Going from good to great.

Sometimes you need to put away a good idea to make room for a great one. This is the story of that good idea (and the in-between step to bridge the gap).

Connect is a B2B chat used by Dell sellers to communicate with customers. A mobile-focused initiative led to ideating on a more minimalistic chat. As a team of 3 designers, we ideated, we researched, and we got critiques. But in the end, we had to put this player on the bench and let another player take the field (see Connect AI Integration).

Background: Mobile Minimalism

This was one of my first projects when joining the Connect product line in April 2024. Throughout this “Mobile Minimalism” project,

  • I conducted unmoderated usability testing on UserTesting.com with my lead designer and analyzed the responses from users

  • I conducted unmoderated A/B testing on UserTesting.com with my lead designer and a contractor designer who joined our team for a few months. We split the work and analyzed user responses and sorted the feedback from UserTesting.com into Figma into “good, suggestions, improvements” to better make design iterations

  • I supported my lead designer in organizing a design critique where we got feedback from other designers in our larger team and discussed it together

  • I supported my lead designer in accessibility testing where we organized a meeting with the accessibility team and I organized the feedback we received so we could implement it as soon as possible

End-to-end process

Problem

  • Connect was underperforming. We wanted it to be used more by users so we had to figure out what needed to change. We needed to do a feature redesign with a mobile optimization. Taking a previously web-focused application and make it minimalistic, adapting it to the mobile experience.

Research + Design Iteration

  • After initial ideations, through usability testing and iteration we were able to take design ideations and see what was preferred by users. Then we could make the necessary changes with that feedback.

  • We did multiple rounds of testing. We tested the experience, then using the A/B testing method we did a balanced comparison of 2 versions where there was a difference in icon placement in an attempt to further understand functionality. Finally accessibility reviews and design critiques from our wider team to get different perspectives

Result & Takeaways

  • Despite the efforts that were put in, it was in the best interest of the business to pivot and focus more on a higher priority ask: getting Connect from page level to store level

  • In hindsight, this step was instrumental in bridging the gap between where we were and where we wanted to be (ultimately with our Artificial Intelligence/Virtual Agent integration)

Background: Store Level Collab

This was the main project in the next quarter and was occurring in July 2024. Throughout this “Store Level Collab” project,

  • I presented our work through story telling to stakeholders in a Design Share when my lead designer was out of office.

  • I collaborated with cross-functional teams and worked closely with development teams in order to meet our deadlines

  • I worked on the error use cases after it was requested by one of our developers and assembled them into interactive prototypes in Figma

  • I worked on the responsive views. We had viewports ranging from 3XL (1920-2549 px) to XS (320-479 px)

From Page to Store Level

Problem

  • The Connect chat could only be accessed at certain time and stakeholders requested for users to be able to create chats- making Connect Store level (available at any time) as opposed to Page level (only available on a certain page). The only problem was that we had a tight deadline to meet

Research + Design

  • We had to reuse components that were already existing to reduce dev effort and although it was a challenge we were able to make it work and meet our deadlines.

  • We also had requests for additional features so after some industry research, we got to work on implementing key changes, but ensuring the bulk of the design was made of recycled components. This was simple, smart, and built to scale.

  • We showcased different use cases, error cases, and responsive after a request from developers indicated a need for error cases.

Result & Takeaways

  • Store Level MVP 1 was successfully deployed in production in November 2024. It was now live in over 7000 US Medium Business Premier Customer stores.

  • I learned that as a team that values cross-functional collaboration, sometimes we might have to sacrifice design in the short term in order to achieve a feasibility goal. That doesn’t mean that we stop ideating, if anything we should be continually moving forward. And we did with our Connect AI Integration (you can say we took 2 steps back and 10 steps forward)!

Key Quotes

  • “Transforming how customers and sales representatives interact and collaborate. This initial launch focuses on making Connect available on Premier and DSA, enabling buyers and sellers to engage in real-time or asynchronous conversations with groups of two or more users.” - Executive Summary sent to teams

  • “This launch sets a strong foundation for smarter, faster engagement between customers and sales reps. Future enhancements will include a fresh Connect design integrated with a Unified UX design, providing a more streamlined and intuitive interface to further enhance user experience and collaboration.” - Executive Summary sent to teams

Next

2- Connect- AI Integration