PED Software: ANUBIS
Project Background
Original Platform / Launch Date: PC / August 2023
Cubic Team Makeup: Product Manager/Subject Matter Expert (SME) (1), Engineers (18+), Information Architect (1), UX Designers (1), UI Designer (1), & QA (2)
My Role: UX Designer
My Tools: Figma & Adobe Illustrator
Tasks & Deliverables: Contextual Inquiry, User Story Development, Personas, Prototypes
Work Environment: 100% remote, 3 timezones
Timeline: February 2021 - Current
Product Website: ANUBIS
My Role
A fellow UX designer was responsible for the initial research. I took over the project just as it transitioned from a thin-client to a thick-client software platform. My current role is to work closely with the Product Manager/SME to design features critical to these highly-specialized personas and create high-fidelity Figma wireframes. At the beginning of the project I was pared with a Principal UI designer and as staffing changed, I became responsible for augmenting the UI kit while creating UX feature flows. When time allows, I create prototypes for the most essential features.
User Workflow - Big Picture
HUMAN FACTORS: The user is situated in a permanent environment with low light levels. They typically work between multiple software packages and a hiring stipulation ensures that they cannot be colorblind. Drawing on my experience applying human factors for environments, I created environmental diagrams to better understand sightlines and screen usage.
SITE MAP: Creating this abstraction helped ensure all software features were accessible based on how the user navigated the software. It also allowed others to understand their non-linear workflow.
Feature Creation
Based on the Product Manager's research and information provided by Business Development, the team identified the most important product features. I met with the Product Manager, Engineering Lead, and the Information Architect to talk through the fundamental needs and use cases based on our Level 0-3 Personas. At this phase of the project, high level requirements are still being defined, but I have enough information to start a series of wireframes.
The information architect and I worked iteratively and well ahead of front-end engineering with feedback from our Product Manager/SME. We refined these initial workflows to minimize tech debt before reviewing with the larger engineering team. I use the Figma comment feature and Slack to ask questions since our team spans multiple time zones. When a feature requires more collaboration, we schedule a 15 to 30 minute meeting to work out details as a group when our workdays overlap.
Once a wireframe is approved, it moves onto UI refinement, and then to engineering for implementation.
Wireframe Examples
I created extensively annotated wireframes to facilitate information sharing between design and engineering. Once a feature was complete, I made a feature "One Sheet" with call-outs to assist the end user.
Key Takeaways
Creating software for highly specialized users is a challenge I enjoy. Delving into a world with very specific terminology and physical environments makes me approach the project in unique ways.
Designing for specialized personas feels liberating. Because I have to develop interactions with little relationship to many mainstream software packages, I am able to design interactions in novel ways.
Having no user researcher nor direct access to the user, I rely heavily on the SME. We have many conversations around unique physical environmental constraints and the users' headspace while they performed certain tasks. Through these conversations, I am more adept at anticipating the users' needs when designing additional features.