PlayNetwork - Device Manager Dashboard

DEVICE MANAGER DASHBOARD

Matching Music to Brands

Music curators create custom branded playlists for stores and other retail spaces that enhance their customer experience and increase revenue.

Matching Music to Brands

Music curators create custom branded playlists for stores and other retail spaces that enhance their customer experience and increase revenue.

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PLAYNETWORK AND MY ROLE

Like many companies I've designed for, PlayNetwork's products are ubiquitous yet you've never heard of them. That music at Starbucks? That's PlayNetwork.

PlayNetwork creates hand-crafted branded playlists and delivers music through their proprietary networked music player devices. This is big.

450 Brands
185,000 locations
127 countries

As the only UX designer, I supported up to 3 teams of developers and products. This included iOS apps that streamlined provisioning devices in the warehouse, dashboards and web apps that simplified the management and troubleshooting of devices in the field, and product offerings on our website.

Problem Statements

To unify the focus of the project, I listened to the stakeholders describe their points of view and reflected them back to the team.

Existing dashboard

A previous designer created this dashboard for customer service. Because they couldn't understand the indicators and the information displayed didn't include what they needed to see, they stopped using it.

Older devices used CDs

Older devices used CDs to receive tracks and playlists. Customers would have to call in for instructions how to troubleshoot them.

Problem Statements

To unify the focus of the project, I listened to the stakeholders describe their points of view and reflected them back to the team.

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PROBLEM STATEMENT

Customers were upset and Customer Service reps were frustrated because PlayNetwork couldn't identify that device had stopped playing music until a customer called in to report it.

Even then, diagnosing and resolving issues was difficult, time-consuming, and left customers without music in their stores. Although the new devices were networked, the display of existing management software was difficult to decipher. When the new devices proved unreliable in the field, the number of service tickets mushroomed.

Presenting the Problem Statements aligned the stakeholders behind the design process.

Scenarios and Personas

Designing effective applications requires a thorough understanding of its users and their work. I interview users, identify their key tasks, and illuminate how users want to efficiently do their work.

Users

Beyond the primary users, other workers may rely on the application in critical circumstances, though less often and with a narrower focus. Finding them and incorporating their needs into the design produces superior applications and better results across the enterprise.

Information Architecture

Effective UX design facilitates the conversation between the system and the user. Knowing what information the user needs to see and how to display it is crucial in supporting the user's successful completion of their work. It is also important to understand and manage how the user communicates to the system.

Scenarios and Personas

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USERS, GOALS, AND TASKS

After identifying subject matter experts (SMEs) in Customer Service, Account Management, Testing, and Development, I assembled their insights to define and detail the personas, goals, scenarios, tasks, and methods for the project and present them to the stakeholders.

Goals for Device Manager

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DEFINING SUCCESS

To prioritize our efforts and prevent scope creep, we agreed on the following success criteria.

1) enable Customer Service to quickly resolve device issues when reported by customers

2) enable Customer Service to monitor and proactively resolve issues before they were reported by customers

3) be suitable for larger customers to monitor and manage their devices through their internal IT team

Matching Issues to Their Key Indicators

Customer service did not have a defined process for diagnosing the issues. By pulling together the insights from a Sr. Customer Service tech, the lead Device Tester, and the Sr. Developer for the devices, I mapped out a determinant path for resolving device issues and thereby identified the key indicators that differentiated between classes of issues.

Matching Issues to Their Key Indicators

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INNOVATION

Customer Service did not have a deterministic and repeatable process to identify and resolve device issues.

I started with the Sr. Technical Customer representative to identify the most common issues and their likely causes. I next worked with the Device Developer and Sr. Test Engineer to determine how we could detect the status of connections, settings, and downloads.

I mapped the logical sequence and decision tree that most quickly and definitively identified the issue and how to solve it.

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IDEATION

Early designs began on a whiteboard where I could collaborate quickly with stakeholders. The process was to draw out design assumptions and intentions from them using open-ended questioning and rapid reflection of their comments into visualizations. Once a candidate design direction stabilized, the process continued in electronic form.

Does the Design Do Its Job?

This gallery illustrates how I revised the Device List using input from the targeted users to highlight the findings from the previous work.

Dashboard from Previous Designer

The existing dashboard devoted most of the page to identifying the device instead of its issue. The icons and logic were difficult to understand. This dashboard design did not add value and was ignored by its users.

Device List v5

The new design included easy to decipher iconography and clear indication of working and trouble states. The most common and useful data appeared on the first page users would see.

Does the Design Do Its Job?

This gallery illustrates how I revised the Device List using input from the targeted users to highlight the findings from the previous work.

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VALIDATION

Mocking up the Device List enabled me to review and test the design with the targeted user groups. Feedback led me to isolate the key indicators and develop an icon language to communicate status based on severity and duration of issues.

Azure prototype

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PROTOTYPING

To clearly test and validate the design with users, and to clarify and communicate for the developers, I constructed a full prototype in Axure. This screenshot of Axure shows the many levels of interaction built in.