IBM Accessibility Compliance System.
Company. IBM
Type. Web Application
Role. Lead UX Designer
Project Description
Redesign the legacy accessibility compliance system used for the certification of all IBM products to achieve 100% participation in the system.
Summary
This project was a redesign of an existing system that we maintained, so we knew the users very well and already had substantial feedback from them. We quickly dove into as-is scenarios and exposed the user pain points that we knew about.
Journey Map
I facilitated the creation of a journey map to understand the user path and key pain points.
We reviewed and validated our assumptions with users and stakeholders. Pain points were prioritized to understand the scope of the initial release.
Information Architecture
While we were scoping the project, I also needed to explore the information architecture. Constraints with the design system forced some difficult decisions. I went through various architecture scenarios and reviewed the benefits and drawbacks of each.
Sketching
With an information architecture in place, I started sketching. Sketching by hand is an important part of the creative process allowing freedom of creativity without the influence of digital technology.
Wireframing
Wireframing
After sketching and finding solutions that fit, I created wireframes that could be reviewed with the team, stakeholders and users.
Prototyping
Many more wireframes were created for a fully-functional prototype in Sketch using Craft and Invision.
User Testing
The prioritized pain points were solved in the prototype and we tested with users to validate the solution. Two rounds of five tests were run with users of various experience levels. Tests were done remotely due to Covid 19.
Agile Development
Once a section was completed and validated, we began to build while design was being done in other areas. The cross-functional work with developers quickly resulted in a coded version of the application.
The application was created with React components and follows the IBM Carbon design system. The application is internal only and was released on time knowing that we'd need to address some interactions further.
Heuristic Evaluation
During testing and UX heuristic evaluation, more opportunities for improvement were uncovered. Annotated critique was presented to stakeholders as well as annotated solutions for presentation and for developers.
Retrospective
This was a very fast-paced project with delivery goals that forced some scoping decisions to be made. We decided to only focus on redesigning 3 key features and leaving the rest to be done in future releases.
Unfortunately, this proved very hard to review with our executive stakeholders because legacy features that we didn't have time to address were still confusing. After three weeks we decided to attack the entire flow and not just 3 main features. We lost some valuable time, but we gained executive backing to do a complete redesign.