Project - Iticket Admin portal
About
ITicket is a desktop web application for administration, sales, channels, orders, and tickets for customers who operate theme parks, day tours, or attractions.
Big customers include LEGO House, Liseberg, Strömma, Norway's Best, the ABBA Museum, and ICEHOTEL. To name a few.
Challanges
A vast and super flexible product with lots of unique ways to set up products depending on the customer.
The design and usability debt in the system as a whole. Lots of places where the same form had different looks, because the developer used what they liked.
My role
As the first UX designer at iTicket, my task was to work closely with developers and the PM to ensure the UX and design improved.
My tasks: creating design systems, having a dialogue with customer success and users.
A showcase of a standard issue in the system where data should be in different ways and in various places. In this case, it’s the document section in the order view.
The first solution didn't work, but it was evident after a review with the PM that we needed to rethink it. So that the solution applied to the case of more complements on tickets.
A prototype of the final solution for order document handling in the order view.
This solution was the only one that eliminated the problem of tables breaking. Because we can’t limit the number of complements a customer can set as required on a ticket purchase.
Your specific role in the project and how you collaborated with others
My role is as a UX designer, to make it usable for as many customers as possible. To understand the pain point and drive the unification. It has been challenging to get backend developers to understand the front-end and the value of design. However, the collaboration and willingness to explain the product's technical aspects have helped me understand its limitations. However, it also allowed me to explore complex tasks and make them easier to understand.
How you came to your proposed solution
I focused on proposing solutions with clickable prototypes. I make videos or show prototypes to developers to gauge whether "Is this the right idea?" I also use this approach to determine whether it’s feasible. It’s so much easier to show what you mean and get feedback than to try to explain it and create miscommunication.
I'm also a visual person, so it's easier for me to understand complex systems by drawing them out. After that, I write user stories and feature stories so that the team can discuss them again later. So I can validate that, yes, this was the right solution we both wanted.
In challenging administrative setups, I also reach out to the customer success team and ask them about the most significant problems they encounter and the workarounds they use.
The solutions almost always come in collaboration with others if it's not a simple task, like we need a new icon here or something similar.
How did your proposed solution solve the problem?
I show the team during refigment sessions or smaller group sessions with the people responsible. This is a great way to get insights from everyone involved. I also worked super closely with the PM to understand the problems from a business perspective.
Challenges you faced, including design concepts that were ultimately not pursued
I have enormous challenges when it comes to understanding the role of design in R&D, and the difficulties of going from a develop-first, think-later perspective. Where design is an afterthought of development already done. It's not an optimal way of working, and it hinders the design's ability to make a real impact.
How the project affected the users and the business
It's clear that when design is included in the discovery phase, before development has begun. The user stories are clearer with defined issues we are solving. This results in faster growth and more problems being solved.
One major win is also to include the Customer Success staff in feedback sessions on tasks to get the super user perspective. This makes them feel included and heard in the development.
I also know that prototyping solutions made customers pay more for the specific solutions I provided.
What I learned
I learn so much about working with design systems in Figma. And how to jump from one product to another. Think of the user in more than just the digital environment, but the whole place they're interacting with the system.
I also realise even more that I love to work in cross-functional teams. I’m a team player who listens well and really loves complex, hard-to-understand problems. I want to challenge myself, and I really have to do that when designing for iTicket.