In the design process, we opted for a user-centered design approach that helped us move along through the timeline smoothly. Qualitative research methods proved to be the most effective during our design process, most notably our user interviews and usability testing sessions.
Designers use different softwares to manage their files and cooperate with others. We did an analysis of the three major competitive products.
Google Drive
√ Sharing and cooperation
× File management
Miro
√ Visual system and cooperation
× File hiearchy and management
Figma
√ visual system
× Flexibility of differerent types of files
We identified the following stakeholders and interviewed 14+ of them in order to understand the gap we seek to fill within the design space:
Direct Stakeholders: Designers, Creatives
Indirect Stakeholders: Professors, managers
We found data from our focus group to be the most effective understanding we garnered. We then used an affinity diagram to separate the data into groups of tasks which were further categorized by high-level goals for improvement in efficiency, process, familiarity, and attraction. Recognizing the conflicts of interest from each audience allowed us to focus on shaping user goals and how those goals would in turn also affect the business goals.
-McKinsey Report
The index structure (BreadcrumbNavigation) is difficult and slow for designers to navigate, especially when the project is complicated with too many folders.
Most people don't have a strict naming rule to follow. Thus, File naming and organization are one of the main drivers of inefficiency. It is easy for your data to be lost in the storage landscape.
Collaboration across communities is essential for efficient workflow. A good platform will incorporate community aspects such as commenting and annotation.
Amy is a entry-level architect and works in a famous architecture company. However, she is struggled with managing files since there are so many folders with confusing names, especially in terms of big projects.
Jake is a PM, closely working with architects and clients. He is in charge of more than 5 projects at the same time so he is looking for a more intuitive and easy-to-communicate platform to work with different stakeholders.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
This is a visualization platform that can create an intuitive and easy-to-navigation system with a clear hierarchy. It is easy for designers to create projects, navigate to folders and manage different kinds of files. We drew a Hypothesis/Uncertainty-Impact Diagram to clarify which hypothesis is the most important.
Important = Business Impact * Uncertainty
This product concept would work as a Google Chrome extension. Once paired with your Google Drive account, the extension would reorganize Google Drive’s minimalistic interface into something more intuitive. The basic functions of Drive would not change, but when viewing files and folders, Drive would appear in a “room” format. More specifically, the user would be able to organize their Drive files into a physical space.
Prototype
The hypothesis was proven valid, but we also collected several feedback while doing the user testing of our initial prototype.
“I prefer an independent application to manage my local files.”
”I still want to see the visual card in the timeline mode since it is easier to navigate.“
"I would like more categorization ways and more visualization."
Challenge 1
Based on the interview, users have different preferences and habits of file management, we created two viewing modes: timeline and visual maps.
Challenge 2
Categorizing different files with colors, hashtags(AI generated by content), or file types is easier for users to navigate.
Challenge 3
Visualization of different types of files can make the workflow smoother and faster. Without opening the file, users can have an overview of each file.
Challenge 4
Besides commenting and annotation, users can record their voice to comment if it is too long. Users can also choose censor for client viewing when doing presentations.
Since designers have to stare at the screens all the time, we choose green as the primary and secondary colors, which is beneficial to their eyes. Using the contrast color orange, it is easy to make the key element pop out.
We spent over a month doing user research and conducted more than 20 interviews. In this process, I better understand what is "user-centered design". As a previous architect, I was surprised to learn the various habits and needs of other architects that are different from mine, and I would like to do more user testing if given more time.
PROCESS BOOK