Revolutionizing Communication and Work Organization at Exact Systems

Exact Systems faced significant challenges in communication between employees and management, inefficient task handling, and unclear issue reporting processes. These issues led to reduced productivity, poor team management, and frustration among employees.

I developed a mobile app to streamline communication, enable
real-time task management, and simplify issue reporting. The app reduced delays, improved efficiency, and boosted employee engagement, achieving measurable results:

40% Reduced schedule communication delays
30% Reduced issue resolution time
25% Increased management efficiency
30% Boosted employee satisfaction

THE PROCESS

This iterative, user-focused process ensures that the final product is both
effective and responsive to user needs, ultimately driving business success
through improved efficiency and user satisfaction.

1. learn

Conducted in-depth interviews and user surveys to identify pain points, mapping workflows to uncover bottlenecks like delays and task prioritization.

2. ideate

Generated ideas using How Might We statements, prioritizing Must and Should features like real-time notifications and issue reporting.

3. design

Created and tested wireframes, refining the experience, and developed a scalable design system for consistency.

4. launch

Delivered an MVP that reduced delays and improved task management, gathering feedback for future updates.

MY ROLE

As the sole designer and Lead UX Designer on this project,
I managed the end-to-end design process, which included:
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- Conducting user research, synthesizing insights, and identifying key challenges.
- Designing wireframes, prototypes, and a design system for scalable development.
- Collaborating with stakeholders and developers to align user needs with business goals.
- Iterating on feedback through usability testing and ensuring the app delivered real impact.

PROJECT CHALLENGE

Enhancing Communication and Work Organization

Exact Systems faced challenges with delayed communication, inefficient task handling, and unclear reporting processes, these problems led to reduced productivity, poor team management, and frustration among employees.

My goal was to create a solution that streamlined operations, enhanced clarity, and promoted seamless collaboration across teams.

PROJECT GOALS

All iterations were guided by measurable primary and secondary goals,
ensuring alignment with business objectives and user needs.

Communication Delays

Reduce communication delays by implementing real-time updates and notifications, ensuring employees and managers stay aligned and informed.

Issue Resolution Time

Streamline issue reporting and enable real-time notifications to cut resolution time, improving efficiency across the organization.

chapter one: learn

During this phase, I conducted in-depth research to uncover the daily responsibilities and key challenges employees face in managing tasks and reporting issues. Through interviews and surveys, I identified specific pain points, such as delays in communication and unclear reporting responsibilities, and mapped them to the organization's business goals.

By understanding these challenges from the users' perspective, I was able to identify bottlenecks in their workflow and propose targeted solutions. These insights directly shaped the app’s core features, ensuring they addressed user needs while driving organizational efficiency.

Qualitative research

To understand organizational challenges, I conducted interviews with two key groups: 5 stakeholders (e.g., managers and team leaders) and 5 line-workers (e.g., inspectors and technicians).
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I conducted interviews using Zoom and analyzed the responses with Aurelius, which helped me better organize the interviews and identify patterns in their answers.

Key Pain Points
‍‍Lack of Real-Time Updates: The task management system relies on emails and calls for updates, leading to confusion, inefficiency, and delays in task execution.

‍Ineffective Reporting Processes: Technical issues are reported through a complex process, causing delays, frustration, and wasted time. Employees often receive no updates, reducing productivity.‍‍

These findings highlighted critical inefficiencies, guiding the design of solutions to improve workflows, communication, and task management.

Empathy Map

I divided the empathy map into four quadrants:
‍Say: Direct quotes highlighting tool inefficiencies and frustrations.
‍Think: Underlying concerns like the need for real-time updates or frustration with manual processes.
‍Feel: Emotions such as stress from delays or feeling undervalued.
‍Do: Actions like relying on workarounds or chasing updates.

The map was a key tool in the design process, helping to address pain points and prioritize solutions that improve workflows and collaboration for both line workers and stakeholders.

Personas

The personas captured the needs of two key user groups: line employees, frustrated by unclear reporting processes and delays
managers, struggling to track progress and prioritize tasks effectively.
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These personas served as a constant reference throughout the design process, ensuring that the app addressed both employee and managerial needs effectively.

Customer Journey Map

The Customer Journey Map revealed significant pain points in the reporting process, leading to frustration and inefficiencies for both employees and managers. Employees often struggled with unclear steps, saying, “Where do I start reporting this? I hope I can find the right form or contact person,” which created delays and uncertainty.
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The CJM gave me a clear understanding of key user pain points and areas where their satisfaction significantly drops. It allowed me to pinpoint process issues and generate HMW questions, which guided the next stages of the project and helped design effective solutions.

chapter two: ideate

Brainstorming

This phase focused on solving key challenges like communication delays, task management inefficiencies, and unclear issue reporting. Using How Might We statements, I framed actionable ideas and applied the MoSCoW framework to prioritize features by impact and feasibility.

By focusing on Must and Should features, the MVP addressed core pain points while adding valuable enhancements like photo attachments for issue reports, categorized as Should for their added context and clarity. This structured approach aligned the product with user needs and business goals, ensuring a functional and impactful MVP.

User Flow + Wireframes

I then created wireframes and a user flow to discuss my solutions with stakeholders. During these discussions, the functionality for managers to generate productivity reports was deemed highly valuable but was ultimately excluded, as its implementation would delay the launch of the initial app version.
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Together, we decided to prioritize other features for the MVP, with report generation planned for the next release.

Usability testing

To ensure the app's usability, I conducted usability testing to evaluate the effectiveness of the flows I designed. I created preliminary prototypes and tested their functionality with managers and employees, assigning tasks such as reporting an issue to observe interactions and gather feedback.
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Iterating at this stage was crucial because it allowed me to identify and address usability pain points early. While the reporting flow was effective, the tests revealed that the team-messaging flow wasn't intuitive and required some improvements.

In this phase, I used the MoSCoW framework to prioritize features for the MVP, focusing on critical needs like real-time notifications and task reporting, while deferring less urgent functionalities. I created user flows and wireframes to refine solutions, and through discussions with stakeholders, prioritized core features to ensure a timely launch. This approach balanced user needs with business goals and technical feasibility.

chapter three: design

Design System

I developed a comprehensive design system to ensure consistency, scalability, and efficiency in the app's development process. This system included reusable components such as buttons, icons, and typography styles, which streamlined collaboration between design and development.
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By maintaining a unified visual language, I ensured the app was both visually cohesive and easy to expand for future features.

Prototyping + Iterative Improvements

Using interactive prototypes I created in Figma, I tested the app's functionality with managers and employees, gathering feedback on usability and flow. These iterations revealed key areas for improvement, such as:
- simplifying navigation
- enhancing the team messaging feature.

By addressing these issues early, I ensured the final design was intuitive, user-focused, and aligned with the project’s goals.

Usability testing

To ensure the app's usability, I created preliminary prototypes to test its functionality with managers and employees. Using usability testing, I assigned tasks such as reporting an issue to observe interactions and gather user feedback. Based on these observations and input, I implemented necessary functionality improvements.

Iterating at this stage was crucial because it allowed me to identify and address usability pain points early. While the reporting flow was effective, the tests revealed that the team-messaging feature required some improvements.

In this phase, I aligned user needs with business goals to address the primary project objectives effectively. Early iterations with stakeholders refined my solutions, ensuring alignment with business priorities and user needs. Usability testing helped me identify and resolve issues, tailoring the app to deliver a seamless user experience.

chapter four: launch

Design System

By maintaining a unified visual language, I ensured the app was both visually cohesive and easy to expand for future features.

Measuring KPIs

Using interactive prototypes, I tested the app's functionality with managers and employees, gathering feedback on usability and flow. These iterations revealed key areas for improvement, such as simplifying navigation and enhancing the team messaging feature.

By addressing these issues early, I ensured the final design was intuitive, user-focused, and aligned with the project’s goals.

Future Development

This roadmap highlights the app’s evolution, starting with solving critical user pain points in the MVP and gradually adding features to enhance employee engagement and empowerment. Each phase balanced user feedback with business goals, culminating in innovative features like Exact Pay to boost employee satisfaction and organizational efficiency.