Link Technology by HP is a platform of technologies that provide brands and print service providers (PSPs) with solutions for security, brand protection, track and trace and consumer engagement using Unique IDs and secure marks.
These marks are created and embedded into labels, packages, products or any type of printed materials; when scanned, using smart phones or industrial scanners, allows brands and PSPs to identify and track products in the supply chain, to know exactly where each item is, when its shipped, when is transported and when it arrives to its final destination.As part of the Link Technology team, I oversee, manage and actively participate in design activities needed to support the continuous development of the technology.
The problem:
Link Technology has a wide-range of customers from different industries; each of them integrating the technology differently, based on their specific workflow and use-case.
UX process:
To create awareness of the different scenarios and contexts in which the technology was used, I created journey maps for each major customer of Link Technology; describing from the user’s perspective how end-users interact with the technology step-by-step. The journey maps describe what happens at each step of the process, what touch-points are involved and areas of friction or barriers that the users encounter.
Most of our customers are global brands, with operations in several countries. In several cases, the entire production process, from manufacturing, packaging, distribution, wholesale, etc. happens in different countries, so it is crucial for the entire team, to understand the process and complexities.
To do this work, we performed interviews with the team members that interact with the customers the most, like sales and business development, as well as team members in the support group. We also joined in customer calls with current and prospect customers, to get a better sense of their use case, workflow and challenge.
Most of our customers are global brands, with operations in several countries. In several cases, the entire production process, from manufacturing, packaging, distribution, wholesale, etc. happens in different countries, so it is crucial for the entire team, to understand the process and complexities.
To do this work, we performed interviews with the team members that interact with the customers the most, like sales and business development, as well as team members in the support group. We also joined in customer calls with current and prospect customers, to get a better sense of their use case, workflow and challenge.
The problem:
The Link Technology platform is complex and uses a different types of marks depending on the solution needed (QR codes, invisible watermarks, secure QR codes, etc.). The problem is that the workflow to integrate each mark-type is different.
UX process:
UX process:
As part of the UX team, I mapped out the different workflows used to enable each solution and each mark type. The workflows listed all the steps required to integrate the technology as well as the prerequisites, settings, output and automated actions performed by the technology in the background. To do this, I conducted several working meetings and interviews with key members of the technical team closest to the technology and customers.
This was incredibly useful, as it helped discover key pain-points that prevent or slow-down the adoption of Link Technology and come up with design solutions to mitigate these issues. Solutions included the creation of resources available through the main marketing site, support site or contextual help; and recommendations for changes on specific flows that could help simplify processes.
The problem:
Link technology is scheduled to release a new generation of APIs with extended capabilities in late 2020. The new platform will include a new user management system and role based access control (RBAC).
UX process:
The process to design the account management and RBAC systems, included the creation of personas that represented the different actors involved in the setup, integration and delivery of the system. As well as the roles and permissions needed to perform these actions. All of this was captured in a matrix to ensure that business activities are covered by identifying the responsibilities and roles linked to them.
To create the on-boarding experience, which involves Enterprise account creation, Join an enterprise account, Invite user to an enterprise account. Assign user roles and permissions, etc., my team and I conducted interviews with key stake holders (platform team technical lead, solution team technical lead, product owner, biz-dev and marketing leads), to gather business and user requirements, technical limitations and other important information needed to be considered for these efforts.
We also performed competitive analysis research to understand current business trends and best practices. Then used all gathered information to create detailed User Journey Flows. The goal of these documents was to create a shared understanding of the proposed strategy; highlight areas that still needed further discussion or technical investigation and once all teams provided feedback and agreed on the proposed experience, we used the user journey flows to generate low-fidelity wire-frames.
The wire-framing phase involved several iterations with the development team to fine-tune specific functionality and interaction patterns. After this, we created interactive prototypes to test usability and understandability of the overall process.
At this point, we coordinate with the business development lead, to get feedback on the proposed experiences from actual customers. Since Link Technology is a B2B solution, most of the early customer feedback we get, comes from the sales people that interact with customers on a daily basis. But once wire-frames and prototypes are produced, the sales team helps organize feedback sessions to obtain feedback from at least 3 to 5 customers.
With the feedback obtained, a new iteration of the wire-frames is created and design starts creating visual designs using Link Technology's visual style guide, red-lines and specs for implementation.
