Research, design and prototype a digital asset repository

Company: Philips

I led a quantitative research study, design and creation of a proof of concept for a new digital asset repository to improve brand consistency and reduce legal risks across it’s portfolio.

Project Summary

Timeline & Team

12 weeks start to finish with a 2 person team. I worked as a user researcher, experience and interaction designer. I worked with an icon designer.

Responsibilities

  • Qualitative research study

  • Experience Design

  • Prototype & usability testing

  • Project Management

Outcome

Delivered a POC Digital Asset Repository for employees to access design system approved assets. In the first 1st month after launch, 94% of users accessed the repository on a daily basis.

OVERVIEW

Across the portfolio of products, there is a large inconsistency in the icons being used, thus compromising the brand and experience as well as giving rise to legal issues.

  • Designers search for, create and use icons every day for their mock ups, prototypes and designs. Given the product range the existing library was rich but painfully slow.

  • The challenge here was, to update a system that was created in 2001 that will allow users to search, upload, download and submit issues with icons.

  • The existing solution was out of date, difficult to update, had poor search functionality, no version control, unintuitive and would slow down a designer’s workflow.

SUMMARY

Philips saw an opportunity to update the way it managed and stored digital assets that have been approved by the design system.  

Single source

of truth for all assets, thus eliminating doubt and instilling trust with the wider community

94 %

Improvement in time taken to search and then download an icon.

Transparent

workflow has led to an increase in the happiness of the user.

RESEARCH

I looked at the wider industry to see what was on offer and did a competitor analysis. Here I was able to develop key learnings and establish opportunities that needed to be captured in my proposal.

I planned and conducted 5 users interviews and I sent out surveys to the wider community to understand the purpose and challenges when interacting with the digital asset repository.

User Interviews

  • Talk me through how you would search for an icon.

  • With your downloaded asset, what are the key information you need about the asset?

  • What part of the system would you like to see an improvement on?

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Surveys

  • How long does the process take?

  • How often do you use the digital asset repository?

  • On a scale of 1-5, rate the ease of searching for an asset.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

The research interviews and analysis of the users revealed how the Digital Asset Repository could be improved.

  • is a significant point of friction due to difficulty in looking up history of the file

  • lacks ease as it is not easy to request, report or add a new asset.

  • because of the speed of the current repository is poor.

  • is not easy due to lack of intuitive search engine

“Sometimes, I don’t know what words to use for searching as the most obvious doesn’t work”
— Open ended answer from one of the interviewees.

EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Based on the feedback, I saw an opportunity to improve the overall transparency of the repository. Users should be able to upload, report and update assets with ease. To do this, I held a workshop to get alignment with the stakeholders.

“If I new a completely new icon that isn’t available, I have no idea what the process or how long it would take…”
— Open ended answer from one of the interviewees.

I also mapped out a service blueprint to introduce a new way for users interacting with the new proposed digital asset repository.

PROTOTYPE, TEST & ITERATE

First challenge was to figure out a way to store the meta data for the assets. After researching, I proposed that I would create a YAML file that would store all the data needed.

“To paint a better picture of the score, it would be great if we include information regarding…”
— Usability testing participant

I initially built wireframes to show the user flow, which was then translated into hi-fidelity designs. From here, using VueJS and connecting it to a gitLAB repository via an API - I was able to build a proof of concept to help with testing

“It’s so easy to find an icon, I don’t need any onboarding at all. I can just jump, try a few words - get to the asset that I want in literally seconds, I can’t believe it. We finally having something fit for modern day use.”
— Usability testing participant

94% improvement in the time it takes for a user to search and download an asset

A refreshed intuitive digital asset repository has led to an overall reduction in design debt - as reported by product owners and/or scrum masters

OUTCOMES & LESSONS

The digital asset repository is proving to be a powerful tool in enabling users to use the correct assets in their designs. Two products reported an average of 21% design debt down from 57%.

IN THE 30 DAYS SINCE LAUNCH OF THE TOOL WITH JUST 100 ICONS ONLY

78 %

Increase increase in traffic compared to the older site.

94 %

Improvement in time taken when a user searches and downloads an icon.

43

Assets were downloaded in the first month

The new digital asset repository has become a crucial tool for reducing visual design debt.  It has improved brand consistency and reduced legal risks.

  • Listing all the assets that match a keyword, helped improve discovery.

  • The time taken to return search returns - ie “instantaneous” improved the overall happiness of the user.

  • Product owners reported little or no errors with regards to assets during sprint reviews.

Key Outcomes & Results

  • Autonomic UX - I saw opportunities and while they weren’t part of my brief, they were necessary for giving an overall better experience.

  • Changing the language to address the audience, ie technical for the developers.

  • The need for transparency and accountability is what makes users happy.

What I learnt

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