EXPERIENCE
INTERFACE
RESEARCH
Pegasystems is a business process automation software company that helps clients modernize and “Build for Change”, allowing clients offerings to evolve alongside customer expectations. Pega software helps enterprises make better decisions and get work done. With scalable architecture and a powerful low-code platform, even the biggest organizations can stay streamlined, agile, and ready for what's next. As a UX Product Designer at Pegasystems I was responsible for seven different apps, four within the customer service industry and three within healthcare. The experiences I designed and researched within customer service include communications, insurance, healthcare, and financial services vertical industries. The technologies I worked with include: React framework, predictive analytics, natural language processing and intelligent automation.
Research ProcessThough I supported seven different apps, the process for designing these apps always starts with a similar research process. As a designer working with product owners, developers, and business stakeholders, my process begins by understanding what each team is hoping to achieve during each product release. We often receive business requirements that act as a guide, but these requirements often don’t consider everything a user may need.
Projects kicks off in conjuction with client and design research teams, who give me the background and justification for our requirements and user needs. Once we have an understanding of our goals, a design sprint for each new project and numerous collaborative exercises help us outline the steps in a flow, data required by the business, and the various AI and automation technologies we can utilize in order to help our users complete their work. Mitigating these conversations through the lens of the user helps organize the produced artifacts (user flows, form fields, steps, etc.) and gives a fuzzy picture of what the end flow will be like.
Customer Service for Communications: Add Mobile Device + PlanI often begin this collaborative process with Job Mapping, defining what exactly the user is trying to accomplish, which leads to User Flow Mapping, defining how these previously defined jobs can be accomplished, and in what order.
The below images showcase the Add Mobile Device + Plan Microjourney within the Customer Service for Communications application. In order to help customers purchase mobile phones and/or plans, we mapped out the specific data requirements, logical steps, and various approaches to ensure a guided and quick process.
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Flow mapping allows us to see how each job-to-be-done maps to the overall process. We segment the form fields into steps based not only on logical progression of the flow but also on the data being fetched and displayed to the user. By viewing the experience from both a UX and data structure perspective, we ensure that the application runs fast and the experience is easy to navigate.
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This flow in particular is interesting due to the fact that you can start the process from two points, which affects both the sequence and contents of each step. When starting with a device, the system determines what the best recomended devices are for each unique customer, and based on the initial device configurations will recommend plans that fit the needs of these devices. When starting with a plan, on the other hand, a user can select plans that may not be compatible with particular devices, so when the device step appears, the system intelligently displays relevant and recommended devices to the user.
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Projects kicks off in conjuction with client and design research teams, who give me the background and justification for our requirements and user needs. Once we have an understanding of our goals, a design sprint for each new project and numerous collaborative exercises help us outline the steps in a flow, data required by the business, and the various AI and automation technologies we can utilize in order to help our users complete their work. Mitigating these conversations through the lens of the user helps organize the produced artifacts (user flows, form fields, steps, etc.) and gives a fuzzy picture of what the end flow will be like.
Customer Service for Communications: Add Mobile Device + PlanI often begin this collaborative process with Job Mapping, defining what exactly the user is trying to accomplish, which leads to User Flow Mapping, defining how these previously defined jobs can be accomplished, and in what order.
The below images showcase the Add Mobile Device + Plan Microjourney within the Customer Service for Communications application. In order to help customers purchase mobile phones and/or plans, we mapped out the specific data requirements, logical steps, and various approaches to ensure a guided and quick process.
Flow mapping allows us to see how each job-to-be-done maps to the overall process. We segment the form fields into steps based not only on logical progression of the flow but also on the data being fetched and displayed to the user. By viewing the experience from both a UX and data structure perspective, we ensure that the application runs fast and the experience is easy to navigate.
This flow in particular is interesting due to the fact that you can start the process from two points, which affects both the sequence and contents of each step. When starting with a device, the system determines what the best recomended devices are for each unique customer, and based on the initial device configurations will recommend plans that fit the needs of these devices. When starting with a plan, on the other hand, a user can select plans that may not be compatible with particular devices, so when the device step appears, the system intelligently displays relevant and recommended devices to the user.
Designing Enterprise ExperiencesOnce we have a rough idea of how the flow and UI will be structured, I then proceed to design initial mocks using our Pega design system: Cosmos which is built on React. Often during this process, there are gaps in the design system since it is still relatively young. This means I document and iterate upon design patterns that need to be supported by our platform in order to be utilized by the applications I support.
Once we have initial mockups, the process of vetting and reviewing these designs begins. I meet with business stakeholders to discuss how our generic flows can be utilized across the different industries and how our clients can configure and customize these experiences to fit their organization’s needs.
Customer Service for Communications: Add Mobile Device + Plan flow
(Click through the below screenshots to view flow)
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Once we have initial mockups, the process of vetting and reviewing these designs begins. I meet with business stakeholders to discuss how our generic flows can be utilized across the different industries and how our clients can configure and customize these experiences to fit their organization’s needs.
Customer Service for Communications: Add Mobile Device + Plan flow
(Click through the below screenshots to view flow)
Enterprise customer service has specific KPIs that helped measure and validate my design work:
Average handle time
Reducing the time it takes customer service representatives to resolve customer interactions
Reducing the time it takes customer service representatives to resolve customer interactions
Number of clicks
Reducing friction of interactions by reducing number of inputs and interactions required
Reducing friction of interactions by reducing number of inputs and interactions required
Number of steps
Consolidating steps in a process to the minimal, logical lowest common denominator
Consolidating steps in a process to the minimal, logical lowest common denominator
Design System Contributions
Gathering industry needs for patterns and technical functionality was a large part of my role. In order to achieve modern and efficient UX, I conducted research and interviews with subject matter experts to better understand how each industry is evolving and the subsequent requirements set onto our products due to that evolution.
Then my process of consolidating functional requirements into common patterns begins with wireframing for the least common denominator design. We find the commonalities between each industry, and across different applications, in order to have a good base that each vertical application can configure to fit their needs. This consolidated approach to pattern and component design helps reduce redundancy of work within both the design and development teams. Being able to view pattern design from multiple scopes, zooming in and out in order to understand how to fulfill UX requirements for a wide audience, was one particular skill that helped produce great product.
Terms + Conditions Template This pattern template defined for our platform team focused on the variability in customer agreement requirements. Due to the various industries that comprise CS at Pegasystems, there are differing levels of both detail and configuration required by clients. In order to define what functionality was needed, a comprehensive audit of agreements was conducted. This resulted in the following authoring requirements in order for this pattern to fit each use case.
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Breadcrumbs Template
This pattern template defined for our platform team focused on case navigation. Most cases are able to be handled in a linear flow, without needing to navigate to previous steps in a process. However, some flows require users to dive deep into data and traverse back to previous steps in order to respond to customer inquiries. The breadcrumb pattern is something that has been a staple in web experiences, but within Pegasystems, the data architecture and case management capabilities didn’t support this type of experience until after my specifications were approved and gained support by our platform teams.
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Gathering industry needs for patterns and technical functionality was a large part of my role. In order to achieve modern and efficient UX, I conducted research and interviews with subject matter experts to better understand how each industry is evolving and the subsequent requirements set onto our products due to that evolution.
Then my process of consolidating functional requirements into common patterns begins with wireframing for the least common denominator design. We find the commonalities between each industry, and across different applications, in order to have a good base that each vertical application can configure to fit their needs. This consolidated approach to pattern and component design helps reduce redundancy of work within both the design and development teams. Being able to view pattern design from multiple scopes, zooming in and out in order to understand how to fulfill UX requirements for a wide audience, was one particular skill that helped produce great product.
Terms + Conditions Template This pattern template defined for our platform team focused on the variability in customer agreement requirements. Due to the various industries that comprise CS at Pegasystems, there are differing levels of both detail and configuration required by clients. In order to define what functionality was needed, a comprehensive audit of agreements was conducted. This resulted in the following authoring requirements in order for this pattern to fit each use case.
Breadcrumbs Template
This pattern template defined for our platform team focused on case navigation. Most cases are able to be handled in a linear flow, without needing to navigate to previous steps in a process. However, some flows require users to dive deep into data and traverse back to previous steps in order to respond to customer inquiries. The breadcrumb pattern is something that has been a staple in web experiences, but within Pegasystems, the data architecture and case management capabilities didn’t support this type of experience until after my specifications were approved and gained support by our platform teams.
User testing and interviews
One of the limitations of being a large enterprise software company is that we often don’t have direct access to our client’s end users. This means that validating my designs needed a somewhat different approach. User testing was often done with subject matter experts that were typically once workers within each industry they hold expertise in. We use these proxies as a way to test our designs and ensure our business use cases are being fulfilled. When a high-value client was involved, those with significant investment in our software, we framed our usability tests in a mutually beneficial manner. By showing them what new capabilities we have been working on, they get some foresight into our product roadmap, and in turn, we can review our designs and iterate with more direct feedback.
This is not a common occurrence at Pega, so being creative and tactical with the resources available to me was a constant effort.
One of the limitations of being a large enterprise software company is that we often don’t have direct access to our client’s end users. This means that validating my designs needed a somewhat different approach. User testing was often done with subject matter experts that were typically once workers within each industry they hold expertise in. We use these proxies as a way to test our designs and ensure our business use cases are being fulfilled. When a high-value client was involved, those with significant investment in our software, we framed our usability tests in a mutually beneficial manner. By showing them what new capabilities we have been working on, they get some foresight into our product roadmap, and in turn, we can review our designs and iterate with more direct feedback.
This is not a common occurrence at Pega, so being creative and tactical with the resources available to me was a constant effort.
