Leading a Design Journey to Craft a Unifying ERP Portal

Overview

The client, a leading regional grocery retailer, was grappling with challenges from outdated and disjointed systems including antiquated command-line interfaces, department-specific tools hindering collaboration, and a growing number of hard-to-maintain workaround web pages. Seeking a solution, they turned to PwC to craft an intuitive and modern ERP portal.

Entrusted as the Acting Creative Director, I steered the design team and client through a structured design journey. My role encompassed tasks such as aligning client expectations, translating business needs into actionable design directives, crafting project roadmaps, orchestrating daily design activities, planning and facilitating workshops, and offering design/career feedback.

Sample of a myriad of current system interfaces that a user needs to navigate daily

Collaborating with the client to craft personas

Example of a high-level sprint plan from the design roadmap

Challenges

Untangling Complex User Flows

Due to the pain points previously outlined, understanding the current user flows was challenging. Our approach involved distilling insights from ethnographic research into a structured visual representation of user flow, a strategy proven successful in past projects. We then iterated through playback sessions with users and stakeholders, often revealing subtle nuances and helping us align on design objectives.

We also used this now-familiar visual framework to introduce and contrast the redesigned screens and flows. This facilitated constructive feedback and collaborative design discussions, reinforcing user and stakeholder ownership and underscoring the transformative vision of our upcoming product.

Example Miro frame where we collaborate with stakeholders to review our observed user flow, understand the reasons behind the task, and identify key data and actions

A new simplified flow based on the learnings, where the system provides alerts and direct links to detailed data for easier analysis, allowing users to anticipate issues rather than manually investigating after they occur

Guiding Designer to Integrate Business Considerations

A notable challenge arose due to a gap in business process comprehension between our UI designer and me, stemming from my background in business before transitioning to design. I initially failed to realize business processes that were apparent to me were elusive to him. This often limited his designs to mere re-skins and resulted in oversights. For example, in redesigning a sales report table, his visuals failed to reflect the correct hierarchy of total rows and missed the opportunity to introduce a row pinning function for easier data comparison until prompted. This knowledge gap also posed communication challenges in client workshops, as he struggled to rationalize design choices.

Current sales report where the numbers show "Total Non-Pharmacy" is the sum of the subtotals above and "Grand Total" is the sum of "Total Non-Pharmacy" and "Pharmacy"

An initial draft from the UI designer where visuals for various total rows did not convey the correct hierarchy

To address this, I met individually with the designer to provide feedback and foster an environment where he could contribute ideas to resolve the issue and take ownership of improvements. While mastering business concepts immediately wasn't feasible, we developed strategies: I delved deeper into explaining business operations and the rationale behind design directions, while he independently researched unfamiliar terms. This approach led to notable progress as the designer became more proactive in workshops, generated more UI ideas, and grasped recurring design patterns with less guidance.

Outcome

The project was successfully completed in approximately 8 months. We reviewed over 120 user stories for 4 distinct personas with client users and stakeholders to craft more than 160 screen designs. Additionally, we delivered tailored information architecture and prototypes for each persona's version of the portal, along with comprehensive developer documentation. The client's satisfaction was evident, leading them to initiate discussions on potential future projects utilizing our proven methodology, including a vendor portal and a mobile version.

Recording of review out-of-stock item flow from Invision prototype