Heuristic Analysis + App Redesign
Lead Designer, User Researcher
Uncovering UX opportunites & improving the customer experience
MuniBilling is a utility billing software suite that needed to build a roadmap of experience improvements, so as to be more appealing and aligned with the needs of their customer base and upcoming partners.
Prioritized UX Recommendations for a System Overhaul
MuniBilling knew that their system could use an upgrade, but wanted support from the PurposeUX team to identify key pain points and define UX best practices that could be integrated into system upgrades over time.
What I did
Working with Purpose UX, I partnered with another designer on a Discovery Sprint with a goal of identifying opportunities for improvements using UX best practices combined with business goals.
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Using FigJam met with the team to to surface key pain-points, opportunities, and challenges. As well as align on key workflows and biggest opportunities.
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Interviewed key stakeholders to identify what mattered most to each person, understand their pain points, and connect on opportunities.
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I did a full audit of the internal system and the customer portal application. In an effort to gain more real-world feedback I audited recorded training sessions to capture points of confusion, where work arounds were employed, and other questions that came from brand-new users.
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Featuring UX Best Practices, presented alongside existing pages, and high-level redesigns showcasing recommendations in context.
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Crafted roadmap considering biggest opportunities AND projects that could be rolled out incrementally, without huge disruption as a full system overhaul wasn’t an option.
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One of the items in the Discovery Sprint included a redesign of MB’s Customer Portal.
Including a research sprint and a final working prototype to be built by a MB developer.
Virtual Discovery Workshop with MB Team in FigJam
Draft Overview Slide for UX Opportunities Deck
Sample slide from UX Opportunities Deck presented during a workshop with the MB team.
Sample slide from UX Opportunities Deck presented during a workshop with the MB team.
Sample slide from UX Opportunities Deck presented during a workshop with the MB team.
MB Customer Portal BEFORE Redesign
MB Customer Portal REDESIGN
Navigating Bias from Expert Internal Users
The software had a few key users:
Internal team members that managed accounts for large clients
External individuals that managed accounts for their own entity
And both of these groups then had:
Customers (who would use a customer portal interface) who wanted to pay their bills
Most of the people we had access to were the internal team members, who had become VERY savvy at using the system. Their expertise was incredibly helpful - but it also made it difficult to understand how the more novice user struggled to use the interface.
By gaining access to training videos I was able to identify confusion points from novice users:
not knowing where they were in the system
having to learn where key features are on each page
unclear feedback from the system, etc.
I was able to tell a story that was grounded in UX best practices:
proper hierarchy in navigation
consistent page layouts
consistent messaging patterns, etc.
framing them as UX best practices, then showing recommendations in context - the MB team was able to see how their experience in the system could be greatly enhanced and simplified.
Framing them as UX best practices, then showing recommendations in context - the MB team was able to see how their experience in the system could be greatly enhanced and simplified.
Core Outcomes
Prioritized Roadmap for the Client and New Workscope for the Purpose UX team
The Design Sprint afforded:
A prioritized roadmap for core system improvements with recommendations for design best practices
A scope of work to redesign and enhance the Customer Portal - serving the millions of people who use the portal to pay their utility bills, AND bringing in design elements that can support future core system improvements.
The re-designed Customer Portal resonated with customers and the MB team
In prototype tests, research participants loved the ease of use and how clear the interface was. One participant said, “I wish you all were designing for my utility company!”
The MuniBilling team appreciated the design patterns utilized and was able to see how these design tenets could influence their internal systems for an optimized experience.
