ABOUT THE PROJECT

A social platform that supports all the collaboration needs that are needed in an application, like Sales Automation & GCS. Few of the related capabilities that includes: Being able to pool and present data from more than one specific source (support for multiple data sources) to support single view of various events/discussions happening in the application. Ability to even filter the views based on their need in run-time. Being able to support collaboration using ‘GROUPs’ in any application Like any social platform, support for having the capabilities like ‘BOOKMARK’ & ‘LIKE’ Users to get real-time intimation when there are new posts in the same context that he/she is already viewing.

THE CHALLENGE

  • Not a one-stop-shop for what’s going on @ work
  • Separate  URLs / Apps / Systems, etc.
  • Tribal knowledge of where to do what
  • No sharing of information/collaboration/linkage across apps
This is the Pega Social widget before the design thinking

MY ROLE

I led the definition and the implementation of the product strategy and design

I was responsible for building the Pega Social from the ground up – from research to product strategy and design.

THE PROCESS

  • Audited existing features to understand the functionality and to identify which features need design thinking
  • Conducted competitor analysis to analyze best practices
  • Ran a card sort exercise to improve information architecture in navigation
  • Developed proto-personas to understand and empathize with users
  • Surveyed users to understand what was working and what wasn’t
  • Led workshops to brainstorm and ideate
  • Wireframed and prototyped solutions using whiteboards, Sketch.
  • Collected feedback and tested hypotheses with internal stakeholders and external users
  • Developed a cohesive design solutions
  • Documented styles and components

Conducted an analysis of competitors for comparison and assessment

Community Homepage

Salesforce.com

Member Profile (public)

Salesforce.com

Member Profile (public)

LinkedIn.com

Forum (Q&A Style)

StackExchange.com

Forum (Discussion Style)

TeamTreehouse.com

Member Groups

IBM

Conducted whiteboard discussions with stakeholders.

Screen captures from brainstorming sessions

Research & Inspiration: Different types of interfaces used in social collaboration platforms

Card style interface

Fluid interface with left nav

Clean & minimal interface

Information over crowded

Early design concepts:

Advantage of this approach

  • Ideal for aggregated content (a single website featuring content from multiple external sites)
  • Easy to scan through the information
  • Shareable — design cards are like the digital equivalent of a business card
  • Versatile — cards can be adapted to almost any style, from minimalist to elaborate
  • Can be manipulated in many different ways, allowing for person- al creativity

Problems with this approach

  • Less information is shown making the user scroll more
  • Suites for image based content, may not be suitable for enterprise communications
  • A bit played out, as lot of sites mimicking Pinterest or Facebook interface
  • Risk of producing a cluttered feel
Throughout the design process, i have explored and iterated on various design concepts to refine and improve the final product.

DELIVERABLES

Use case’s, Design pattern, wireframe, Usability testing metrics

THE FINAL OUTCOME

Pega Pulse

  • Richer collaboration capabilities in Pulse so that it is easier to use it to share and post new feeds to other users.
  • Introduced robust filters to filter feed of choice
  • Ability to follow users
  • Real-time updates to Pulse Feed viewers when there are new posts available in that context!
  • New features, like, bookmark and tag posts are introduced
  • Present data from more than one specific source to support a single view of various events-discussions happening in the application.

Spaces and Curated Content

  • Create an ad-hoc space/group around a particular topic and collaborate with the members of that Group.
  • Admin to add/delete users to the Group
  • Create a PIN referring to Cases, Reports, Documents, Pulse posts, etc

Real-time collaboration on Documents

  • Ability create and view the new document in the application
  • Sharing a Document across multiple contexts
Pulse, Followers, and Documents on mobile
The mobile experience for Direct Messages