Overview
About Company
Tezign is a start-up company that provides content experience production, management, and application solutions for global brands. It is the first technology company to systematically launch a content digital asset management system (DAM) in mainland China.
My Role at Tezign
At Tezign, I worked on multiple projects, including design system upgrade and UI component iteration, multiple SaaS products usability testing, data visualization, dashboard design, and marketing promotional material design. If you want to learn more about these projects, please do not hesitate to reach out to wuke.zhou.1991@gmail.com
Problems I Faced
It brought to the CXO team's attention that our customer success team was unwilling to use our product when managing the company's digital assets and delivering digital assets to customers. The team appointed me as the UX researcher to find out why and later as the UX product designer to fix the problem.
Solutions I Found
1. Presented research findings to align stakeholders' understanding
2. Designed a new user workflow and UI to provide enhanced privacy protection function
Software - Figma | Figma Jam | Notion | Lark
Method - Stakeholder Interview | Contextual Inquiry | Paper Prototyping | Guerilla test | Hi-Fidelity Prototyping| Moderated Usability Test
2. Designed a new user workflow and UI to provide enhanced privacy protection function
Software - Figma | Figma Jam | Notion | Lark
Method - Stakeholder Interview | Contextual Inquiry | Paper Prototyping | Guerilla test | Hi-Fidelity Prototyping| Moderated Usability Test
Are we dealing with the real problem?
To better understand the scope of this investigation, I created a stakeholder map and interviewed related stakeholders.
Research Findings
In the subsequent initial investigation interviews with all stakeholders, I quickly discover the real problems:
Finding 1 - Stakeholders didn't reach a consistent perception of how to use the product to manage customers' digital assets.
Finding 2 - Customers have privacy concerns using our product, especially during the delivery process.
Finding 1 - Stakeholders didn't reach a consistent perception of how to use the product to manage customers' digital assets.
Finding 2 - Customers have privacy concerns using our product, especially during the delivery process.
What happened in the real business world?
Now we found the right problems to solve, I revised the stakeholder map and interviewed new stakeholders. At this time, I decided to move to solve the customer privacy concerns problem first because it needs more immediate attention and it's more pragmatic to solve. Then, I applied contextual inquiry research.
Research Findings
I record the painpoints and scenarios in the existing workflow during the second round of interviews. Then by shadowing two users in their working environment for 4 days, I verified if what they said was aligned with what they do. Finally, I created a draft of a user flow map that reflected the actual situation for related stakeholders to review.
In addition, I came to the CXO team again and presented them with my finding one in stage one. I requested to open a new project to solve that problem.
In addition, I came to the CXO team again and presented them with my finding one in stage one. I requested to open a new project to solve that problem.
Choose the right deliverables and prepared to present.
By exchanging actual business scenarios and needs with product managers, I refined the user flow map.
In the meantime, we finalized the details of the specific design modifications.
*The image is blurred due to NDA, though I could talk about how I created and revised the diagram upon request.
New Features
1. Add a button to limit employee access
On the one hand, the customers wanted to limit who can access their digital asset management system from our company. On the other hand, we need to let different employees other than the asset creator(who upload the file) related to the project access the project pages.
Therefore, I provide them with a choice. Now, only the people who actually manage the asset can see the asset.
2. Secure link for final deliverables
A new step was added to the delivery process. In the past, the company stored every related file in one workspace. Now, we move to all ready-to-go files in a separate space that only the creator and the clients who have the link can review.
Prototype
I worked with another UX designer on drawing a paper prototyping as a starter and then we eliminated one scenario from the workflow due to low usage.
The final high fidelity prototyping presented optimized uploading workflows that represented three scenarios in the diagram. Alongside, we integrate the audit function in the workflow, which makes it even more convenient for the internal auditions.
Usability Test
Before moving to the engineering team, 5 moderated usability test was conducted. The tester recruitment eliminates people who are familiar with this product line to keep objective. Some minor changes are made after the testing
Summary
Since my internship ends before the team moved to development, I didn't get a chance to collect user data for further study or improvement. However, I did get some positive feedback from my colleagues later.
To sum up, I really enjoy my time at Tezign, and working with such a robust team makes me feel that I can learn a lot every day. This is a valuable experience for me.
Highlight Moment
Before we move to the prototype stage, I got a chance to present my user research report to the CXO team.
In the meeting, I helped the management team understand the real problem and how serious it was. It allowed our product VP to gain the management team's support and win more human resources on our project. After this meeting, one product manager was assigned solely in support of this project. Later in the process, we have gain priority in production launching.
What Could I Do Differently?
As I mentioned before, I also find there is a huge cognitive gap among our internal teams. I made a purpose to create a training project to encourage the sales and creative team to learn from the product and engineering team. I wish I could have more time so that I can come up with a plan. I believe this may help the company in other ways.
