Soltia One, a sleek platform for consultancy firms, seamlessly blends time and business management tools.
Its intuitive interface facilitates efficient project planning, scheduling, and real-time collaboration.
It optimizes workflows for both emerging and established consultancy enterprises.
Problem Statement
At Soltia, the absence of a comprehensive dashboard poses a significant challenge for both employees and employers.
Tasks related to TIME tracking, invoiced hours, client management, project monitoring, and employee performance are dispersed across various apps and websites, creating a disjointed workflow.
This inefficiency not only hampers productivity but also lacks cohesion in data tracking and analysis.
Recognizing the need for a streamlined solution, I initiated the design of a singular app to address these challenges, providing an integrated platform that enhances collaboration and user experience for all stakeholders.
UX Process
Discovery Stage
Soltia One’s design process, like any other, commences by pinpointing challenges. The platform is crafted to tackle key concerns, such as optimizing time and energy spent on tracking employees’ work hours for individual clients, offering insights into invoiced and billable hours, and presenting a holistic perspective on the company’s financial status, encompassing turnover and more.
Three methods, including user interviews, job story, and competitive analysis, are employed to refine and enhance the platform’s effectiveness.
Interviews
As a designer, I believe that the best way to create a great product is to start by understanding the needs of the users.
So, I began to conducting interviews with both the managerial team and the employees of these firms.
Through these interviews, I was able to identify the pain points and areas in need of improvement for these businesses.
Each interview gave me valuable insights and ideas, which I used to develop a platform that truly meets the needs of the consultancy industry.
By categorizing my target audience based on the information gathered from the interviews, I was able to create a product that is specifically tailored to the unique requirements of consultancy firms.
Now you can see each target audience with their pain points below:
Hiring Manager Section
Employee Section
Competitive Analysis
As part of our design process for the project, we conducted a thorough competitive analysis to gain insights into the current market landscape and identify potential areas for improvement. Through this analysis, we were able to identify several key features that were successful in the market and that could be incorporated into my design to make it more competitive.
However, we also discovered that some of the features that we had previously planned for the project would be difficult to implement given our team’s level of competence. While this was initially disappointing, we recognized the importance of making design decisions that were realistic and achievable, rather than pursuing features that were beyond our capabilities.
So, these are features before Competitive Analysis:
- Time tracking
- Employee portal system
- Client management system
- Candidate recruitment and CV assessment software
And these are features after Competitive Analysis:
- Time tracking
- employee portal software
- client management system
So, focusing our effort for designing Time tracking, salary management, and reviewing employees status.
Job Story
Now, let´s go for job story. This is a powerful method that focuses on the user’s needs and context in order to design a product that truly meets their requirements. It can follow below pattern.
First job story: John
When John has a lot of employees on different work contract stage and on temporary work permits, he want to be notified and reminded about upcoming steps, So that he won’t miss any step for any employee.
When John work with sensible personal information of his employees, He want to store and manage it in secure and safe way, So that information could not be easily stoled and misused.
Second job story: Alex
When Alex takes days off, He wants to know how these days affect on his salary, So he can understand every uncertainties about labor laws in Sweden.
When Alex goes to pay for gym, he wants to know how much of the gym fee gonna be compensated, So he can understand every uncertainties about labor laws in Sweden.
Card Sorting
As part of the user research for my project, I conducted a card sorting exercise with participants to gain insights into how users organize and prioritize information.
The exercise revealed common themes and categories that users used to group content items together.
Next Step
For the design process, the next phase involves transitioning into the design stage.
UX Process
Information Architecture
Wireframe (low-fid)
Iteration
We embraced iteration throughout the design process for project, which involved several meetings with stakeholders and product owners to gather feedback and finalize the features.
This approach allowed us to identify potential issues early on and make changes before the product was fully developed, resulting in a stronger and more effective product.
UX Process
Delivery Stage
In the ongoing delivery stage of designing the Soltia One dashboard, we are actively conducting usability tests to refine its user experience.
Simultaneously, we are incorporating new features to enhance functionality and ensure a comprehensive and user-friendly platform.
