A college dormitory provides a variety of amenities and a dedicated staff is responsible for its maintenance. But there is not always an easy way for community members to report problems to management, so they can be resolved quickly. In my case study I focused on this problem and tried to solve it through different design iterations.
Team
Only me
Timeline
4 weeks
Software
Figma
Balsamiq
The challenge
Build a system for a dormitory:
Target group
Students living in a dormitory
Before I started, I defined my design process and was able to proceed and work on it step by step.
I interviewed ten students and asked them:
All ten participants were (former) students who lived in a dormitory and were between 21 and 30 years old:
Besides the possible issues in a dormitory, I wanted to find out for what kind of service I need to find a solution.
βDefinitely mobile. But I donβt want to download another app, which uses space and I probably will never need.β
Hannes B.
In my Interviews I found a lot of issues that might occur:
Doors
Clamps
Locks
Keys
Lost
Demolished
Lamps
Do not work
Flicker
Lost & found
Search
Found
Electronics
Dishwasher
Fridge
Oven
Heating
Drips
Too hot/cold
Not working
Clogged
Sink unit
Bathroom
Damage
Wall
Floor
Ceiling
WiFi
Window
Noise
Parasites
Bikes
Transport
Cleaning
Mildew
Mailbox
Outdoor
After all the research I did, I decided to go with the approach of PWA! Why?
βThe possibilities you have as a user through a PWA sounds awesome, but I didnβt know anything about it, especially how to get access.β
Anja N.
So the onboarding process has to be very smooth and self-explaining:
After I had first ideas in mind, I started to put these first thoughts on paper. During this process I found out that maybe more then one navigation concept will work, so I decided to test different approaches.
In my design I concentrated on following principles:
Simple
The whole process from on-boarding to reporting to tracking
should be simple and smooth,
so you never lose the user at any point.
Accessibility
The design should be beneficial and accessible to the user. There should be no disturbances.
Fun
Even this application is about reporting and tracking issues, it should be fun while using it
or at least satisfy the user.
As I mentioned before, I wanted to find out which of the different bottom navigation concepts would be the most common one for the user, so I built several click dummies to get more insights on that.
After the first testings, I got some interesting insights which helped to advance the app (even more).
Home β Issues (Overview) β Create Issue β Quick Fix (Self-help) β Profile
Here you can see the final prototypes and some of the user tests I made.
To make it easier for users to see where they need to take action without being disturbed in the actual process.
I was really impressed by the quality of the feedback and how quickly
the users were able to adapt the functionality. It was also great to hear
that the concept creates real added value in everyday life.
I have also been thinking about some future topics for this app, like:
Match Insights is part of the SAP Sports One application, which is available for soccer, ice hockey, basketball, handball, skiing, and rugby. The software helps clubs and organizations digitalize sports performance management by coordinating all administrative, training and team management, scouting, and medical processes.
Team
Stakeholder π¨π»βπ¦°
Backend Developer π§π½
UX Designer π¨πΌ
Frontend Developer π§π»π¨πΌβπ¦±
Software
Adobe XD
Principle
Balsamiq
Platform
Progressive Web App (PWA)
Client
SAP SE - Sports & Entertainment
Timeline
8 weeks
Before we could even start, of course, we had to find out the needs of our customers. So we held a Design Thinking Workshop, in which the following roles were represented:
Eintracht FrankfurtPlayer π±πΌββοΈπ§π½
Match Analyst π§πΌπ¨π»βπ¦±
Athletic Coach π§π»
After two days of intense workshop, we knew the needs and the restrictions:
PlayerThe data provided by the match analyst consists mostly of text and video/image files.
Since we only had 4 sprints to complete the whole project, we decided to work more intensively: We moved from our regular seats to a team space and included each role directly in the decision, so it was possible to iterate very quickly.
Together with the Eintracht Frankfurt, we focused on the simplicity of the application, everything had to be uncomplicated and without any distractions.
First and foremost, we have focused on the creation of low-fidelity wireframes to visualize first ideas and use them as a basis for all further discussions and iterations.
Due to the time pressure, we decided against a very detailed design process and built the first prototypes live with the colleagues from frontend directly in the development environment. This gave us the opportunity to test directly in the system and identify potential problems immediately.
After the basic functionality was available, we started with the visual design and transferred it (with the help of our colleagues from frontend) directly into the PWA to see what might work, and what might not.
In the final spurt, we used the time to get as much feedback as possible, also from various colleagues within SAP, to make the experience as good as possible.
I want to highlight three main learnings:
After we successfully implemented the project together with the Eintracht Frankfurt, the product was also released for other customers. Here we got the feedback that the touch screens in the catacombs were sometimes placed too high on the wall, so that especially smaller players did not always have full access to all functionalities. That is why we made some changes in the interaction concept: For example, we have implemented an alternative closing function of the lightbox by allowing it to swipe from the lower right corner in the middle of the screen.
We also realized that many clubs wanted to brand the solution individually, so we built the possibility to maintain a club image in the background, which caused a lot of effort in ensuring contrast and readability, but was solved well by using jquery and javascript.
We also had to make some adjustments regarding responsiveness as we had to cover a large number of different screen sizes.
Through SAP Tactic Insights a match analyst can request tactical issues, such as βshow me game scenes where the player has played passes in the back of the opponentβ. The machine then finds similar scenes to this query, which the analyst gets presented in an intuitive and attractive interface.
The match analyst often has problems in recognizing similar patterns over a large number of scenes and evaluating them according to rules.
He loses much time and puts a lot of manual effort into the search. That is why we decided to support
his daily work with launching a whole new machine learning based platform.
Unfortunately, I cannot disclose any details of this project but I will show the process
Team
We built this solution together with 3 teams:
Belarus
Frontend-Team π±πΌββοΈπ©π»π§πΌπ¨π»βπ¦²π±π»ββοΈ
China
Backend-Team π©π»π©π½π±π½ββοΈπ§π»π§π½
Germany
Machine Learning Specialists π¨π»βπ¦³π§πΌπ¨π»βπ¦±π§π½π¨π»βπ¦°
UX Designer π¨πΌπ©π»
Stakeholers π¨π»βπ¦°π¨π»βπ¦±
Software
Sketch
Principle
InVision
Balsamiq
Target group
Match Analyst
Platform
Cloud based web application
Client
SAP SE - Sports & Entertainment
Timeline
8 month
Defining of a good collaboration process due to the size of the Team and different time zones
Research to get a clear understanding of the scope and the requirements
Interviews with stakeholders and customers and also observation onsite and remote
Defining user journey to identify the different interaction touchpoints
Ideation based on the collected insights
First sketches to get a better understanding
Wireframes and first prototypes
Design of the visual appearance
Building of high-fidelity prototypes and user-testing
Large user test with all relevant user groups, refine the solution
Analyse Page and Filter Overflow
It was a great challenge to coordinate such a large team, especially when the members are from different countries with different time zones, but we managed it very well.
Through all of this experience, I developed (myself) a step further, and not just as a UX Designer. Even though the project was challenging, it was a lot of fun.
It was also very exciting to work with so many different roles in areas, such as machine learning. It was a really great experience to be part of this project from the very beginning until the end. We all have
worked close together to transform a very complex topic into an intuitive and beautiful UI.
With the SAP Scout One mobile app for iPhone you can finish your scouting tasks anywhere and anytime. This app connects to the SAP Sports One solution and allows you to manage your scouting requests and to create scouting reports while you are on the road, finding the next big talent for your club.
The role of a scout had no possibility to create data based on matches and players both on the fly and at the same time using already existing templates which are often provided by the club.
Since we had to build this app from scratch, we had to face several challenges:
First we had to map various complex requirements in a clean and user-friendly app.
The synchronization with Sports One had to be guaranteed as well as the offline availability, and the access to a database with all available players worldwide.
Team
Stakeholder π¨π»βπ¦°
Full-stack developer π¨π»βπ¦²
UX Designer π¨πΌ
Timeline
8 weeks
Software
Sketch
Balsamiq
Target group
Chief Scout
Scout
Temporary staff
Platform
IOS
Client
SAP SE - Sports & Entertainment
I created several concepts which I validated in various user-tests to find the solution that fits best the userβs needs. I also worked closely with the stakeholder and the full-stack developer to clarify possible restrictions regarding our Sports One solution directly.
Once we had validated the first concepts, I created all pages as wireframes based on the insights we had gained. We built first prototypes to test them once again to get as many insights as possible.
After we had validated all concepts with the users, I started to create the visual designs. Here, I worked very closely with the full-stack developer, so that we could quickly iterate together and fix potential problems. It was also a opportunity to exchange ideas about new technologies and learn a lot from each other.
Once the app was released by Apple on time, we have tested the app again with several customers. Fortunately, there were no major issues and we also received very positive feedback.
Android
After the IOS version was successfully released, we started to create an Android version, which was completed two months later.
Dark Theme
We have also released a dark theme version for IOS.