Timeline: June 2023 - September 2023
Role: UI/UX Designer
Project Type: Internship
Skills: Visual Design, Interaction Design, Design Systems, Data Analytics
Analytics can guide users to better outcomes, even in the smallest interactions of everyday workflows. This project aimed to identify candidate components with micro-decision opportunities, define their use, and begin prioritizing in Oracle’s design system “Redwood.”
1. Application users need to understand the shape of data within a working context in order to focus on what matters and avoid unnecessary interactions.
2. Business users need to make many small choices that optimize for one or more success criteria.
We spent weeks looking for inspiration of how data-enabled components encourage users to make smarter decisions every day. We found hundreds of examples ranging from travel booking assistance to Uber visualizing how far away each car is.
We then grouped relevant examples by the type of micro-decision it supported. I was careful to ensure that each component was an analytics opportunity.
1. Select among options to optimize 1 key metric
2. Understand data distribution or history without leaving context
3. Preview the results of a UI Action
4. Compare existing data to average/typical behavior
5. Track aggregate impact of multiple choices on 1 key metric
6. Select among options to optimize multiple key metrics
Within these categories, we began brainstorming new components to add to redwood, Oracle’s design system. We drew from components found during our research stage to think of where these widgets would be of use in Oracle’s products.
Factors we considered were:
I then outlined each of our component ideas, a relevant example of the concept done well, and the existing Redwood component we would be modifying. I asked each member of the team to put green stars next to concepts they believe should be designed, and yellow stars next to concepts that are good ideas but need a bit of work.
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When I began designing high fidelity components and flows, I narrowed the categories to three main groups:
Application users need to understand the effects of small, everyday decisions on a related measure in order to achieve a better business outcome.
How might we...
... visually show users the relationship of user decisions/actions upon a dependent variable?
... provide users with more powerful abilities to understand the impacts of their decisions?
... provide users with valuable context and insights to make more informed decisions?
... optimize small decisions to improve overall working processes and decision-making?
Application users need to understand the connections between multiple related variables when making small, everyday decisions in order to optimized complex systems for the needed outcome.
How might we...
... help users to understand the relationships between multiple variables when making decisions?
... allocate priorities and resources appropriately with respect for multiple dependencies?
... make informed decisions with interconnected systems to achieve balanced results?
... prioritize factors to achieve optimal business outcomes?
Application users need to understand the shape of data within a working context in order to focus on what matters and avoid unnecessary interactions.
How might we...
... Communicate data distributions to maximize understanding?
... provide awareness of broader context without leaving detailed views?
... streamline user workflows by giving them advance notice of decisions they can choose from?
Our goal was to go broad with component creation. I was able to design an incredibly wide array of components with use cases that range from recruiting to healthcare. I gained insight into how to build an intelligent design system that caters towards micro-decisions. Given more time I would have...
My greatest takeaway from this experience was learning how to design for enterprise-facing products as opposed to consumer-facing products.
