Select Recipients Overhaul
Creating ease of use in our “Add Notification” workflow utilizing research and internet best practices in a pinch.
The Problem
Originally when we had designed this, we utilized a box that would allow the creator of the notification to simply enter in people’s emails or phone numbers separated by commas. We thought this was simple enough and would work well. We did not have time to test in our original release due to tight deadlines placed by the parent companies.
After release, we started getting feedback that creating notifications was taking far too much time, so we set off on some discovery and uncovered that it was this piece, selecting recipients, that was the hardest part. It became apparent that people creating these notifications didn’t actually know their coworker’s emails and phone numbers off the top of their heads. We needed a way to make adding recipients far easier, and of course, as usual, we were really pressed on time.
The Process
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Research
We started by gaining feedback from our users (through hotjar, emails, and some cam-to-cam interviews) and documented them in empathy maps. We researched all kinds of ways to do this. We started with the major email carriers and documented those options.
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Plan
We did not have much time to do this, maybe a sprint or less. So we had to create documentation that explained our approach and our objectives.
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Design & Converse
Our biggest challenge was coming up with a design that the developers were able to achieve within our existing platform.
Together, we were able to come up with our favorite idea, based on best practices taken from Microsoft Teams meeting invites, and execute that. It took some convincing, but once we were able to show our research and have those conversations, the developers were on board.
The Solution
When a user is entered into our system, we capture their email and their phone number anyways. We were able to use that to scroll a list, or search within a company and find the correct emails and phone numbers to email or text these notifications to. This sped up the user’s creation process dramatically.