Minted is a marketplace where customers can purchase artwork and designs from independent designers to use for home decor, stationery and invitations for life's many celebrations. Their operations team uses MBO (Minted Back Office), an internal tool, to proof customer orders but the tool is cumbersome, repetitive and unintuitive.
By reducing the number of steps to see relevant information and streamlining the user’s process, we can reduce user error, save time, and result in lower operational costs to the company.
My main problem is not being able to preview my files as I’m uploading them into MBO. If we could quickly see errors before we send it through to Quality Control or to the customer we could minimize the number of rejected proofs and save time for everyone.” - Kory, Design Consultant
On average, one proof round takes a designer 15 minutes to complete. If we could reduce that time by 1 minute for each round, the company could save over $1 million a year. Alternatively, if we can reduce the number of rejected proofs by 20% we could cut costs $3 million a year. Customer recovery is also a costly expenditure for a retail business, some of which can be tied directly to slow proofing times and high error rates.
Calculations based on team averages.
Average proofs per day = 2000
Average rate of designer = $12/hr
[(number of proofs) x (time per proof)] x [(hourly rate) x (hours worked per day)] = Cost of operations
I conducted a survey that was sent to members of the Design Operations team and 10 responded. The information it gathered told me how much time was spent using MBO during each proof round, what common mistakes occurred, and highlighted many pain points.
From my data I saw the need to improve the tool's accessibility, reduce friction by eliminating redundancies and creating clear affordances, and cut down on information overload by consolidating and reorganizing the current tool's layout.
“I have to fill out dispositions multiple times for the same item”
“The font size could be larger”
“Add a section to upload order notes on the proof page so we don’t have to go to another page to upload editable files or recolors”
“Preview so the DA can see what they are sending up to the qc”
Preview capabilities and low resolution notifications are both common features found in other online printing services. I knew I would have some constraints to work with including detecting low resolution jpg files embedded in native Illustrator artwork. Keeping in mind my three priorities of improving accessibility, reducing friction and reducing information overload, I mapped out my feature solutions using a grid to target those features with the highest impact and lowest effort to use for the MVP.
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I met with one group of designers from Minted's Operations team and was able to watch 4 designers test my prototype. I created two tasks for these users to complete, first to upload a proof to a customer order using my prototype and then to review and submit the same proof.
These interviews immensely informed my goal to decrease information overload. I was able to discuss and hone in on some of the finer details of information hierarchy so designers saw the most important information where they needed to see it. Through the lens of progressive disclosure, I was able to identify what information came too late or early and contradicted some of the assumptions I had originally made.
User 1
• Missed the Order Notes and Special Request section.
• Needed an affordance to show that images can be enlarged by clicking on them.
• Missed the "next" button at the top of the page.
• Noted that the notes section from the review page should allow separate notes for each item.
User 2
• Downloads files before reading customer special requests.
• Prefers to fill out dispositions before uploading artwork.
User 3
• Expected to find designer history at the top of the page. (I thought that information unnecessary)
• Expected that order notes would be grouped with customer special requests. (they were on opposite sides of the page)
• Commented that her focus began on the top left of the page, then scanned the right column before noticing the middle of the page.
• Similar to User 1, needed separate note sections for each item in review.
User 4
• Noticed the alerts (top right) first then found the order notes (right column).
• Similar to User 3, looked for designer history to see who had worked on the order previously.
• Applied their mental model of using the current MBO program to navigate my prototype and was tripped up by the updated flow.
• Was familiar with the "next" button to guide through the task.
• Contrary to Users 1 and 3, preferred having one note section for all items thinking it saved time.
1. Add Previous DA/QC to “assign to me” section.
2. Move Order Notes to the left column with Special Requests.
3. Add Proof States to information section on the left column.
4. Label thumbnail to say “click to enlarge”.
5. Add extra emphasis on next step buttons.
6. Label Review page.
7. Split notes section on the review page to pair with each item.
It is my hope that not only will these changes drive down the cost of operations for the company but also lessen the headaches of the employees that use it. Condensing the information and reducing the number of steps per task will both speed up the overall process and reduce the number of user errors that can cause more rounds of proofing and longer wait times for customers.
