Switch to pc/tab to view design process.
E.B.R
The EBR gives a regular update on the company's value to clients, helping with contract renewal decisions.
Customers spent 5+ days on reports to track savings from FourKites, a very time consuming task for contract renewals.
Problem
Replaced the 8-page manual report
with a 2-page A.I. powered automated email.
Solution
Reduced contract renewal time from 6 days to 2 days.
Impacts
3 weeks (Final release in Feb - 2024)
Duration
Rohit Menon (Sr. UXD)
Nalina S (UXD)
Me (UXD)
My team
Research / Visual and UI design / UX writer
My roles
Problem
Customers spent 5+ days on reports to track savings from FourKites, a very time consuming task for contract renewals.
Solution and Impact
Replaced the 8-page manual report with a 2-page automated email, reducing contract renewal time from 6 days to 2.
Duration
3 weeks (Final release in Feb - 2024)
My Team
Rohit Menon (Sr. UXD)
Nalina S (UXD)
Me (UXD)
My Role
Research / Visual and UI design / UX writer
Problems experienced,
but not noticed
Problem Statement
Customers of FourKites spent over 3+ days each quarter collecting data from various sources to create reports. The insights screen, which gave 80% of the crucial data, helps users gather over 200 data points for this reports. This immense time-taking process and the manual efforts delayed the renewal decisions.
Slowed down critical business decisions.
Delay
Increased risk of inaccurate data analysis.
Fault
Delay causes missed business deals.
Business
Diverts the resources from other tasks.
Resources
Expectations and aim
of the project
Aim for the design
We aimed to accelerate the contract renewals and reduce manual effort through an optimized Insights dashboard, enabling faster, data-driven decisions.
Since customer calls typically started in 3 days post-expiry, we set a 3-4 day renewal target to ensure contracts were renewed beforehand.
Identified issues in
current process
Process to create the report
I noted down the report creation flow by interviewing 4 users and PM to understand the customer’s process, steps, and post-report actions.
Existing insights page
Me and the second UXD decided to point out all the issues that were blocking the aim and goals the team wanted to achieve. These issues needed be resolved in new design to create the initial design iteration.
Report needs to avoid extra clicks.
Clicks
Avoid multiple toggles to keep it simple.
Time
Avoid showing unavailable info direct.
Illusion
Getting data shouldn't have extra cost.
Extra cost?
Filtering from pool
of datapoints
Direction of design
New design needed to achieve the same goal as existing insights page providing real-time data points and values.
But, a key decision I advocated for was to display data upfront, eliminating the need for users to click, download, and compile numbers manually.
Gathering the data
The biggest challenge was determining which all point required the most attention. To resolve this, we collaborated with PMs, data analysts, and dozens of customers to identify the most requested, searched, and critical data for decision-making.
Prioritising
A key solution was to prioritize money and time-related data, as customers heavily relied on these for decision.
Initial iterations
of the report / dashboard
Iterations
Understanding the basic needs, aims, goals and issues, a set of new iterations were framed with the intend to get as close to solution as possible in little time.
Challenge 1
The data-driven UI met expectations and received positive internal feedback, but with suggestions for improvement. While the design made its goals, it still, required users to extract data manually for reporting.
Personalization -
A little different Visuals
Challenge 2
A second challenge arose: the design lacked a personal touch. Internal PMs and the tea wanted it to feel more personal, not just another dashboard.
Advantages of new product
While making things personalized required us to change our design and was tough to achieve for 120+ customers, it brought in an entire different set of opportunities and benefits to the company and the design team.
Exploration of more patterns and visuals.
Explore
Possibility of creating system for product.
Systems
It could give us a competitive edge.
Compete
New product could be sold to up the revenue.
Revenue
Updated design -
bento box widgets
Solution
I designed a bento box layout with a simple, data-centric visual language, offering a clear and scannable interface. This modular design enhances adaptability for future data points and versions.
Widget bento style
Each box had the dominant value / number that brought its value in the design. The value had a subtext with it, and also a benchmark or standard of FK values with other competitors (without showing much data).
Automating things for
9:00 am emails
Why email ?
The entire report was to be prepared in a pdf. While this was decided to stay within the Insight page, it was also necessary for it to be sent to user directly to enhance a personal touch.
Automation
Manually sending emails at a fixed time was inefficient. To solve this, we automated email creation and delivery using AI, eliminating manual effort. Due to constraints, new designs weren’t feasible, but automation streamlined the process, saving time and resources.
Final Design
An automated system to create and email reports directly to customers, eliminating the need for users to create them manually.
An email at 9:00 AM
Automating emails at 9:00 AM keeps them at the top of unread messages, increasing visibility, CTR% and TOT%
Potential to save days of effort for a company.
Time
Made easy
to understand
by anyone.
Simple
Regular updates as a constant report.
Constant
Uplifting the values of FourKites, Inc.
Trust
For all devices and for all user types
Users see a design with widgets and data-blocks showing numbers and profits from FourKites products. They can view it via email, PDF, or as a webpage.
Learnings & Impact
Observing users, I learned that not all problems are directly reported, and solutions aren’t always within the product. In this case, a simple 9 AM email solved the issue without changing the system and made lives of users who never knew this was a problem in the first place.
6 Days to 2 Days
Contract renewal times reduced to 2 Days from 4-6 days
8-20 Pages to 2-3 Page
Report size reduced to 2 or 3 pages instead of 8 to 20 pages manual.
