What is the Kaleidoscope Review Board?
The Kaleidoscope Review Board is a product that enables clients to manage the review process for their scholarship program. This product offers a comprehensive suite of features, including the ability to add reviewers, customize how applicants should be distributed for review, set assignment rules, and build a scorecard to evaluate the applications. The goal is to streamline the review process and ensure that all applications are reviewed fairly and efficiently. The product is used by various stakeholders, including the clients who administer the scholarship program and the reviewers who evaluate the applications. Reviewers are presented with an interface that allows them to view the application on one half of the screen and a scorecard on the other half, making it easy to score and evaluate each application. Overall, the Kaleidoscope Review Board is an essential tool that helps clients manage their scholarship programs and streamline the review process, ultimately enabling them to make informed decisions on which applicants to award scholarships to.
Category
Kaleidoscope - In House
Role
User Research
User Testing
UI Design
Project Definition
The primary objective of the project was to design a user-friendly interface for the Review Board feature at Kaleidoscope. Before the project, the only way to set up a Review Board was through Salesforce, which required technical expertise and was not accessible to all users. Thus, the key challenge was to create an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that could enable users to manage the Review Board process themselves. The design solution needed to be seamless and user-friendly, while also providing a robust set of features to support the complex process of review management.
To accomplish this, the project involved conducting extensive research into user needs and requirements, analyzing user feedback and pain points, and collaborating with stakeholders to ensure that the design solution met business objectives. The team also conducted several rounds of user testing and iteration to refine the design and ensure it met user needs.
Overall, the project aimed to create a solution that would improve the user experience and streamline the Review Board process, while also reducing the need for technical expertise and making it more accessible to all users. The resulting interface was designed to be intuitive and easy-to-use, with a streamlined process for creating and managing review boards that allowed users to focus on their core tasks without being burdened by technical details.
Understanding the Problem
As a UX designer on the Kaleidoscope team, I was tasked with creating a new interface for the Review Board process. The primary challenge we faced was working within the constraints of an agile environment with limited time and resources. We needed to design an interface that would be both intuitive and easy for users to understand, while also seamlessly integrating into the existing workflow of the Review Board process. To accomplish this, I quickly familiarized myself with the current Review Board process and gathered feedback from stakeholders to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. Through user research and analysis, we were able to identify key areas for improvement, including simplifying the navigation and reducing the number of steps required to complete a review. With the help of the product manager, who I was able to lean on for support and guidance, I worked to design a new UI that addressed these pain points and seamlessly integrated into the existing workflow. We moved quickly to keep up with the two-week sprints, and I worked closely with the development team to ensure that the new UI was implemented correctly and met the needs of our users. Overall, the challenge of designing a new interface within an agile environment with limited resources was a complex and rewarding process that allowed me to demonstrate my skills as a UX designer and deliver a valuable product to our users.
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Ideation
With the insights we gathered from the research phase, we began to ideate and prototype potential solutions to address the pain points and limitations we had identified. We worked iteratively, testing and refining our ideas through user feedback and internal reviews. We started with low-fidelity wireframes and paper prototypes to explore different design solutions quickly and efficiently. From there, we moved on to high-fidelity interactive prototypes to test our designs more rigorously.
We also held multiple design reviews with the internal team and key stakeholders to ensure that our designs were aligned with the goals of the project and met the needs of our users. Through this collaborative process, we were able to refine our designs and ensure that we were delivering a product that met the needs of our users.
As we progressed through the ideation phase, we created a design system that ensured consistency and cohesion across the entire product. This included developing a library of reusable UI components, defining color and typography standards, and creating guidelines for layout and interaction design.
In summary, the ideation phase was a critical part of the project that allowed us to explore different design solutions, test our ideas through user feedback, and create a cohesive and user-friendly product that met the needs of our users.
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High Fidelity and Prototyping
During the high-fidelity and prototyping phase, I utilized the design system I set in place. This allowed me to quickly move from low-fidelity wireframes to mid to high-fidelity mockups, ensuring consistency and cohesiveness throughout the product.
As part of our iterative design process, we tested and refined our designs through user feedback and internal reviews. We presented weekly demos to stakeholders and held weekly meetings with internal users who would be heavy users of the product. This allowed us to validate our designs and ensure that the product was meeting the needs of our users.
In addition to user testing, we also conducted accessibility testing to ensure that the product was usable by all users, including those with disabilities. We made necessary changes to our design to ensure that it met accessibility standards and provided a positive user experience for all users.
Through this collaborative and iterative process, we were able to create a final design that was intuitive, user-friendly, and met the needs of our users.
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Outcome
Thanks to the collaborative and iterative process we established, we were able to launch the Review Board in mid-December 2022. The product was well-received by users, and we received positive feedback regarding its ease of use and user-friendly interface.
Through the feedback we received, we were able to identify areas for improvement, and we continued to iterate and improve the product post-launch. Our ability to quickly test and iterate based on user feedback allowed us to make necessary improvements and further enhance the user experience.
The successful launch of the Review Board was a testament to our collaboration with the design and engineering team, as well as our commitment to user-centered design. By prioritizing user feedback and utilizing an iterative design process, we were able to deliver a product that met the needs of our users and exceeded their expectations.
