Project summary
I successfully influenced the product roadmap to advocate for the redesign of the mobile app. Working as the sole designer, I redesigned the app for iOS & Android in both light & dark mode. Feedback and results were from user surveys and quantitative metrics from Firebase.
Team
Product design lead (me), 1 product manager, 1 project manager, 2 backend developers, 2 frontend developers, 1 content manager
Status
Android release: Q4 2024
iOS release: Q1 2024
Product
A native iOS & Android mobile app that allows parents to view and monitor their students’ online activities by features such as web filtering, site restrictions, and regulated screen time
Problem
Collaborating on the roadmap: A small request had even smaller impact = 👎
I was originally tasked to improve the understandability of screens that allowed parents to pause student devices. While I agreed this should be improved, I was also aware this request only addressed one out of many of the goals both the business and product had. I saw a opportunity to collaborate with the product team to develop a more comprehensive roadmap, integrating design objectives as well.
Solution
The new plan was to completely redesign the mobile app to achieve multiple goals in a single effort
Several factors allowed a change in roadmap priorities including time, better visibility in long-term goals, a fresh product team, and a lot of. meetings.
New goals
Improve understandability of Pause functionality
Update products to new design system
Prime app to eventually to be the central hub for other products
Improve navigation
Address basic UX heuristics of app
Create a mobile library to scale product*
Build rapport and trust with product and engineering*
Establish a method of collecting user feedback directly*
Previous goals
Improve understandability of Pause functionality
Discovery
Establishing a baseline to measure success and inform the design direction
I drove the initiative to push out the first-ever survey to proactively collect user feedback to understand the scope of the redesign. I used AI to assist me in synthesizing and affinity mapping the data because I received over 400 responses.
User research survey synthesis:
Although there were positive sentiments towards current features, the features were difficult to use
Filtering within the activity feed was ambiguous and lacked detail
Setting up offline schedules was confusing
Placement of the Pause function led room for user error
Navigating through the app was not easy, efficient, and intuitive
Define
Making the most of our opportunities and time: what should we prioritize?
Using survey responses, quantitative data from Firebase, estimated effort, and timeline considerations, I facilitated workshops with product & engineering to prioritize the scope and timeline of the redesign.
Design
Establishing the information architecture and scaffolding
Though functionality would mostly remain the same, a redesign of the navigation would result in changes to things like feature entry points, layout, and information architecture. I determined this structure first to present to product and development to get their buy-in and help inform us of feasibility and timelines.
Redesigning the feature with the highest user engagement : Activity feed
Despite being the mostly used feature, users complained the filtering was difficult to understand and too basic, thus making the feed unhelpful.
Redesigning the feature with the highest number of complaints : Schedules
The survey revealed users thought offline schedules was difficult to use. Because there was no time to interview users, I applied general UX heuristics to improve the flows of offline schedules.
Future scalability : creating a mobile library
I created a mobile library from scratch for both light & dark mode with reusable components, some of which were then used in the overall design system.
Metrics, results, and UXR
UX Heuristics results:
New design provides users with more control, freedom, and visibility as to where they are in the app and how to “exit” the screen that they’re on
Increased user efficiency to complete tasks by reducing amount of taps by up to 50%
Any content that was in a hierarchal structure (i.e. navigation, filters, lists) was checked with Firebase metrics and reorganized to ensure that content with the highest engagement was more easily accessible
Redesign ensured WCAG contrast accessibility standards
Survey response* results:
Ease of navigation rating increased by 12%
Overall experience rating using the app increased by 32%
Overall rating for the new UI increased by 17%
Interpersonal team results
Established trust and rapport with new product team (ex: PM and PJM include design in any changes to the app i.e. login, error messages, recommended accessibility changes)
Created a directory of parent participants to recruit for future user research efforts
Regular cadence of communication among design, product, and engineering
Target metrics:
Increase user review and engagement on app store
Maintain or increase WAUs and respective retention rate
Increase session length for Activity feed by 20%
Decrease exit rate on creating a new Schedule
*response for the redesign based on internal interviews prior to release of app. Responses from parent users are anticipated to be collected several weeks after app release