UX DESIGN PROCESS

Outcome: Created a well-defined UX process that addressed the challenges faced by the PenFed Credit Union UX team. This led to improved collaboration with business partners, streamlined project delivery, and ultimately enhanced the overall user experience.

Project Summary

PenFed Credit Union is a newly formed UX team that aims to establish an effective UX process to guide their team members and educate their business partners on the value of UX. Currently, there is a lack of alignment among team members and inconsistencies in the delivery of work and design processes, primarily due to the limited understanding and collaboration between the UX team and business partners.

Challenge: The primary challenge faced by PenFed Credit Union is the absence of a defined UX process and the difficulties experienced by business partners in collaborating with the UX team. The lack of a structured process makes it challenging for the team to integrate their work into the overall business process, resulting in project delays and increased costs. Specific issues identified include:

Deadline: Projects experience delays due to misunderstandings and miscommunication between the UX team and business partners.
Meetings: Inefficiency in aligning team members through consistent and effective meetings.
Collaboration: Business partners have limited knowledge about UX, leading to obstacles and2

Project Summary

The Problem

The primary challenge faced by PenFed Credit Union was the absence of a defined UX process and the difficulties experienced by business partners in collaborating with the UX team. The lack of a structured process made it challenging for the team to integrate their work into the overall business process, resulting in project delays and increased costs. Specific issues identified include:

Deadline: Projects experienced delays due to misunderstandings and miscommunication between the UX team and business partners.
Meetings: Inefficiency in aligning team members through consistent and effective meetings.
Collaboration: Business partners had limited knowledge about UX, leading to obstacles and blockers during collaborative efforts.

My contribution

Role: UI/UX Designer and researcher

Wire-framing: Paper and Digital

Low-fidelity wireframes and prototypes
High-fidelity layouts
User Interface Design
Accounting for accessibility
Usability testing and validation/project info

1.1 Create UX Process

The UX design process may seem fundamental to UX professionals but may be new to our business partners. Therefore, I created a quick UX process flow from kickoff to implementation to establish a foundation and identify where people on the UX team fit into each process stage. Then, I can start interviewing stakeholders to understand their roles and responsibilities and gradually incorporate them into the process where it makes the most sense.

1.Research

1.2 Interviewing Business Stakeholders

To make a UX process run efficiently, it's like building a house with different contractors at each stage. We can involve business partners at the right time to ensure the project moves smoothly. Before forming a UX Design Process, it's important to research stakeholders we work with often. Focus on:

Roles and Responsibilities: Understand each stakeholder's expertise and responsibilities during each design process stage.
Involvement: Determine who should be involved and at what level.
Dependency: Determine who is leading during each stage.
Activities: Define topics and actions for each step.
Frequency: Determine how often the team should meet.

1.3 Dependency and Activities

Everyone can be a leader; in this case, there is no difference. We map out implementation activities in order and identify which activity depends on whom. This allows the team to anticipate potential blockers that could slow down progress and allocate necessary resources. It also allows us to hold each other accountable and foresee any blockers we can avoid or solve to increase team efficiency.

After analyzing the online experience and back-office M360 flow to identify potential entry points for allowing members to manage Overdraft Protection, I brainstormed some ideas to improve the legacy experience, considering both online self-service and in-person service experiences:

Which account should we use to protect users when their checking account is overdrawn for the Day 1 release?
How do existing users set up and manage Overdraft Protection?
What does the onboarding experience look like for new users?
How can we educate new and existing users about this new functionality?

2.Concept Design

2.1 First Draft:

Thanks to our collaborative partners, I now understand each of their roles, job functions, responsibilities, and levels of dependency. Based on this information, I have plugged them into each stage of the design process that makes the most sense, by asking myself the following questions:

What is the purpose of this design stage?
Who should be involved in this stage?
What are the involved parties' responsibilities?
What is the ideal outcome of this stage, and what activities should we exercise?
How frequently should we repeat?

2.2 Turn into visual

Did you know that more than 70% of the population are virtual learners? Most people absorb information better virtually than by reading.

The first draft of this document is hard to understand, as it consists mostly of words and is difficult to follow. Therefore, I am happy that I was able to turn the information into a visual presentation that is easier to read.

Feedback

We conducted two design feedback sessions where I led the design process to get feedback on the visual looks and overall process. We wanted to determine if our partners could quickly define their roles and responsibilities based on a given project. Specifically, we asked:

Can they define the stage of the project?
Where do they fit into the process?
How clearly do they understand their role and responsibilities?
Is there any confusion regarding each stakeholder's role and how to best leverage each other to tackle the project?

Final Design

The high-contrast color choice and structure of the Second Draft user interface make it difficult to read.

After receiving feedback on the design layout from my colleagues and partners , I collaborated with our content strategist to improve the content and modify the UI for the final user experience design.

To highlight the most critical information, I made the middle section the focus for viewers. This section includes parties, roles, and responsibilities.
To ensure that all colors have the correct contrast ratios and meet WCAG compliance, I used the color theory as guidance and decreased the contrast on the UI. I also provided alternative colors for different backgrounds.

Outcome

My goal for this project was to create a guide for stakeholders to understand their role in the UX process and for the company to welcome the newly established UX team. With the final design, we have successfully established a UX process with stakeholder involvement at each stage. This includes defining their level of responsibility, involvement, communication, tasks, meeting frequency, and exercise activity. This foundation provides a clear understanding of our roles for future requirements and collaboration throughout the project stages.

Bright living room with modern inventory

Result (4-6 month)

Since introducing the UX process and educating our business partners, we have seen the following improvements in the past three months:

Increased efficiency by 50%, as measured by a reduction in alignment meetings from 3-4 weekly to 1-2.
Increased overall project delivery speed (UX screens) by 30%, with the average time dropping from 12 to 8 business days.
Successfully raised awareness of UX and its importance among our business partners, thanks to the efforts of our newly established UX Design team.

These results are a good starting point, but there is still a lot of room for improvement as our team continues to evolve, grow, and find new ways to increase efficiency, collaboration, and delivery speed.