2017.08 - 2022.05
PUBLIC BUSINESS SUITE HRM
Directed and set up Design Ops UX & CX as UX Lead for one of largest HRM product suites in Visma managing activities such as Concept development, research & UX tests.
WORK
This page displays some of the works I've done as a UX designer/Digital strategist/Researcher etc.
2022.05 - 2023.03
Visma Budget & forecast
Took part in creating a new concept for a Budget & Forecasting application which enabled users to switch between overview and detail for multiple linked budgets.
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2021.01 - 2021.03
Medvind user need analysis
A research assignment intended to assess the compatibility of Visma Medvind scheduling system with the needs of typical public sector target groups and contexts.
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2017.08 - 2022.05 CASe: REDESIGN & SETUP OF DESIGN OPS FOR UX AND CX Customer; Visma public business Suite HRM
REDESIGN & SETUP OF DESIGN OPS regarding UX & CX
Background
Arriving at Visma I was assigned to put my focus on Visma Public Business Suite HRM, referred to as a “product” in the HRM-segment.
I quickly realized that this was no single product but a Suite of products, with a Portal solution attached to it.
It also had its own authentication and user management system. All packed with 40 years of legacy back- & front-end code.
Development of the suite was distributed across 4 teams, with members scattered all across Sweden and Riga, Latvia. In total about 35 people. In regards to UX and UI standards the quality was appallingly low. In addition to this there was also a low awareness of who the solution was serving, which users to prioritize and what to focus on. In short a huge effort in regards to UX.
I analyzed & broke down the issues into following challenges & initiatives that were pursued with during several years ahead.
2017.08 - 2022.05 CASE: REDESIGN & SETUP OF DESIGN OPS FOR UX AND CX CUSTOMER; VISMA PUBLIC BUSINESS SUITE HRM
Summary of challenges
POOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT END USERS
Overall poor knowledge about the end users of the application. General illiteracy concerning user needs and use context.
NONE OR VERY LOW USE OF FEEDBACK
None or very low use of user & customer feedback, non-existing user testing & passive approach to customer involvement.
Non-iterative, Tech focused process
Concept and Development work generally tech focused, non-iterative and not design driven.
OUTDATED NAVIGATION FRAMEWORK
Outdated navigation framework that led to deep navigation & hampered possibilities for cross-sell of Visma offers.
Major “HYGIENE” issues
Huge issues regarding web standard, WCAG-compliance, language, & consistency - both regarding UI & workflow
AESTHETICS
Most applications looked like shit and not in line with Visma guidelines. In addition to this most views non-responsive
2017.08 - 2022.05 CASE: REDESIGN & SETUP OF DESIGN OPS FOR UX AND CX CUSTOMER; VISMA PUBLIC BUSINESS SUITE HRM
Efforts & Actions
1 User research & Personas
Contextual interviews with 30 users across 6 customers in Sweden
Desktop research;
Revisit of previous HRM research and Visma customer dataPersonas created based on research done
View sAMPLE WORK
2 Setup of CX framework
Inventory of current feedback sources.
Analysis and categorization of idea bank issues in order to identify improvement areas
Introduction of In moment NPS rating system
3 Agile UX approach
Introduction of more agile approach to UI spec
Encouraged use of personas among dev teams
Low-fi prototype & incremental enhancement of specifications rather than detailed specifications
Intro of quickNdirty user testing
4 New navigation framework
Research and analysis into the current Portal product Visma Window-platform
Developed new concept & setup for navigation
5 Aesthetics & Accessibility
Accessibility assessments of the system
Creation of design guidelines regarding accessibility and UX
Setup of guidelines for QC and developers for continuous WCAG testing
6 Redesign of applications
Classic UX work for several applications
Redesign and creation of sveral new concepts for applications within the suite
In many cases refactoring and refreshment of on-prem applications to browser format
2017.08 - 2022.05 CASE: REDESIGN & SETUP OF DESIGN OPS FOR UX AND CX CUSTOMER; VISMA PUBLIC BUSINESS SUITE HRM
Highlight - User Research & Personas
Personas for Visma Public Business Suite
I started off my work for Visma Public Business suite HRM with a major research effort involving secondary research, stakeholder interviews and more than 30 contextual interviews with users across 6 customers and sites.
This research helped identify major user pains and issues that we set up to resolve in redesign efforts in years to come.
Data about user and contexts was analyzed and synthesized into a set of persona descriptions that I set up to help the teams get a grip of whom they were designing for. These personas were set up into 4 pages as described below
1. profile page
Page describing basic features of the persona such as needs, motivations, attitudes and willingness to commit and engage, as well as pains & obstacles.
2. Main user journey
Description of main Journey and focus of tasks for the Persona in order to enhance understanding about them and what they focus on.
3. Common tasks
List of tasks according to frequency in order to convey understanding about what’s most and least important for the user.
4. Collaborators
Presents contacts across an axis in relation to frequency in order to show dependencies and relations important for the user & performance of tasks. Useful when setting up user stories and flows and track where communication flaws occur.
Outcomes from the User research & Personas activity
Identification of new target groups
A major insight and tangible result of the research & refinement into persona profiles was the discovery of a previously overseen target group, the Managers assistants, and the impact they had on efficiency, overall workflow and workload on internal support.
Persona features informing design
Another example was the Employee persona profile, which highlighted the common situation of limited access to the system on one shared computer in an open workspace. A fact that directed and informed us into how to redesign the summaries and salary specification pages for the system.
A tool for empathisizing with user
Last but not least; The value of the personas as aid for team members getting a grip of whom the system served was accomplished. In addition to this, the personas served as a place for anchoring and connecting new findings and insights continually revealed with customers and stakeholders.
2017.08 - 2022.05 CASE: REDESIGN & SETUP OF DESIGN OPS FOR UX AND CX CUSTOMER; VISMA PUBLIC BUSINESS SUITE HRM
Project Outcome
a modern, Visma style compliant HRM tool
Ending my work with Visma Public Suite HRM in 2022 I recollected the original state of the product and felt satisfied with what I and the teams had accomplished. We had transformed the product from being a legacy product with below average UX to being a modern Visma style compliant HRM tool.
Most important for me was the frameworks I had introduced. The backbone of keeping a product vivid, up to date & in par with customer & user needs.
User centered development process introduced
Introduced Agile UX work process for all the development teams in a product team that had no previous legacy for working with UX before
Personas as a tool for designing better apps
Created personas based on research which revealed pivotal user needs, requirements and helped team members gain perspective on the users
CX Framework setup & used for prioritization
Initiated the setup of CX framework and ability to continuously collect quantitative user & customer feedback
From legacy product to modern web standards
Completed several redesign effort based on my research and experience which transformed the product from being a legacy product with below average UX to being a modern Visma style compliant HRM tool
2022.05 - 2023.03 CASe: REDESIGN of concept for Budget & forecast app Customer; VISMA PUBLIC BUSINESS solutions
Concept redesign Visma bOP
Background
2022.05 - 2023.03 CASE: REDESIGN OF CONCEPT FOR BUDGET & FORECAST APP CUSTOMER; VISMA PUBLIC BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
Summary of challenges
Lack of common vision
Soon after getting deeper into the work with the team I discovered there was a serious lack of shared, common vision about what to build, how to approach it and where we were heading. This made it difficult for both business stakeholders and product team to make decisions and move forward to build a new concept and solution.
Flawed process for user involvement
A user reference group was set up at an early stage in the process and members were regularly involved in feedback session regarding the progress of the work. But after participating in a few of these I realized they were set up as mere one-way information sessions, communicating the teams progress, but leaving little room for feedback, nor enticing participation from the participants. Thus the value of involving users in these session got lost in the process.
Non Agile UX Design process
As the team had long requested a UX designer to help them out I was welcomed with open arms. But I quickly realized that the teams expectations were more in line with the skills of a Figma Jockey than a UX designer as a part of the Product Trio. This created tension and friction as the detailed UI designs stories they were expecting would set me vasting valuable time on passive operational tasks, while research and concept delivery work would suffer and fail to move forward. Another approach was needed.
2022.05 - 2023.03 CASE: REDESIGN OF CONCEPT FOR BUDGET & FORECAST APP CUSTOMER; VISMA PUBLIC BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
Efforts & actions
1 Development of tangible, clickable POC in Figma
In order to amend the lack of common vision I took on the responsibility of developing a new concept proposal in Figma - including all major areas and functionalities.
Doing this made it easier to discuss and identify flaws and gaps we needed to amend.
This also made it possible to test assumptions and theories in order to understand how to proceed with the work ahead.
View sample work
2 Increased user involvement using open ended workshops
By rearranging the recipe for our user workshops and interaction with our reference group, applying a focus on enticing inquiry and open ended questions, helped gain more valid feedback from end users and ignite their participation. In this way we could secure concept validation and achieve true user participation in our project and thus increase our possibilities to succeed with creating a better solution.
3 True Agile UX approach
By applying a simplified user story definition approach by using sketchy hand drawn wireframes, existing general UI guidelines and focusing on reusing patterns already available we were able to enhance agility and dramatically lower time for making concepts and solutions. We also revised routines and DOD (Definition Of Done) which further simplified and aligned the process, improved flow, removed friction and increased alignment within the team about where we were heading. In this way we could reserve more hours for research and concept development instead of pouring it into detailed UI spec's or prototypes.
2022.05 - 2023.03 CASE: REDESIGN OF CONCEPT FOR BUDGET & FORECAST APP CUSTOMER; VISMA PUBLIC BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
Highlight - Concept Solution
Better OVERVIEW & NAVIGATION OF BUDGETS
By using a collapsible panel for the total budget, and leaving the part exhibiting the total sum visible when collapsed, made it easier for the user to view how details in a separate budget affected the Total budget. In addition the users could also move between the sub-budgets instantly using arrows on each side of the sub-budget sheet.
Creation of Project setup Wizard
The admin part with user manager and setup of budgets were redesigned totally and set up according to a Wizard flow which vastly simplified management of users and budgets.
1. The old projects settings view
2. Sketches for User rights - settings
3. Figma prototype for the project setup wizard
2022.05 - 2023.03 CASE: REDESIGN OF CONCEPT FOR BUDGET & FORECAST APP CUSTOMER; VISMA PUBLIC BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
Project Outcome
From a hurdle of jira stories to a new concept for "budgeteers"
As I left the project in march 2023 - taking on a the position as UX Team Lead at B3 Grit - the work with finalizing the work with the BoP project was far from done. How ever my efforts in the project had broken the stalemate and paved the way forward by identifying and manage some major hurdles that previously had hampered the project to evolve.
A concept for providing better overview, ability to test and make more reliable forecasts
Above all, my work had resulted in an overall concept idea for the solution that took care of several issues that the current solution did not adress.
One of these pain points was the inability to get an overview of how different sub-budgets affected the total budget. We solved this by creating a collapsible panel for the Total budget, leaving a small part of the panel visible when collapsed, thus making the total budget sum available all the time.
This feature also helped users understand how changes for individual costs affected the whole budget, which made it easier to forecast and balance budgets.
In addition, the users could also move between budgets instantly by using the arrows situated on each side of the budget sheets.
Participative workshops and Tangible prototype as a probe paving the way forward
Creating a tangible prototype of the full concept, clarifying how different parts of the budget related to each other, helped the team and stakeholders build a shared common picture of what to build.
It also made it easier to communicate with users and conceptually test and confirm that our observations and assumptions were correct.
Put together with the new approach for workshops and testing - creating an open ended space for interaction and inquiry - this vitalized the feedback and concept validation process, which further increased progress in the project forward.