Ramani Dashboard
Reducing reporting complexities & increasing data-driven insights for dashboard users.
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TL;DR
The following project outlines an enhanced user experience that significantly reduced user errors and complexities of Ramani's report creation dashboard and boosted usage of the product by ~50%. The results were achieved through a careful audit of the old reporting dashboard, a usability test on primary users, and prototype testing of the proposed solution. The step-by-step process is broken down below.
Client:
Ramani
Role:
UX Design Lead
Duration:
5 months
Aug 2021 - Feb 2022
Project overview
Ramani's point-of-sale, inventory management, and procurement software were each designed to digitse Africa's supply chain operations starting with Tanzania. This by extension meant that Ramani collects large volumes of sales and business data that can be used to unlock crucial business insights for its users - distributors, and brands. Despite the wealth of real-time data at our disposal, the design of the existing reporting tool made interpreting and harnessing this data for informed business decisions a daunting task for our users.
This project was aimed at reducing the complexity of the Ramani reporting tool to drive an increase in its usage and more value to Ramani's user base.
Problem Statement
How can Ramani leverage its data to empower users to receive insights about the key drivers of their business?
Usability Test
The project began with a usability test of the existing reporting tool available on the dashboard. The goal of this test was to assess user performance levels and identify any usability issues/opportunities for usability improvements to address the identified problem.
Method:
A Ramani-provided laptop was used to conduct and record the test, while other session details like completion rates, time on task, comments, questions, and feedback were captured by the test facilitator present at the test. Admin users of the dashboard across 4 customer companies participated in the test with each individual session lasting approximately 1 hour. Results were collated and ranked as below:
Key Research Findings
Following the usability test and internal audit of the reporting dashboard, the following themes of insight were found that further directed our next steps:
UX Copy on Dashboard
A lot of errors made by users while performing tasks involved a misunderstanding of CTA buttons, query labels, or incorrect data input suggesting the need for more intuitive UX copy.
Importance of User Training
Overall, trained participants recorded better performance levels than the untrained participant, validating the effectiveness and importance of user training. Changes should focus on reducing the learning curve and optimising the dashboard for self onboarding to help with scale.
Task Complexity
For successfully completed tasks, both trained and untrained participants recorded high time on tasks that involved report creation.
Dashboard speed & efficiency
Customers like the speed of the reporting tool. The fact that results are automatically presented without the need to click a button is well received by customers. This speed and efficiency should be maintained going forward.
Wireframes
Once data points on the various problem themes, user error rates, and existing reporting tool audit were collected, the next step in the process was to scope out wireframe solutions aimed at addressing the most critical bottlenecks; specifically, ease of report creation, ease of understanding the prompts and action buttons, and a more seamless data organization across the dashboard as highlighted by the images and wireframe labels below.
Prototype Testing
Three end-to-end clickable prototypes were created for solution variants being explored for the reports dashboard. These prototypes were used to run a preference test with users before design solutions were further refined. The main goals of the test were to:
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Identify which design variants are most preferred by users, and more importantly, why.
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Test and gather feedback on the usability of the proposed design changes
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Validate design decisions and highlight usability gaps in the proposed solution for report creation
User feedback from both internal and external stakeholders was then taken and incorporated into the final solution.
Final Solution
A walkthrough of the final solution is documented below and captures key functions of the experience, including:
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Creating a new report
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Utilising report templates
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Viewing a default overview dashboard
Project Outcome & Learnings
The enhanced user experience significantly reduced user errors and complexities of Ramani's report creation dashboard and boosted usage of the product by ~50%.