Catalog Builder
Making the creation of catalogues centralized, online, up to date, and automated.
Role
Fully responsible of the UX-UI design of the solution.
Timeline
Medio 2020 – early 2021
A short heads up
Since I’m bounded to a nondisclosure agreement, there are no specific client- or team member names mentioned throughout the portfolio and case studies. When names do show, there are additional agreements made with the client/person at hand. Some designs are distorted to meet the agreement.
Sketches, designs and concepts are copyrighted by Linx-IT Solutions bv. All rights reserved.
Thanks for understanding!
Discovery
A decentralized, manual-oriented marketing communication process
Having multiple sources where product data is managed, is a common problem within large retail organizations. Producing product marketing communications in an analogue way, is a second.
This contradicts to the fact that retail markets nowadays are highly competitive, where a rapid pace of marketing- and product communication is a necessity. But if processes are that offline decentralized, that pace is lost.
Strategy
Facilitating and managing product information from a single source of truth
We identified this problem with our clients. One in particular, especially applicable to their product catalogue creation process. Conducted research, client meetings and insights in the client their processes enabled us to set the project scope. Business needs were aligned with user insights. Our strategy was determined.
01
A single source of truth, keeping all product information up-to-date automatically, so that the product division managers could focus their time again on product planning and -strategy.
02
A flexible tool where that centralized product data could be used directly to create product catalogues. Since the data would come from that single source, the data stays in sync within those catalogues.
More time for managers their core activities
The return on investment would be to see whether the division managers actually gained more time for their own core activities. The time-on-task is our main metric, for measuring that ROI in terms of user experience.
Design
Synthesizing insights into a scalable and flexible software-solution
Insights, needs and requirements were actionable. The generation of concepts began, where two ideas stood out: Product Control Center, providing the single source of product data. That module would be connected to the Catalog Builder, where there could be interacted with the product data, in a visual way.
The emphasis of the user’s interface design laid on reducing cognitive load. Since enormous amounts of data needed to be handled, to create a product catalogue, we made the interface understandable, simple, and self-explanatory.
Implementation
Streamlining all product information sources, in close collaboration
Once the user interface design – in combination with interaction designs – was established, and the client committed to the final visual design, the software was developed. The biggest challenge here was to streamline all product data sources to the Product Control Center. Due to our experienced development team and overall close collaboration, we were able to nail it. It was my job to co-lead the front-end development. Ensuring that the design would be implemented properly.
Achievements
Return on investment for both business and user needs were tremendous
After the launch, our client told us that the two software solutions saved them around 5 full-timers a week, which is also a great return on investment regarding UX. Product division managers were able to focus on their product planning and -strategy again.
Product data was centralized and automatically synchronised, which prevented them from having to gather all necessary product information manually. The catalogue creation process moved entirely to online, which established flexibility – also in the user’s location.
In short
5+
Full-timers unlocked
100%
Online and centralized
100%
Automatically synchronized
15+
Catalogue productions per year
What I’ve learned
Reflection
01
My biggest challenge
There was a lot of time pressure behind the project. The need was extremely high for a solution to the problem. Being able to come up with that solution in such a tight timeframe, was most definitely the biggest challenge.
02
Best lesson
Managing my time and effort throughout the project was both a challenge and great lesson. It enabled me to move fast and effectively. In upcoming projects, I’ll take this into account even sooner.