SALESFORCE PLATFORM–UX SERVICES
Designed Private AppExchange and improved the publishing experience on the public AppExchange, including homepage and form re-design for mobile and web.
ROLE: Led UX Design for AppExchange, Close collaboration & guidance from manager
DURATION: 6 months
TEAM: Design Manager, Researcher, 2 PMs, Engineer
PLATFORMS: Web, Desktop, Mobile
LINKS: AppExchange, Private AppExchange
EMPATHIZE
I had access to a User Researcher who sent out surveys to get feedback user experiences for the existing AppExchange before I embarked on a redesign. I also conducted user interviews on the side of people who used the App Exchange to better understand the breakdowns of the current design.
Interpret
& Define
After spending time understanding the admin world, it became clear that it's not very exciting to look at. Administrators have so much control over the experience of applications based on how they install them. They really care about what they do, and they pay a great deal of attention to app usage and ways to enhance the experience of the others. I realized that it's extremely important to arm them with analytics and a backend that's easy to navigate.
IDEATE
I worked very close with my product team and manager to brainstorm innovative solutions to improve the AppExchange experience. We met regularly to review usage data, product strategy and the latest design concepts. To increase collaboration with other designers from different teams, get constant feedback on my designs, and create a designated thinking space I put together a design board to house my inspiration, flows, and latest designs. During grad school at Carnegie Mellon, I learned about a concept called a "Design Wall" that can help foster collaboration around designs. I thought I'd test it out for a couple of reasons: the team was small, we didn't meet often, and I wanted feedback from more of my peers. At Salesforce, all the designers sat together in the back corner of the 9th floor. Since there was a ton of foot traffic near my desk, I thought it'd be a great spot to prop up a board that would host all of my latest work. Sure enough, the board fostered more collaboration and encouraged people to drop by with questions and feedback. I used it in our monthly meetings with the design director to talk through my approach.
Prototype, Test, & Deliver
Armed with research and inspiration from the latest design trends, I created designs to improve the app listing process and experience for administrators who post apps to the AppExchange. On the UXS team, I had to create designs for the Private AppExchange, finalize visuals and deliver specs in a relatively short timeframe. I am very comfortable with interaction design and user experience, but visual design was a growth area for me. I worked closely under the mentorship of a strong visual designer at Salesforce to make key design decisions for the visual look and feel. I met with him every other week to review my latest mocks before I went ahead and delivered the final specs to developers.
