Redesigning Inkling’s Document Library Portal
2023 - Research Case Study
Project Summary
Inkling redesigned the Document Library Portal to help its users navigate the system easier and thus find the content they needed to perform their jobs quicker.
My Role:
I planned and led the generative and evaluative research phases and activities.
I managed all recruiting.
I socialized insights across the company.
Research Skills:
I transformed an ambiguous problem into a successful, research-driven solution.
I led a multi-phased and multi-method approach using agile research.
The Team:
I partnered with Product and Design on concept ideation, research planning, and synthesis.
I worked with CSMs to gather feedback and recruit customers.
Impact:
75% increase in user satisfaction
36% in customer NPS
$1.5m in secured contract renewals
50% decrease in initial roadmap scope
Business Context
Company Overview:
Inkling is a training and reference platform for large corporate companies with distributed, frontline workforces. Customers use Inkling to create and manage their training content.
Primary Personas:
Author/Admin: Responsible for creating and managing all company documents and training materials.
Learner: Accesses company documents and completes training sessions.
Overview
Problem
Learners struggle to quickly find necessary content, especially when they have large libraries of 100+ documents available to them.
The old Library page
→ Why this problem is important:
The Inkling Library is the primary tool Learners use to navigate and access the content they need.
Users reported that the page became overly long and difficult to navigate.
Filter options were limited and hidden.
Process
The research and design process was a collaborative effort. I led the generative and evaluative research phases.
Generative Research
Goals
The goals of the research were to evaluate potential solutions, determine if they addressed users needs, and prioritize what was most critical to deliver first.
Evaluate Solutions: Are we on the right track? Are there any gaps in our solution or aspects we overlooked?
Understand Needs: Does our proposed solution address customers' problems?
Prioritize Delivery: This is a potential long-term vision; which parts of the proposed solution should we prioritize delivering?
Prioritization
As part of the research planning process, I led the team through exercises to gather requirements, form hypotheses, and identify the most critical areas to test.
Methodology
I decided to conduct concept testing to gather feedback on the designs and help the team make decisions.
Concept testing, combined with quantifiable rating questions, allowed us to assess the value of each proposed solution while gathering qualitative feedback.
I conducted the research through remote interviews and onsite visits. Throughout the process, I got feedback from 10+ customers.
Multiple rounds of research and prototype testing refined our hypotheses and designs and deepened our understanding of user needs.
Numerous concepts were explored across both desktop and mobile.
Recruiting
Focusing on large library customers, I recruited users from across our customer base, to ensure a representative sample, as this project would impact every customer.
Analysis & Synthesis
To engage the team in research, I coordinated debrief and synthesis sessions.
A simplified example of the frameworks I use to lead the team through debrief and synthesis sessions.
Key Insights
The synthesis sessions resulted in co-created insights that informed key decisions.
#1 Users don’t browse; clear guidance and instructions are more important.
Decision: Do not prioritize personalized, recommended, or trending Inkdoc sections.
#2 The current Library UX has fundamental issues, making it hard for users to find favorites, recently viewed content, and navigate easily.
Decision: Prioritize surfacing favorites and recently viewed content on the Library Home
#3 Search functionality is inadequate and requires an overhaul, including improvements to the core engine.
Decision: Prioritize search as a fast-follow, as it’s the primary user entry point, with further investigation needed to address the problem.
Evaluative Research
Goals
The beta was essential for testing the redesign and refining it for a successful GA, as the user experience depends on individualized library content.
Goal: Determine if the solution addressed the initial problem → Learners struggle to find content quickly, especially in libraries with over 100 documents.
Decisions to be made: Is the Library ready for GA, and what changes are essential to ensure its success?
Methodology & Recruitment
Due to wanting to collect insights at scale with a limitedly available group of people, a survey was the best method.
The survey combined quantitative metrics to measure improvement with qualitative feedback to provide context and reasoning.
I partnered with CSMs to recruit 5 customers across use cases and industries for the beta.
Analysis
50 users participated in the survey, offering both quantitative and qualitative input.
Quant: Averages
Qual: Sentiment analysis
Learnings
The learnings revealed positive feedback on major UX changes but also identified key usability issues that needed resolution for a successful GA.
Flexibility Needed: Users want to customize the Library landing page.
Favorites Awareness: Many users were unaware of the Favorites feature but were excited to find it.
White Space Optimization: Improve white space for large desktop screens.
Adjustable Layout: Create a layout that allows prioritizing "All Documents" or "Recently Viewed."
Before and After Photos of the Library
Before
After
Impact & Personal Reflections
Impact
Research influenced a successful redesign launch, including faster development, better user ratings, and renewed customer agreements.
R&D Time Reduction: Cut from 2+ years to ~1 year, including a complete engineering refactor of the Library page.
Prioritization: Phased out possible future work, with Search exploration currently active.
Insightful Beta: User feedback led to crucial design changes.
User Satisfaction: Increased ratings from 2.4 to 4.2 out of 5 based on beta feedback.
Personal Reflections
A large project taught me to embrace agile research for faster insights and use retrospectives for continuous improvement.
Agile Research: I introduced agile research methodology at Inkling, breaking research into smaller phases for quicker, iterative insights with reusable templates.
Retros: I held periodic retros during and after projects to drive improvement and collect team feedback.
Retro