What were the problems?
The monetization team would be losing the unique tool that allowed them to work effectively and flexibly because of a migration. We needed to duplicate it and this was the perfect opportunity to improve the tool.
- What is the most immediate way to see where and how ads are working on different page templates?
- How can we integrate a changelog?
- What will make the tool intuitive and easy to navigate?
Bauer Xcel Media
- My role - Design, UX
- Tools - Coda, Balsamiq
- Platforms - Jira, Realtime Board
What was the approach?
Stakeholder Interviews
Migration provided an opportunity to modify or reconfigure this feature as needed so that it fully met all the needs of the current team, as well as ensuring that the feature was easy to use and was a good fit for the new international market.
We interviewed the monetization team to understand how the tool was used on a day to day basis, if there were any pain points, and if there was any missing functionality that would make their lives easier or more efficient.
Empathy Mapping
We wanted to interpret what was going on in the user's mind. We organized the data from the interviews into an empathy map to qualify what the users though and felt, and what were the gains vs the pains.
Focused Ideation
Armed with what we learned from the interviews, the product and development teams met for a focused ideation session. We each individually came up with ideas for this new monetization tool. As a team, we went through all the ideas seeking those that were technically feasible and user-friendly.
Wireframing
Next step: wireframing! I took the best ideas from the ideation session combined with specific requests for the monetization team to create a new layout and process. The solution was a more user-friendly way to visualize what ads were placed where on the page with an easy way to modify refresh rates, as well as creating a brand new changelog and login procedure.
What were the learnings or compromises?
- The current users positively loved the functionality of the original tool to the point that the usability problems were overlooked. They used workarounds such as memorizing how far to scroll to get to the correct part of the page and a separate spreadsheet to track changes.
- The users had cheat sheets of shortcuts and workarounds, and yet, some felt the CMS worked well.
- Ad revenue doesn’t stop at 5:00. Being able to modify ads from the user’s phone after hours would be simple. The API was designed with mobile use in mind.
- Great communication between Product and Development teams is essential.
- Landscapes sometimes change drastically. The migration never happened so this new API was sent to the backlog.