow for the exporting feature that mimicked a routine path that users would take, which minimized their mental load and training needs.
Something that sparked my interest during this project was error handling. I spent time learning about possible error cases and how to best communicate the correct next step to the user, without overwhelming the user with unusable technical information. I created unique error messages that provided concise information for the user on how to resolve the error.
To efficiently communicate behavior and other UI elements to the developers, I created a high-fidelity, interactive prototype in Figma. My close collaboration with the responsible front-end developer resulted in many useful design details being added to the first release and several useful backlog items.
One of the most challenging aspects of this project was scaling down designs to fit within the technical restraints without sacrificing usability. We recognized that we would need to treat it as a minimum viable product (MVP) and a proof-of-concept (POC), meaning that technical requirements and effort had to be limited.
We engaged in several rounds of reviewing user flows and early designs, constantly searching for alternative technical solutions that would allow us to maintain the same level of functionality while staying within our constraints.
One of the most valuable aspects of this project was the team. I was concerned going into this project as the only designer working with a team of developers, but I was able to successfully advocate for important user requirements. Unexpectedly, the developer team was fighting for the same cause. By leveraging the strengths of each team member, we were able to achieve success and deliver a product that met our users' needs while staying within our constraints.
