Web Design
Project Room
Facilitate business internal communication and project management in a simple way.
OVERVIEW
A powerful platform that streamlines project management and collaboration.
The development of Project Room stemmed from the integration and evolution of two existing products within the Works Applications portfolio: Projects and Timeline.
The Projects product served as a project management and collaboration platform. It provided functionalities for defining project goals, creating tasks, allocating resources, managing files, and setting project timelines. Projects enabled project stakeholders to efficiently manage and track project progress, ensuring that projects were completed within the specified timeframes. Timeline, another product developed by Works Applications, focused on resource management. It allowed users to allocate resources, track their availability, and manage work across multiple projects. It also incorporated social collaboration features, designed to enhance communication and collaboration within the project management context.
Note: Due to the nature of the project, I cannot share more details about some of the product designs. If you want to know more, feel free to reach out to me.
TIMEFRAME
Aug 2020 - Aug 2021
MY ROLE
Product Designer
TOOLS
Axure
Sketch
Invision
DELIVERABLE
ERP system prototype
New design system
PROBLEM
Projects and Timeline had been in maintenance mode for several years and were unable to meet the increasing demand of customers.
Both Projects and Timeline had been in maintenance mode for several years and were unable to meet the increasing demand of customers who were seeking a seamless and collaborative project management experience. Recognizing the evolving market trends, Works Applications identified the growing need for an integrated solution that goes beyond the limitations of two separate products.
By combining the strengths of Projects and Timeline, we aimed to deliver a unified project management experience that empowers companies to meet the challenges of today's dynamic business landscape and achieve greater project success.
RESEARCH
Define problems
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What are the specific pain points, challenges, and requirements that our customers face in their project management processes?
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Which companies or products are the major competitors in the project management software market, and what are their strengths, weaknesses, and market share?
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How can we ensure a seamless integration of Timeline's social collaboration features, such as posts, updates, and notifications, with the project planning, scheduling, and task management functions of Projects?
ANALYZE
Existing product review - Timeline
The Timeline product was initially designed as a social collaboration tool aiming to enhance communication and collaboration within the project management context. With its timeline-like interface and engaging features, Timeline empowers users to share thoughts, updates, and relevant information, fostering a sense of community and promoting effective teamwork.
Here are some of its main functions:
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Feed: Timeline provides a feed where users can post announcements (administrator) and updates, share thoughts, thank project members, and engage in discussions related to projects, tasks, or specific topics.
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Comments and Discussions: Users can leave comments on posts or engage in threaded discussions, enabling easy communication and collaboration around specific topics or project-related matters.
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Mentions and Notifications: To draw attention or seek input from specific team members, Timeline allows users to mention their colleagues in posts or comments. Notifications ensure that relevant individuals are promptly informed, keeping everyone in the loop and facilitating active participation.
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Likes and Reactions: Similar to popular social media platforms, Timeline incorporates the ability to save posts (Clip) and express approval or reactions to posts and comments through likes or predefined reactions.
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File and Document Sharing: Timeline simplifies file and document sharing by enabling users to attach and share relevant resources directly within the platform. This ensures that project-related materials are easily accessible, reducing the need for separate file-sharing tools.
Existing product review - Projects
The main purpose of the Projects product is to provide robust project management capabilities. It enables users to plan, schedule, and track projects efficiently by offering a range of key functions to support efficient project management.
The main functions include:
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Feeds/Announcements: Users within each project group can stay updated on important information through feeds and announcements. Project administrators have the capability to share official statements, such as meeting schedules or key conference dates, ensuring effective communication among team members.
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File Management: Members of the project group can access and organize files relevant to the project, facilitating seamless document sharing and version control.
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Schedule Management: The Projects product includes features for managing personal schedules and meeting schedules, allowing users to stay organized and ensure effective coordination within the project.
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Create Project: Users can create new project groups based on different projects, allowing for effective organization and collaboration.
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See All Projects: Users have the ability to view, join, follow, or archive projects within the company, providing a comprehensive overview of ongoing initiatives.
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Widgets: Various widgets are available, including Frequent Contacts, Announcements, Useful Links, Scheduler, and Reminders. Users have the flexibility to customize these widgets based on their preferences, enhancing productivity and convenience.
What are the challenges and requirements that our customers face?
From our product review and business report, we found that:
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Low adoption of Timeline: Users often resort to using other products instead of using Timeline as the primary entry point. This indicates a need for improved usability and functionality within Timeline to encourage higher user engagement.
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Working habit preference: Japanese companies have a preference for different project management products due to their work structure. This indicates the importance of accommodating the specific working habits and preferences of Japanese organizations when designing and implementing project management features.
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Redundancy in widget information: Users encounter repetitive information across both Timeline and Projects' widgets. This redundancy leads to inefficiencies as users must navigate through multiple widgets to access project-specific updates and information. Streamlining the widget experience and reducing redundancy would enhance user productivity.
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Outdated visuals: The visual presentation of the products appears to be outdated. Clients have expressed a desire for a modern and visually appealing interface to enhance the overall user experience.
COMPETITVE ANALYSIS
Knowing competitors - What are their strengths and weaknesses?
To establish a solid foundation for the redesign of Project Room, it was essential to explore prominent products and their approaches to meeting user goals. This involved engaging with the business development team and stakeholders, as well as examining existing products in the market.
Here are the key findings:
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Technology-based Approach (e.g., Microsoft Teams):
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Emphasis on features like scheduling meetings, making phone calls, and collaborating on documents and spreadsheets with ease.
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Focus on simplified interactions and a minimalistic interface to enhance user experience.
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People-based Approach (e.g., Workplace, TUNAG):
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A strong emphasis on fostering strong relationships among colleagues.
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Workplace provides features like thank you/birthday cards, while TUNAG offers incentives such as credits/gift cards for use outside the company.
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TUNAG pays attention to details and offers multiple screens, while Workplace boasts a bright interface and a beautiful UI.
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While Microsoft Teams, Workplace, and TUNAG have their strengths, they also have some weaknesses that should be considered.
Here are some potential weaknesses:
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Microsoft Teams:
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Complexity: The extensive range of features and integrations in Microsoft Teams can make it complex for users, especially those who are new to the platform. Navigating through different functionalities and settings may require a learning curve.
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Limited Customization: Users may face limitations in customizing the user interface and adapting it to their specific needs and preferences.
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Workplace:
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Dependency on Facebook: Workplace's integration with Facebook may be seen as a disadvantage for organizations that prefer to keep work-related activities separate from personal social media profiles.
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Limited Third-Party Integrations: Compared to other collaboration platforms, Workplace has a narrower range of available third-party integrations, which may limit its compatibility with certain business tools.
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TUNAG:
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Limited Scalability: TUNAG's functionalities and scalability may be more suitable for small to medium-sized businesses rather than large enterprises with more complex collaboration needs.
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Localization: TUNAG primarily focuses on the Japanese market, which may limit its availability and suitability for organizations operating outside of Japan.
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DEFINE
How can we ensure a seamless integration?
By analyzing and examining our existing products and competitive products, we gained insights into effective strategies for addressing user needs and enhancing user engagement. The redesign of Project Room should take into account the technological aspects of seamless collaboration and the importance of building strong relationships among team members. Furthermore, paying attention to user interface design, simplicity, and intuitive interactions will be crucial in delivering an exceptional user experience.
Based on requirements from trial customers, market feedback and competitive analysis, we decide:
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Efficiency and Workflow Optimization - Integrate Timeline functions into Projects, streamlining workflows and optimizing the overall efficiency of the integrated product. By identifying areas of redundancy and addressing inefficiencies like repetitive information in widgets, we aimed to enhance user productivity and experience.
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Visual Overhaul: Undertake a visual overhaul to give the integrated product a fresh and modern look. This transformation can be served as a solid foundation for the subsequent evolution of the product, ensuring its visual appeal aligns with current design trends and user expectations.
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Roadmap Planning: Set a comprehensive roadmap for the Project Room redesign project. Recognizing the long-term nature of the project and its diverse range of functions, I collaborated closely with the other two designers in our team, the project manager, and the business team to establish a comprehensive roadmap. This encompassed setting clear milestones, prioritizing features, and allocating resources effectively, ensuring a cohesive and strategic approach to the project's execution.
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Technical Integration: Collaborate closely with the development team to ensure a smooth and seamless technical integration of Timeline functions into Projects. Our aim was to deliver a cohesive and uninterrupted user experience throughout the integrated solution.
SOLUTION
Project 1.1 - Project 1.4
Phase 1: Projects 1.1 - Integration and Redesigned Functions
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Integrate Timeline into Projects to create Project Room, providing a unified project management solution.
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Redesign functions such as posting feeds/comments, creating projects, seeing all projects, clipping important information, and making announcements.
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Enhance the overall layout and user interface of Project Room for a seamless and intuitive user experience.
Phase 2: Projects 1.2 - File and Members Management, Rich-text Editor
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Implement robust file management capabilities within Project Room, allowing users to organize and access project-related files efficiently.
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Enhance members management, providing tools to manage project team members, their roles, and permissions effectively.
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Introduce a rich-text editor for the Projects feed, enabling users to create and format content with ease, fostering more engaging project discussions.
Phase 3: Projects 1.3 - Widgets and Filters Redesign
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Redesign the User You May Know widget to suggest relevant team members to users, facilitating connections and collaboration.
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Revamp the Most React Feeds widget to highlight the most engaging and active project-related feeds, keeping users informed and involved.
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Improve custom filters for feeds so that users can focus on what they really want to know.
Phase 4: Projects 1.4 - Hashtag and Schedule Management Enhancements
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Enhance project hashtag functionality, allowing users to tag and categorize projects for improved organization and searchability.
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Implement advanced schedule management features, enabling users to effectively plan, schedule, and track project timelines and milestones.
DESIGN CONCEPT
Visual Identity
DESIGN SOLUTION
Timeline + Projects = Project Room.
By the end of Aug 2021, we have successfully finished our design to phase 3 - Project Room 1.3.
01
Project Room Portal
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Integrate the Timeline homepage into Projects, consolidating the two platforms into a unified Project Room portal.
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Move Announcement and Clip features to the primary navigation in Projects.
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Overhaul Timeline and Projects layout for a consistent design and improved user experience.
02
Create & See All Projects
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Develop a dedicated feature for users to create and seamlessly manage all their projects in one centralized location, simplifying project initiation and tracking.
03
File & Member Management
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Enhancethe user flow for file and member management, improving efficiency and making it effortless for users to organize and collaborate on project-related files while effectively managing project team members.
04
System Admin Platform
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Transforme the system admin platform to provide a comprehensive and intuitive interface for efficient administration and control over Project Room, empowering administrators to easily manage user access, permissions, and system settings.
Please reach out to me if you are interested in more deatils.
DESIGN SYSTEM
A brand new look for enterprise products.
As part of our design team, I collaborated with my colleagues to undertake a complete revamp of the design system for our enterprise products. We embarked on a comprehensive transformation, reimagining every aspect, from colors, fonts, and icons to the underlying component structure.
One of our key achievements was introducing this redesigned system to our Tokyo design team. I organized workshops and presentations to showcase the revamped design language, highlighting its benefits and aligning it with the latest design trends. Through collaborative efforts, we successfully gained acceptance and alignment from the team, ensuring a consistent design language across different locations.
In the process, we bid farewell to the old design style and embraced fresh design trends. While maintaining the primary color for brand consistency, we made significant adjustments to the grey color palette. By refining the tone and saturation, we achieved a more balanced and light experience, tailored specifically to our target user base.
Here are some examples.
IMPACT
Thanks for reading!
The release of Project Room Version 1.1 in August 2021 marked a significant milestone in our journey. I am delighted to share that this version of Project Room garnered immense success, attracting the attention and trust of three major Japanese businesses.
I also would like to express my gratitude to all my colleagues who worked alongside me, lending their expertise and support throughout the entire process. It is through their collective efforts that we were able to deliver a product that resonated with our target audience and met their needs effectively.