Overview

Linknovate, based in Spain, is a B2B search platform for researchers needing to find the latest information on new technologies and industries.  They currently offer two products to users, InnoBits, a web monitoring platform for saved searched topics, and InnoScout, a platform to connect searched topics to affliated organizations, universities, and startups. Although our task was to redesign the workflow for InnoBits, we ended up taking on a much more ambitious project.

Team

3 UX designers

Duration

3 weeks  

Tools

Pen, Paper, Adobe Photoshop, An unbiased UX brain, Miro, Figma

Useful features but not usable

Linknovate recently released their web monitoring platform named InnoBits.  The problem is their users are not quick to adapt to the new platform and they want us to figure out why.

Take a good product and make it great

InnoBits is an exciting powerful machine learning tool, but users do not understand it.  Our approach was to create an experience for users to feel more empowered to effectively use InnoBits as their premier web monitoring and search platform.  How might we do that?

Lets see what’s under the hood

First, we familiarize ourselves with Linknovate’s platform.  We performed a research on the company’s offering and went through the on boarding process to start using InnoBits. We also used Jakob Nielsen’s 10 general principles for interaction design as a guideline to perform a heuristics review of the site. We discovered some concerns with the current site:

1. Consistency and standards - We could not get any sense of consistency throughout the site, keyword refinement and search features are laid out differently on each page.

2. Recognition rather than recall - the icons used for search topics are not easily recognizable.

3. Aesthetics and minimalist design - the green color used for headline titles and keywords generate too much noise and is hard to read.

Inside the mind of stakeholders

We conducted interviews with Linknovate stakeholders, Manuel Noya - CEO of Linknovate and Klaas Wurzberg - Business Development .  Our goal was to find out the company’s vision, goals, and definition of success.  From our interviews these are insights we gathered:

“I am confused why I am here”

After our stakeholder interviews, we needed to dig further with our primary research, we needed to empathize with 4 active users and 2 new users of InnoBits. Our goals of the interview was to find out how they currently use InnoBits as part of their daily work routine and discover any friction points while accomplishing their tasks.  We started with asking a set of questions to understand the user’s knowledge and purpose of using InnoBits.  Next we have them perform a usability test on the InnoBits platform. 

Insights:

1. All 6 users start their search from InnoScout instead of InnoBits.

2. They are not clear if their search keywords are effective.

3. They would like to edit and organize their search project folders. 

4. All 6 users are not clear about features: powerbits, like/dislike, and category icons.

5. All 6 users stated the category icons are not relevant to the search. 

6. All 6 users are not clear about why their searches are taking them out of InnoBits and into the InnoScout platform.

Four ways to do it, which is the correct way?

We wanted to understand why users were having problems with the platform, so we created a site map to see how the information architecture was laid out. 

Our discovery:

• There were 4 ways to search a topic on InnoBits. 

• 3 of the 4 ways take the user out of InnoBits to search in InnoScout, a separate platform, in a different window.  

• Each suggested keyword term takes the user to a new search unrelated to the search topic.  

It was clear to see why users are confused with every path that looks familiar to them; it would take them out of InnoBits and into InnoScout. (Click on image for a larger view.)

Empathize through tasks

To get our understanding of the user’s task flow, we needed to create a user flow diagram to chart out their task and decision making process.  (Click on image for a larger view)

Let’s see what emerges

To better understand Linknovate’s target users, we needed to synthesize all the data we collected through user interviews. We took all the qualitative data and created an affinity map to understand the user's needs, frustrations, and goals. (Click on image for a larger view)

•  They needed to be able to search effectively with high relevance results, otherwise they would turn to other methods of research.  

• They also want to share the found information with their teammates.

• Upon sharing they need to include a message based on their findings. 

• They also would like to read shared messages and respond to a message from their colleagues. 

Who should we design for?

From our affinity mapping we took our insights and created a persona to understand Linknovate’s target user.  Our persona named ‘The Innovator’, helped us make design decisions to better meet their needs and goals. 

Bio

The innovator is a lead researcher at an innovation division of a medium to large organization. They are tasked with researching new innovative technologies and applying it to new sectors.

Needs

• I want to refine the quality of my search over time

• I want to move topics freely

• I want to be able to now where I left off on the newsfeed.

Goals

• I want to be up to date with the latest news in my field.

• I want to share the information with my teammates and colleagues

• I want to be able to find the information easily and quickly

Frustrations

• Missing out on important information

• Confused on how to use InnoBits effectively

• Can’t organize alerts

Seek problems and opportunities arise

To further understand our target user, The Innovator, I created a journey map to learn where the opportunities are. By breaking down the target user’s journey into four steps, I am able to analyze each step the user takes to accomplish their task of searching for a topic and sharing the information they found.  

Truth in the results

It was a success!  We were able to create the mid - high fidelity wireframes and digital prototype in Figma. Then we performed 3 rounds of usability testing with Linknovate’s users.  With each round of usability testing we quickly re-iterated to continue improvements to the user’s experience. The results were quite positive, they were all able to complete all tasks without confusion compared with Linknovate’s current site. Click on the prototype button below to try the Linknovate prototype.

We asked our participants to perform the following tasks:

1. You are interested in researching the latest grants and patents in your field of architecture. Show me how you would find that information?

2. You find an article that is interesting on the newsfeed and want to share it with your colleagues. Can you show me how to do that?

3. You want to edit your project folder. Can you show me how you would do that?

4. You have received a message from a colleague. Can you show me where you would find that message and reply?

5. You found an article that you found interesting, how would you refine your search based on the information in that article?

6. How would you increase your newsfeed accuracy?

“It was easy for me to find the filters, it’s quite clear”

“I like the rating icon, it’s clear that up is for relevant and down is for not relevant”

“It was a bold move, and now I see why.” 

As quoted by our client during our final presentation. We took an ambitious decision to combine both the InnoBits and the InnoScout platforms into one well rounded experience for The Innovator.  Redesigning for InnoBits alone would not solve our biggest overarching problem. As a result our client was really thrilled. They loved how our designs offer a more grounded experience for The Innovator. Here’s what we did.

Problem 1

The Innovator is confused with having to use two platforms to perform a search, research, and share tasks.

Solution

Combined both platforms into one smooth workflow. The Innovator now has their work remain on one platform and not confused with different windows opening up for each task. As a result our client was really delighted. They loved how our designs offer a more grounded experience for The Innovator.

Problem 2

Newsfeed results are hard to scan and icons are hard to understand

Solution

Improved experience of reading the newsfeed articles, the titles are the most prominent and easiest to scan, we also included a sharing feature in both the news feed section and the article detail page.  (See comparison image below)

Problem 3

The Innovator spend on average 45mins per week researching newsfeed headlines, they don’t have time to go through 1000s of search results.

Solution

We added filtering and sorting feature to the newsfeed to quickly locate relevant information. The Innovator found it easier to go through newsfeeds with the ability to filter by source, relevance, and time. They were also able to sort by date or relevance.

Problem 4

The Innovator does not have freedom to organize their research topics and folders.

Solution

The folder section on the left side is more intuitive to use.  By adding hidden affordances in the folder and search topics, users are able to easily edit/ share/ delete/ organize freely. 

Problem 5

The Innovator is not clear on how to search effectively.

Solution

We improved the search feature by removing the red preview button, it was a feature The Innovator never uses. Also the folders section is placed on the left side to display a reminder of current search topics.

Below, the center image. Once The Innovator type in the topic, suggested keywords appear on the right side to help them add to their search topic for refining or expanding their search. The image on the right shows the newest topic appears on the top of the list under recent searches.

Problem 6

News article page is hard to read as shown in the image on the left. The headlines and keywords are in light green makes is hard to read. The placement of keywords make it hard to find the abstract, which is mainly what they look for.

Solution

News article page has a much more discoverable title and abstract section. All distractions have been removed from the page. (See comparison image below) The image on the left shows a long list of keywords in green before The Innovator gets to read the abstract.

Old Design

New Design

Problem 7

The innovator did not a way to communicate with their colleagues when they share articles they found pertinent to the project.

Solution

We created a Messaging system within the sharing feature. The Innovator are able to post and reply to comments about an article or project folder sent to or from colleagues.

Sharing folders are quite simple, The Innovator selects the project folders to share, the recipients and type a message about what they are sharing. To finish, they would select Send, and done!

What next?

• Further testing is needed to make sure all designs are validated. 

• We need to look at colors for the site, currently we have too much colors spread throughout the page and it looks a bit distracting. 

• The rate feature still needs to be revised and the Powerbits feature needs to better inform users of its function.   

• A big next design challenge would be to redesign the search feature.

Reflections

I had such a great experience working on this project and with my team. We started the project thinking it was a redesign of InnoBits, but what resulted was something much more challenging and exciting. Our design direction sparked many conversations with Linknovate stakeholders. Through the completion of this project I have undoubtedly grew as a product designer, this project was very challenging because I have never worked on a complex machine learning product with so many feature sets to consider.

Due to time constraints, we were not able to get datas for our user survey. We made the executive decision to move forward with the valuable information gained from our user interviews instead. We also decided that our MVP would not focus on the search feature for this round, because the task is a big undertaking in itself.

One big takeaway from working on this project was to never assume every stakeholders attending the final presentation will understand your design decision right away. If I had to do it over again, I would have added more information in the presentation so that it could easily be understood by a person who is not up to speed with the project.

DEVELOPER COLLABATHON