Why a redesign?
Gooee started as a connected lighting company, so the initial priority of the app was tailored to remotely control lights in connected buildings and monitor their power usage.
As the company grew, so did the capabilities of the system. The ability to detect real-time occupancy data with sensors was a huge milestone. Later, we implemented tech that gave us the ability to measure air quality and CO² emissions with readings from HVAC systems.
Design was additive, instead of being iterative. The need for features to be added in the startup atmosphere meant the system never got a chance to be looked at from a holistic perspective.
💡Process
We use design sprints at Gooee. We did the user interviews for the redesign with 4 of the portals biggest power users. Since this redesign touched every page in the app we tried to keep the users airing of grievances more about global components.
What we learned from the airing of grievances
- Navigation was tedious
- Not enough search and filter functionality
-> Users were frustrated with how to get where they wanted, and felt lost when they got there
-> Wasted time scrolling
- No ability to bulk manage
-> No way to move entities
-> Want to be able to bulk delete
- Show more items per page
-> Easier to scan instead of paginating through short lists
- Ability to quickly drill down to children
-> Can spend more time diagnosing technical issues
🚧 Constraints
This redesign was post covid so the team across the board was down 60%. Since there was a shortage of resources even the internal users we interviewed had less time so we could only work off the initial brief. Since the company has been actively fundraising the quicker the turnaround the better, most of the cool ifs were taken off the table.
💅 Outcome
The app has a noticeably fresher feel and navigating has become easy breezy. The original app didnt have a home button so while that wasnt part of the acceptance criteria it was something I pushed to add to this iteration and has been welcomed warmly.
One of my favorite features is the ability to toggle between pages from the header.
The other would be the ability to complete bulk actions. My inspiration here was an inbox like UX where the user can multi select list items to be moved or deleted.
🤔 Reflecting
Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome of this redesign. My forever goal for Gooee would be to have a tree like hierarchy of customers and buildings and when the internet can handle that amount of data I'm sure we can make it work. It is a living project and I look forward to seeing how it grows with more use and feedback.