Enterprise UX is always tricky. Complex use cases. Complicated workflows. Legacy issues. Messy information architecture. And many, many stakeholders. Exactly the sort of challenge that appealed to me.
The Resource Booking System (RBS) is used by public officers working in Singapore government agencies. Need a room for a meeting? AV equipment? Access to the office gym? Make a booking on RBS.
The system was a white label software application developed by an external company 5 years ago. We were asked to rebuild the system and make it better.
A close collaboration from the very start
Projects with tight timelines are usually not enjoyable. However, this was different. We involved our stakeholders in the research and design process. This helped them understand how we work, which led to greater trust. Because of this, they were able to make important decisions faster.
Requirements gathering
A snippet of the requirements for the RBS admin portal revamp
Roadmap planning
A snippet of the project roadmap for the RBS admin portal revamp
Deep understanding through object modelling
The complexity of the system meant that the team needed a shared understanding of how it should work and behave. I created an object model that would inform everything from API schema to user task flows.
This was after:
multiple stakeholder discussions
requirements gathering
analysis of the current system—merits, flaws, and all
A snippet of an object model for the RBS admin portal. This was based on Heidi Adkisson’s simplified narrative object model.
Tidying up the IA for better UX
The number of resources available for booking on the system was over 8,400. Yet, there was no information architecture (IA) work done to organise and structure them. This meant it was difficult for users to find the resources they wanted. In other words, a poor user experience (UX).
As part of the rebuild, we managed to convince the stakeholders that IA is important to the success of the system.
Taxonomy audit and analysis
A slide from the taxonomy analysis presentation shared with stakeholders. I audited the existing system to convince stakeholders that we needed to work on the information architecture.
Tree testing
A slide from the tree test report shared with stakeholders. I conducted a tree test to improve the categorisation of resources. The goal was to make sure the resources are easy for users to find.
A system that looks and works better
Apart from a new user interface (UI)*, the rebuild featured the following changes that I contributed to:
streamlined user flows that made it easier for admins to complete tasks
improved navigation structure so it's faster for admins to get around the site
guidelines and guardrails to help admins with categorisation of resources
clearer labels for system features, so it's more intuitive to understand
*I did not work on the new UI elements. What I did was to make use of the new UI elements to design the interaction and user flows.
Form to create availability schedule, one of the many streamlined task flows in the revamped Resource Booking System.
Table of resources from the revamped Resource Booking System admin portal, featuring a new user interface.
Making change easier
As part of change management, we created the Admin Help Centre to help agency admins transition to RBS 2.0.
The help centre included:
guides on how to perform top tasks
information on how complex features work
tips on troubleshooting common problems
What I did
I was heavily involved in the project to rebuild the admin portal of RBS, and took on responsibilities that went beyond UX writing and content design.
The team consisted of:
myself
1 other UX designer
1 UX manager
a team of external developers (who started development)
a team of internal developers (who continued the development)
2 project owners, our main stakeholders
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I was heavily involved in stakeholder discussions. This included:
requirements gathering
scope negotiation and workarounds
collaborative solutioning
research and design presentations
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I immediately recognised the importance of taxonomy to this project. To convince our stakeholders, I conducted an analysis and presented my findings and recommendations.
This helped us to get the buy-in we needed to spend time on taxonomy and related information architecture work.
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As part of the information architecture work for the project, I conducted an unmoderated tree test with around 150 users and agency admins.
The goal was to find out if:
users can find the resource they want, based on the proposed types
agency admins are likely to categorise the resources they have based on the proposed types
users and agency admins are able to navigate to the core features of the product
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I worked on the site structure, with a focus on:
flatter navigation structure for faster access
clearer labels for easier navigation
more distinctive grouping of similar features
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Using a new set of user interface elements created by a team member, I completely re-designed major task flows with a focus on improved usability.
This made it easier for admins to:
create resources
manage resource classification
manage users and user group permissions
create and manage the locations of their resources
send automated notifications
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I was in charge of the words and labels used in RBS.
To help the team maintain copy consistency in the long run, I:
created a copy bank for errors, buttons and CTAs, toasts and other common components
maintained a glossary of key product terms, and explained changes that were made from the previous version of the product
documented grammar and style decisions for the product
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I was involved in development kickoffs and other meetings to:
represent the company and team’s interest when working with external developers
explain requirements and desired outcomes
discuss workarounds and alternatives
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I suggested the creation of the Admin Help Centre using GitBook to facilitate change management.
I worked on:
content strategy: what should we include and exclude?
content structure: how do we best organise the help topics?
writing of content: is this easy to read and understand?
content operations: how can the team maintain the content?
The stakeholders were pleased with the work and they requested a similar help centre for general users of RBS.