Refining Your Search
UX Designer I UX Researcher I Platform
According to research, professionals spend a large portion of their workday, approximately 50%, searching for information and it takes them an average of 18 minutes to locate each document. This information has inspired me to positively impact my team by developing a filter feature that will simplify their search process. The goal of this feature is to allow users to quickly and easily find the brands they need on our platform, thereby increasing their productivity. This project holds great significance for me, as I am dedicated to enhancing the user experience and increasing efficiency for my team.
My Role: UX Designer & UX Researcher
Team: UX Designer, UX Researcher, Developers, Product Manager, Stakeholders
Client: The Home Depot
Tools: Figma, FigJam, Jira, Miro, Zoom, Google Slides
Project Duration: 3 Weeks
Challenge
Before starting this project, I made an effort to gather insights and feedback from my team to fully understand their needs and motivations behind creating the filter feature. Through this process, I came to understand that my team members:
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Often spend numerous hours and even days searching for information, making the process time-consuming and overwhelming.
My Approach
After learning my team's needs and motivation to create the filter feature, I plan to follow the following process:
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Create a proto-persona, to understand and empathize with my users.
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Facilitate a design studio with business stakeholders, designers, researchers, and product managers to create a wideset of designs and share the vision.
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Conduct usability tests to verify if the feature solves the problem
01
Proto-Persona
02
Design Studio
To commence the development of the filter feature for the portal, I led a discovery workshop with a cross-functional team consisting of a product manager, a developer, stakeholders, and designers. During the workshop, we collectively generated a wide range of ideas and established a shared vision for the feature. We then evaluated the sketches and selected the best idea through a voting process, determining the direction for the implementation of the feature.
03
Wireframes
After sharing the wireframe with my team, I learned that for a better user experience, it would be best if users could search for documents by column rather than relying only on sorting and a single search box option.
04
Explore the Interactive Prototype!
The final prototype represents the solution to the challenges faced by our users and effectively addresses their needs.
05
Usability Test
Following the completion of the prototype, I conducted a usability test with 7 users to assess the effectiveness of this new feature in their daily tasks. Based on their feedback, I am now incorporating their suggestions and making necessary improvements and further enhance the functionality of the filter feature for our users. The usability testing revealed the following key takeaways:
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The users expressed a need for an 'Indicator of what is filtered'
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They requested the ability to apply multiple criteria to a single filter
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They expressed a desire for the option to download a filtered list of brands.
Conclusion
This project enhanced my leadership and communication skills while working in a cross-functional team. Designing the filter feature was a fascinating experience, especially with the various filter options available. I enjoyed the opportunity to:
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​Conduct design studio sessions and user interviews
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Present my findings to the team
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Lead workshops with business stakeholders, developers, designers, and product managers.
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Write a usability test script
If I were still working on the project, my next step would have been to continue supporting it as needed while the developers work on its implementation.