Arena Solutions
Role: UI/UX Design Intern
Tool: Figma
The Problem
How can we make items with true utility for users more visible and easy to parse?
The Product
Arena Solutions is a product lifecycle management (PLM) and quality management system (QMS). Client companies use the software to improve their own product development efficiency (through supply chain logistics, quality assurance, etc.).
This comes in the form of a home screen that displays information as an Inbox in a table format, separated into different categories of tabs. Namely, these tabs are: Actions, Assignments, Scribe, Notifications, and Downloads. Below this Inbox are two drop down columns, which house Bookmarks and Saved Searches.
Key Features
Notifications Panel
Issue
The current information architecture of the home dashboard is confusing and not accessible from other parts of the system.
Research Methods
Structured Interviews (Annotation Analysis):
Users wanted to access their notifications from anywhere in the systems rather than being restricted to the dashboard.
They expressed that filter functions can be helpful, but confusing.
Comparative Analysis:
Icons are helpful for displaying information.
Many products have notification panels accessible from the header bar.
Goal
Based off of our research, we wanted to design for a panel that could be accessible from the header bar. We needed to choose what to cut and what to keep when transferring items from the inbox into this smaller panel.
Design Process
Tabs
The original design’s tabs helped users parse the items they needed to address, but still were overwhelming and had confusing names.
Therefore, they were reduced from six to three, with two types of item in each tab:
Assigned merged Assignments and Actions, as the category for items that need attention before a deadline.
Following merged Notifications and Scribe (comments from others on your work), as the category for items other people are bumping towards you.
Downloads/Drops merged Downloads and Drops, as the category for files.
Filters
Interview participants reported the filters to be confusing for first-time users, so they needed to be simplified.
Filters were reduced to two main categories, being Type and Time
Downloads/Drops were the exception, being simple enough to just require a time filter.
Icons and Layout
To help quickly differentiate the types of items, pre-existing world icons were made visible on the notifications panel
The panel items lean away from the table format, utilizing more vertical space to reduce the horizontal space. In the final design text is stacked on top of each other, with varying colors and boldness lending importance to its Number and Due date.
Quick Actions
Actions, such as pinning and dismissing, were placed on the right hand side of the panel and accessible through hovering on the item.
Takeaways
This was a supplementary addition to the inbox that already existed on the home dashboard, so it gave leeway in terms of condensing down the categories and filters to fit within the smaller space. All design choices were to find the balance of a panel that still read well to power users used to the old system, but was understandable first-time users.
Bookmarks (🛠)
Issue & Goal
Issue
Goal