Dashboard Redesign
Palatial Platforms
Lead Product Designer
(In a team of 8 other cross-functional members)
3 months
Conducting user studies
Stakeholder Management
Working with a cross-functional team
UX Research
UI Design
Figma
FigJam
Google Sheets
Google Forms
Project Overview
Palatial is a SaaS company that offers Technical and Architectural visualization artists to showcase high fidelity, real-time 3D experiences on the web.
This case study focuses on the redesign of Palatial's web dashboard to prepare for an alpha release of their product.
Problem
The current dashboard faces significant usability challenges, including complex workflows and limited options for customization.
These issues prevent developers from efficiently uploading 3D models, necessitating a comprehensive redesign to streamline processes and enhance the user experience.
Outcome & Impact
These were the end metrics calculated after implementing the redefined dashboard.
85%
Task success rate
100+
User flows created
75%
User satisfaction
20%
Error rate
150
User sign ups generated
70%
Conversion rate
Sign up/Login
Dashboard
Payments and Billing
Importer
A snippet of the various components and user flows created for this project
Research
When we first worked on creating Palatial's dashboard, the idea was to build an MVP that would be technically capable of uploading projects onto the dashboard and it would work.
User testing
I conducted comprehensive usability testing with approximately 20 participants, including both new users and those familiar with Palatial's previous dashboard.
This user research provided valuable insights through heuristic evaluations and user behavior analysis, allowing me to identify key usability issues and inform iterative design improvements for the dashboard redesign.
To get qualitative & quantitative feedback, we created two different tests:
Moderated Front-end testing for design feedback.
Unmoderated Back-end testing for developer feedback on potential bugs and areas of improvement.
User testing flows
User testing questions
Gathering data from usability tests
Analysis
Analyzing feedback from our user research unveiled consistent usability issues and unforeseen challenges.
Key findings
Some of the quantitative feedback that we gathered from the user testing was as follows:
Unintuitive interface
Many users found the UI unclear, with navigation steps that were not straightforward.
Unable to complete tasks
Approximately 40% of users struggled to complete tasks successfully.
Low satisfaction rates
Around 40% of users reported difficulty in completing tasks, leading to lower satisfaction rates.
Importer details locked
Users were unable to move forward/back while their files were uploading, leading to restart the importer process.
Strict sign-in requirements
There was no option to login with SSO, and password requirements were very strict to continue with account creation.
Analysis based on initial moderated usability studies
Process
Even while moving at a fast pace, we naturally followed the Double Diamond process - discovering user needs, defining problems, developing solutions, and delivering results efficiently. This approach kept our design user-focused and effective despite tight deadlines.
Once we had the core designs in place, I followed the Agile UX process by conducting weekly sprints to iteratively design and develop new features.
Wireframing and Ideation
I had multiple meetings with technical team, engineering team, the product manager and the CTO for various features that we needed to implement.
Since this was a large project with very little time to accomplish the end goal, not a lot of the frames were taken from ideation to production in a linear manner. We did go through whiteboard sessions for the dashboard, which is on the right here.
Most of the explorations here happened directly inside of the high fidelity prototypes.
Initial sketching explorations
Iterative low fidelity wireframes
High fidelity explorations
Video - New Dashboard
Major changes
Although the redesigned dashboard had over 40+ changes and new features implemented, these were the major changes that were made:
Overhaul of sign up / login page
For the second round of the dashboard design, we took the efforts to create a comprehensive and robust sign up and login system.
Before/After - Sign up page
Problem area
Users expressed an interest to have multiple login options for signing into palatial.
Users pointed out that the password requirements had limited permissible characters.
Users pointed out problems with legibility on the password requirements section.
Solution
Designed a robust login system + SSO support with error states for various edge cases that may come up.
Created an interactive password input system that tells them the password requirements.
Added icons to the password requirements section with improved contrast for better legibility.
Adding an onboarding experience
For the second round of the dashboard design, we took the efforts to create a comprehensive and robust sign up and login system.
Video - Onboarding process
Problem area
Initially we predicted that the users would know what to do once they log into the dashboard, but after user testing we learned that there were a lot of confusions regarding next steps.
Solution
Created an onboarding experience explaining the various features of Palatial, as well as including a personalized workspace so users can begin to upload their projects for optimization.
Changing how users upload projects
Based on the user feedback, we understood the cognitive patterns that were being missed in earlier iterations and were able to redefine the importer process to make it more flexible and streamlined for everyday use.
Before/After - Sign up page
Problem area
A lot of steps were involved in uploading a project onto the dashboard.
Users were unable to go back in the uploader to make changes to their upload settings.
Multiple drag & drop windows created confusion and distress (especially since files were being dragged from another window).
40% of users expressed distress in the overall flow of the uploader and found it too complex for everyday use.
Solution
Understand the core functionality of the importer and simplify.
Speak with developers to figure out a way to have files upload in the background to move forward/back.
Create one drag and drop window to allow users to upload all files at once.
Create an overview window for visibility of where the users are in the upload process.
Learnings and reflection
After conducting a second round of testing with the same user group, we observed improvements across all user metrics. Users appreciated the enhancements in V2 of the dashboard, noting a significantly better experience.
While there remains room for further improvement, these metrics demonstrate that the redesign successfully enhanced the user experience for the dashboard.
Key learnings
Importance of early user research
Extremely important to do research early on to understand what target audience we're designing for.
Comprehensive design system
Having a solid design foundation for a brand is necessary for faster development of new features.
Collaboration across cross-functional teams
Having early conversations with cross-functional team members was vital to making sure the new features work as intended.
Iterative feedback based development
Getting user feedback early on in development helps in designing solutions for real problems.
