Dashboard redesign

Teamwork Desk
Project Overview
Teamwork Desk is a help desk and ticketing system designed to easily manage customer emails in one location. Essential to the functionality of Desk is the ability to create, manage and report on tickets through which interaction with the customer and agent is formed.

In order to enhance the UI and UX on core Desk pages, a key design objective was to create a more user-friendly dashboard that offers contextual analytics.
My role
Qualitative research - ongoing user interviews, community feedback analysis, observed behaviour sessions.

User story mapping, MVP strategy analysis, product concept prototyping, UI visual execution, design system contributions, user-testing, analysis and iterations.

Jan 2023 — June 2023
Qualitative research and assumptions
In order to meet strategic needs of the product, it was essential we conducted research (via interviews) to fully understand what problems agents and team leads face when viewing reporting data and what would be contextually useful for them to solve problems.

An ideation session that included Desk product owners, customer champions, researchers and myself allowed us to analyse what we already knew from survey feedback and what assumed behaviours we had to validate.

From here strategic interview questions could be set for research.
UX intervew ideation
Though ideation sessions we were able to set strategic questioning for individual end-user interviews. The aim was to discover what information agents and team leads need on a dashboard by asking open ended, scenario based questions without leading bias.

Feedback would then be analysed through affinity mapping to prove or disprove assumptions and begin to set problem solving functionality through user story maps

Individual interviews were time-blocked for a 30 mins video call. Jam ideation session boards are shown below:
Research analysis and validated problems
Affinity mapping and analysis of interview research proved multiple assumption to be correct about the poor performance of the existing Desk dashboard. Contextual user interviews also allowed us insight and feedback into reporting problems and behaviours that required solutions via functionality on the new dashboard proposals.  

Quantitative data also showed that of 22k users within a 90 day period, users spent an average of 18 seconds on the Dashboard. The area was overly complex and often wasn’t in context to the user so drop offs were a common occurrence.

Additional to this, it was discovered the page offered no personalised help or opportunities to promote relevant upgrades.
Lack of visibility on new features
With the dashboard being the default page when opening desk, it provides an ideal opportunity to promote new features. Currently notifications of new feature releases are hidden behind update menus and receive little traffic.
Widget data is not always relevant
Information displayed on widgets was often not relevant to individual users and provided context of the wider team instead of tasks personal to their day which would help prioritising workflow.
No context for user personas
The standard approach of the existing dashboard offers very little personalised context that can be used for target setting.  An admin (line manager) will want to see very different information to a standard user (agent).
No prominent upgrade path
Users are often unaware of the benefits offered by an upgrade to a higher plan. An opportunity to display the benefits of this in an educational form was being missed on the current dashboard.
Old experience
User personas
Desk is a SaaS product utilised by support agents in various industries as a tool for managing consumer communications (via email).

With an average session time of 7h7m, users frequently spend the majority of their session replying and managing emails from various inboxes.

As a result of this, a digestable breakdown of their daily activity is helpful when tracking personal and team targets.
Jobs to be done
Foundations for an MVP feature backbone were created by mapping research into a user flow map that included specific functionality against core user stories. Ideation sessions with a Desk Product Owner and myself allowed us to also create a refined list of 'jobs to be done' which allowed for clear design parameters to be set per user.
Design problem
Widget data is complex and not relevant
User scenario
The existing dashboard offered analytical breakdowns that were way too complex and focused too heavily on wider team performance. For agent level users, a more refined and personal display was required in order to digest daily self performance.
Solution #1
Solution
Refining available data into digestable stats allowed the dashboard to be way more useful. Tailoring widgets to the specific user role also allowed a more personal experience and a tangible reason for users to spend time on the dashboard.

The support agent shouldn’t have to go looking for the data that lets them know how they’re performing upon login.
Design problem
Lack of visibility on newly released features
User scenario
The existing dashboard had very little in the way of dynamic information and didn’t feel like a space that was reactive to the life to the app. Providing visibility of newly released features is something that research showed to be requested by users.
Solution #2
Solution
Providing space to promote features on the dashboard allowed the area to act in a more multi-functional manner alongside analytical widgets. Users monitoring their daily performance statistics would also be prompted subtly to investigate new features that could improve their current workflow and improve productivity.
Design problem
Lack of context for different user personas
User scenario
A blanket approach to widget data on the current dashboard often provided data which lacked useful content for specific users. No user group received maximum value with the reality being an average use time of 18 seconds before page drop-off.
Solution #3
Solution
To provide value, widgets were defined by role and personalised to the individual. As an example, It’s helpful for a user to see how may email queries they’ve personally solved this week. An admin on the other hand, would like to see the team breakdown.
Design problem
No prominent upgrade path
User scenario
Users currently struggle to understand or realise they can improve workflow by upgrading to Desk pro plans. Contextual prompts exist but often don’t include much insight into benefits of an upgrade unless users click through the modal path.
Solution #4
Solution
As part of making the dashboard a more multi-functional space, cards that prompt the benefits of upgrading were included to allow users to have visibility on the potential of their plan and also improve their product knowledge. Upgrade cards were particularly important on admin level dashboards as they usually plan team workflow.
Impact
By focusing on qualitative and quantitate data we were able to design a solution which resulted in a more personalised and useful dashboard. Relevant and contextual information is now presented to users, giving value to their experience on Desk.

Desk subscriber counts have grown consistently, with revenue continuing to rise from 80k pm to £500k pm in 2023 as part of the design uplift.

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Made in 2024