Revamping the Dashboard for the Achilles Contact Generator Tool

June 2021

Problem

The Achilles team is developing a tool that helps public adjusters, roofers and restoration companies obtain leads through their web based tool which acts as a contact and address generator based off different properties that users select. The team wanted their UI update for their tool to be clean and simple to help create and push out the first minimum viable product (MVP).

Discovery Phases

Initially, the idea was to go in and revamp the user interface to make a simple and clean design. However, after seeing that the client wanted to remove the map, which was a large part of the user experience, the project called for a UI and UX revamp to be done quickly. Time was of the essence due to hurricane season being around the corner and the clients desire for their product to be out and available as their first minimum viable product (MVP).

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Quite often, I find that I'm almost never feel comfortable suggesting designs or changes for something that I’m unsure who the intended audience is or what the purpose of the tool is. As we went through our first brief of the project, I did have a hard time understanding the world of public adjusters and contractors but I did my best in gathering the intel that I needed in order to address the pain points, wants, needs, and expectations of the stake holder. I made sure to apply these findings throughout the iteration process and outcome.

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Where’s the research portion?

Due to budgetary and time constraints, I was not able to begin or implement any user research or testing for the designs. I depended on the crucial communication and feedback the stake holders provided me in all our meetings. I did dedicate a very small amount of time to looking at some of their competitors and was glad to find that they were also in a similar headspace when it came to user navigation, information architecture and the user interface design when we were closer to the last steps of the MVP.

Creating MockUps

For a first quick mock up, I provided the stake holders with a version of exactly what they asked for, and then went ahead and made a couple of changes that I thought would make better use of the space available while being mobile responsive and desktop friendly. I reasoned that most footers only have 5 containers at most, so that would be my limit but I found that the dashboard really only needed 4 containers. The tool was meant to be used by contractors, roofers, or anyone who remodels buildings. I imagined they would be scouting out sites in blazing sun, potentially using a small tablet, or a laptop.

This meant that I should up the contrast (which could also benefit users with visual impairments) and continue to implement the consecutive order already in place (they were using a numbering system, and guiding users from top to bottom). Below is an example of two initial layouts I created for Achilles team. At first, I thought the tool would be built into the site builder through Wix but later discovered that users would be redirected to the tool which had been built from scratch. That's why I have the Achilles website header and footer in the first few iterations.

First and Second Ideas for Achilles
Initial concepts for Achilles Dashboard

What was established?

Our stake holders wanted a couple of new things put in to place that weren’t completely there before or needed more fleshing out. We ended up establishing the following:

  • Log in area with password resets, and an are for "forgot username" for returning users.
  • A space for new users to create a profile where only business emails would be accepted or, company info, and contact numbers.
  • A space dedicated to the user profile, history, and credit card in use, and password changes.
  • A quick “how to” use the tool. (Which for the sake of time is just text based at the moment)
  • A space dedicated to constantly displaying sponsorship of the product due to legalities.
Above are the Home Page and Commercial Properties Screens
Above are the History of Exports and Purchase Contacts Screens
Purchase Screen and Saving Payment Info Screens

A Little Reflection for Myself

Communication is Crucial

Every project I’ve been a part of has allowed me the ability to exercise my communication skills and has helped me prepare questions ahead of time that really help me get into the mindset of the client and their expectations of the project.

What would I do different?

I would have appreciated conducting some usability testing on the prototypes and current solution with some of their end users. Additionally, I would have liked to conduct more extensive competitor research to identify pros and cons of certain solutions at the moment.

Appreciating the Smallest things

This is solely my opinion, but from a contractor perspective, with what I know so far it's hard to gauge how much time usability testing and research will take which is why I also found value in this projects mission to strictly revamp the user interface and experience only as fast as we could.

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