Helping Comcast build an agent reservation system
Role
Lead interaction designer
Team
3 people
Timeline
3 months
Project background
One Reserve (I’ve branded this separately and included different visuals / data for the purposes of this case study) is an enterprise web application for Comcast Business and Service Design Engineers to efficiently reserve telephone numbers for business customers.
It ports over data at scale from applications commonly used by hundreds of Service Design Engineers (SDEs) serving a centralized app, and with new workflow efficiencies built in, it saves them time spent per year on reserving telephone number reservation.
My role
My work primarily consisted of distilling technical requirements and translating them into a functional product, through scenarios, needs statements, architecture and prototyping.
Scenarios & Needs: Worked with the engineering team at Comcast to define and prioritized user scenarios and needs statements.
Architecture & workflows: Defined the architecture of the product and used it as the foundation of workflows and interaction patterns.
Prototyping: Built prototypes in order to pressure test concepts and socialize our ideas to the broader team.
Design System: Served as visual designer, creating the visual framework and all user interface components.
Stakeholder management: Led meetings with the broader Comcast stakeholder team and align on progress and goals.
The challenge
This product needed to support telephone number reservation at the scale of Comcast. It also needed to integrate with a number of applications so that user information was ported over.
The design needed to quickly communicate to the user the account landscape and allow the user to do two main functions - look up current account information and reserve telephone numbers for business partners, most often while they were on the phone with the client.
Initial concepts
One Reserve is a new way to reserve telephone numbers. By decoupling the internal organizational processes from the technological and system requirements, this freed up efficiencies involved in reserving telephone numbers at the scale of millions per year.
Easy Search
Users can quickly search and select customer sites. Often this information was ported over from another application, but users needed to quickly change it on the fly while a customer was on the phone.
Interactive Tables
Each telephone number was tied to multiple data parameters, over 20 in fact. So users had to quickly be able to look up this information in context.
Data Visualizations
Data Visuals help the Service Design Engineer better understand inventory metrics.
How we got there
This project had a fast turn around time, as Comcast was reliant upon on the product to meet KPI's they were committed to within the following quarter.
Therefore, within 3 months we moved from defining needs statements, to concept, prototype, test and package for development.
Observational Inquiry
I started the project by visiting a data center and observing users in their work environment to understand current workflows and organizational processes that had potential impact.
From there, I clearly identified pain points, and validated the need for such an application. Furthermore, I got to see first hand the interplay between organizational, cross-departmental process and technology.
Workshopping system architecture
I worked with the Comcast stakeholders to refine the architecture of the core experiences, and to ensure that we were all aligned on the framework of data parameters and user inputs.
Refining system architecture
Defining scenarios / workflows
Working with a development team that was new to user experience design, I used technical documentation to capture input and explain the user tasks.
Testing early concepts
I iterated on wireframes and created prototypes to socialize concepts and progress to the broader stakeholder team. I used InVision for usability testing and Principle to showcase specific interactions.
I validated specific interactions and workflows with users during prototyping stages.
Iterating towards the optimal information design
Final Visuals
The solution tested well. As engineers were building the infrastructure, I refactored the UI for a final polished enterprise internal tool look.
What was the impact?
We reduced time on call by 24%
Comcast data centers consist of multiple departments organized around the transfer of customer data. Most of this configuration took place over the phone.
We improved TN reservation accuracy by 32%
Our goal with this product was to improve reservation accuracy. One TN configuration mishap meant that consumers couldn't reach businesses, and businesses couldn't make money.
Retrospective
What research and data was used?
The primary research used was observational study and direct user interviews. Through observational studies, we learned a significant amount about the organizational structures and internal processes as they related to their day-to-day workflows and the cross-team transfer of data.
How did you find the right design?
We scaled back the original requirements of this application considerably as we focused on prioritization of system inputs and visual signaling of outputs. This was accomplished through observation of users and aligning task efficiencies with requirements of job success.
How is success measured?
Success was measured through four primary KPI's: Reduced time spent reserving telephone numbers, overall increase in accuracies of telephone reservation, completing reservations in one call, and increased end customer satisfaction, through Net Promoter Score.
Why this design, and not others?
This design was the result of compromise, deep understanding of the available technology, and balance between business objectives and user needs.
What was I wrong and right about?
I was right about the time needed to create an architecture in order to understand the right balance and hierarchies inherent to the system.
I was wrong about combining complex task flows in order to create efficiencies. It was best to separate, due to both the difficulty it added to the user experience and to the technology needed to pull it off.
What are the observed benefits?
SDE's are able to reserve telephone numbers quicker and with greater accuracy. End customer satisfaction, as a result, increases due to better data accuracy and less time spent on the phone configuring their telecommunication infrastructure.
Comcast is happy, because reduced time on reservation tasks and increase accuracies, at the scale of Comcast Business saves them substantial costs, technology performance, etc.
What challenges were overcome?
The primary challenge was keeping in mind the design needs of new Service Design Engineers. Although we could have achieved more efficiencies within the interface by templatizing many common workflows, that added functionality assumed understanding of the domain and mastery of the tasks. Since there is a lot of turn over in this job, we opted for a more guided approach, althought at times, repetitive.