The Observatory - Pen Portraits
Starcount visualises customer data in their SaaS platform, the Observatory. The platform harnesses all of this rich and fast moving data and helps clients visualise at scale how consumers are motivated.
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Pen portraits as a feature was a key insight from the user research that I ran while I was junior designer at starcount. This was a pain point for both our internal and external users. They were spending a lot of time gathering different types of data into a presentable output. The other problem was that the observatory interface had limited exploration opportunity for the user to drill into the data and no ability to create a comparative view between two audiences.
Client
Starcount
Duration
2 months
Project Team
Lead UX designer, Junior Designer, 4x Developers, x1 Product,
x1 Engineering Manager and x1 Business Owner
Research
Before I kicked off the project, I reviewed the personas I created through user interviews. I presented these personas to the business and it was a way for them to think about our users in a different way. It was a great learning curve for me as I was starting off in UX.
Brainstorming and sketching ideas
I ran a brainstorming session to explore how the feature could sit within the current UI without re-jigging the layout drastically. This involved the senior UX designer, front and back end developer, client data scientist (user) and product manager. I got several ideas from the session and narrowed the ideas down. I moved on to design the user flows through the content.
Visual design
Having established the layout and content through different design iterations and feedback sessions with the users, it was time to proceed with the visual design. My goal was to create an intuitive and clear interface. The use of colour was key to distinguish between the different data-sets and several versions were iterated with the user's feedback. Cards were used to showcase the content with the ability to drill down into each section through relevant CTA’s.
Solution and next steps
The solution I came up included an exportable pdf designed as part of the interface to allow for users to get data as a snapshot. The project was in the pipeline to go into development at the time. It was my first project where I was able to work directly with our users and the product and development team.