Creating an engaging dashboard experience

I was the lead designer for this project gathering behavioral data, conducting usability testing, and delivering final assets to engineers. I collaborated with cross-functional team members, including the product manager, designer, customer support, UX writer, and engineers.

Project summary

Our dashboard was cluttered with irrelevant content and hasn't been updated for a while. The new dashboard prioritizes information that is most useful to customers and shows personalized recommendations so they can start selling faster.

The problem

The dashboard has been unchanged for a while and displays static information without personalization. Our customers have told us that it felt outdated and irrelevant, so they've stopped paying attention.

For the business problem, it negatively contributes to completing key actions that are proven to lead to higher satisfaction.

Behavioral data

One of the things I did early on was checking the engagement through click tracking, which wasn't collected at the time. I asked a product manager to set up the tracking on all interactive elements like links and buttons. After two weeks, I was able to see our customers don't engage much other than the stats and the items above the fold.

Exploring other products

I looked at other products as inspirations. Since it was a high visibility area that would define the first impression for the entire app, I asked designers to share their favorite dashboards to make sure I reflected the collective thinking on the new design. From this exploration, I’ve noticed that dashboards often show different content depending on if it’s a new account or an account with activities like sales.

Design direction

After gathering customer feedback, exploring comparable products, looking at behavioral data, and surveying internal stakeholders, I set the design direction to the following:

Usability testing

We conducted testing with eight customers who were active on the platform. I drafted a plan and collaborated with researchers on recruiting participants. We used UserZoom to record sessions and add tags for the synthesis. The sessions consisted of two parts: current experience and future design. Overall, 7 out of 8 participants preferred the new design. Here are key insights we’ve discovered from usability testing.

Analytics is the most useful part, interested in customizing them for my needs

Customers liked that the analytics were brought to the top and responded positively to the visualization. I noted the interest in customizing analytics (e.g., replacing “Members” with something else) and setting and tracking goals for future phases.

Better communicate why a customer should do recommended tasks

Customers wanted to know why they should do the suggested tasks. I had to rethink the copy through the lens of a customer thinking, “What’s in it for me?” I tried to make a connection between ‘a simple task’ and the eventual goal of ‘making money’.

Remove tabs for better visibility

Customers like they could access resources, but many did not notice that there was a second tab. There was also internal feedback that Help Center was actively accessed in the sidebar. So I consolidated them into three resources and displayed them without tabs.

The solution