Increase Usability of A Technical Support Portal
Reducing support call volume & improving the support experience
Project Background
In 2006 an international IT company with over 200 B-to-B software products needed to transition it's Technical Support system to SAP, integrate 3 support sites from newly acquired products and apply a new corporate branding. Due to complaints and an increase in call volume they asked the UX Department to also identify & fix low hanging, but high impact usability issues. Afterwards, because testing proved the UX enhancements increased ease of use and lowered call volume, a Phase 2 was approved to further explore and address additional usability challenges.
My Role
Phase 1: UX/UI Consultant, Managed relationship with Usability Testing vendor, UX Research, Content Management
Phase 2: Lead Product Designer, UX Researcher, Copywriting
UX Challenges
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Maintaining a consistent user experience across product suites was a challenge because many of the company's products were acquired, had their own workflows and were not fully migrated into the company's systems.
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The root problem of many of our usability challenges were underlying application issues or the lack of product integration, neither of which were in project scope.
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Personalization capabilities were minimal, so there was a lot of content that was not relevant to the user.
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The need for a visual style that could work for both marketing and application design.
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Initially user experience was not well understood, so much evangelism and education was needed up front.
Design Process
DISCOVERY
IDEATION / ANALYSIS
DESIGN
VALIDATE / ITERATE
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Stakeholder workshops
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User interviews
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Usability Testing
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Heuristics
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Competitive analysis
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Brainstorming Sessions
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Personas
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Use cases
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Task flows
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Information architecture
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Wireframes
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User feedback
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Visual Design / Style Guide
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Content Design
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Functional Specifications
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User Testing
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Iterate
Discovery
Understanding the current state
I held Stakeholder Interviews, performed a heuristic evaluation and content inventory of the current site and each of the three sites we were integrating, and explored competitor sites and best practices across top technical support sites. I also familiarized myself with any technical constraints we had to work within.
Understanding the users
Initially I partnered with a 3rd party a usability testing firm, to run contextual interviews and usability testing on the current support site as well as the three we were integrating. I spoke with technical support staff and sat in on some of their customer calls. In future phases of this project I either ran the user research initiatives myself or would bring in the 3rd party usability firm as a partner.
Ideation / Analysis
During this phase I worked with the support team's business analysts to identify and document personas, tasks, process flows, and use cases. We would have daily scrum / brainstorming sessions and intel exchange with a larger team of Technical Support managers, engineering, marketing and product managers. I created an information architecture and worked with the rest of the team to created a step by step plan that laid out a phased approach to a new technical support site, focused on user tasks and needs, integrating multiple newly acquired products, offering personalization and tested throughout the life cycle of the project.
Design / Validate / Iterate
I created wireframes based on the synthesis from the Discovery period. These were reviewed by the core team of 24 every other day to determine technical and operational feasibility. I worked closely with the marketing branding team. sharing new UX components that would need styles, and providing feedback on the UI. Every 4 weeks I would test designs with customers and iterate when possible.
Solving a design challenge
The Tech Support homepage had always been overwhelming with lists of data but. I was excited to have the opportunity to redesign it and introduce a more user friendly feel that was well received by both our customers and internal business units.
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"I’m sure you're aware that on 1/24 we launched our new CA Support Online anonymous user landing page. This page would not have been possible without the efforts of Lisa. We were challenged with an aggressive target and despite having another full time obligation, Lisa somehow made the time possible to orchestrate this project.
I witnessed Lisa’s vision, its consistency in what it presents and most importantly the meaning of the page for the target audience it addresses. She was truly passionate about this effort. I wish to extend my sincere personal thanks to her efforts on this project and the personal time she spent to make this happen, she is a dedicated professional. If you have not already done so, please take the page for a test drive – https://support.ca.com . My thanks again for an inspiring individual." Sr. Support Business Partner
"Hi Lisa,
I just heard the news that the support team gave you a reward in recognition of your work in revamping the Support Web site. Please accept my additional congratulations for your excellent work on this project. It is tremendous to see that kind of positive recognition and response from our customer! Great job!"
(SVP of Products)