Helping large format printer operators and production managers improve output quality and color consistency

I was the interaction designer working closely with the CX lead, program managers, and engineers. My role involved defining the information architecture, user flows, and designing the user interface. I also supported the CX lead with user research tasks.

👩🏻 ROLE

Interaction and visual designer

⏳ TIMELINE

April - December 2018

💥 IMPACT

53% increase of users completing the end to end flow

TL;DR

We designed a new tool for HP's cloud service to help production managers monitor printer status. The first version we launched had big UX gaps and poor design, leading to negative feedback from leadership and users. However, we revamped the user experience, adopted solutions from other industries, and redefined the software architecture, transforming the tool into a successful solution.

What I worked on:

Information architecture, sitemap definition and navigation
Definition of use cases and user flows
User interface design
Support & participation in research efforts and usability tests

Context

THE OPPORTUNITY

Ensuring consistent color output 🌈 across printers and sites is a major challenge in the printing industry due to variations in configurations, substrates, and environments.

This leads to reprints, delays, and dissatisfied customers. Print operators and fleet managers struggle to manually maintain and monitor configurations across multiple devices and locations, hindering color consistency.

HP Configuration Center, part of PrintOS tools, was ideated to solve color consistency issues, by allowing remote control of the whole fleet, replacing the manual one-by-one-process.

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Understanding how the business operates

To understand user's needs, having clear the real scenario and how they work was key.

In one hand we have remote users, usually production managers overseeing the entire printer fleet and in the other, on-site operators responsible for specific printers.

Defining the sitemap and architecture

There was some initial designs done, but they had structural flaws, particularly an overly horizontal sitemap with a vertical menu, hindering deep navigation. I proposed a revised architecture with an additional level to reduce clutter and horizontal tabs for smoother navigation.

First test with users revealed we were still far from success

✅ New navigation worked better
❌ Information overload
❌ Unclear interactive elements
❌ Lack of differentiation between similar pages
🤷🏻 "This website looks boring", "It looks like an Excel"
‍

🏃
Due to time constraints, we launched the first version knowing enhancements were still needed.

‍Given the tight timeline, we prioritized launching a minimum viable product initially, and continued iterating and enhancing the solution post-launch.

Post-launch we realised that users were not understanding the main tool's concept 😅

Besides usability and architecture, users had trouble understanding how to create configuration packages and send that to printers, as it was a new concept for them. At this point, together with Cx lead, we carefully analyzed each use case to understand what were the main problems.

I proposed to the CX lead introducing the concept of shopping cart 🛒, very common in e-commerce

This approach allowed users to navigate an intuitive process drawing from familiar e-commerce experiences like selecting options, adding items to a cart, and completing a deployment. By adapting established paradigms, this introduced an innovative way to use this product, transcending its original conception.

This time test results were really satisfactory, we got leadership buy-in and we launched a new version of the product 🚀

Outcomes

Shopping cart concept increased in a 53% the users completing the end-to-end flow

And therefore using the tool, compared to the 1st version we had released, increasing adoption significantly.

Huge personal and professional growth

It was abig challenge since I was a key person to improve communication between teams, and I defended our design decisions to several stakeholders, including HP General Managers

Some of the people I closely worked with:
Jordi Pedemonte (Cx Lead), Alba Velázquez (Visual Designer), Sergio Barquero (R&D and software solutions), Jan Panek (Marketing / Sales director), Eva Blay (Program Manager)

HP Configuration Center