Introduction
The challenge to create this digital product was, that it should be based on SaaS Software. Just like any other SaaS solution software, it should work for us, and for other customers and clients. Software should work seamlessly for administrators, and event visitors mainly. Companies, brands, etc, should have the opportunity too, to show their products, and sell them. In addition, software should be able to provide a social community network, where people can discuss topics, during, and after the events.
Our company, along with one of the biggest, and most well-recognised fair institutions in Spain, located in Madrid's capital city, shaped a product that actually works for Ifema fair called Live Connect. You could use it, if you attend events, round tables, activities, etc, at the fair.
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Research
As with any new product in marketplace, and knowing the importance of doing good research, we started defining proto-personas to work with, to finally have built a research panel with real people. After that, with a real product on our hands to test, we started discovering insights from real users, which was our main focus, and in order to further grow the product, once we have launched an MVP.
It was hard work, as in any SaaS product, UX/UI profile such as me, we are in charge of considering all of the “hats” that will be involved in our product. From the top of the SaaS administrator, to finally users, we found people who organise editions, people who only participate in a community, and people who attend events, and participate in activities that take place in-person and virtually. A wide range of profiles should be considered and included in the research.
In addition, as soon as we launched the MVP, we started to ideate a strategy to deep dive into the event world, asking people with surveys, qualitative and quantitative, and participating in design thinking sessions with a Service Design team.
Regarding data, the MVP allowed us to start to work with real data, and take actions based on data. Different tools were implemented in the SaaS software that could be personalised by the administrator team.
Define & Ideate
To start to define the product, we should be aware that this software had to work as a unique suite, or independent modules, and should be distributed and installed, along a wide range of ecosystems in a worldwide market.
Once we started to define and ideate, along with the SD Team, organizing meetings with clients, users, etc, we had to figure out all their needs, they were our main focus for us when they interacted with our product. At an early stage, we supported our decisions based on the research done, and being aware that some of the decisions, that we have taken at that time, could change in the future.
This was a big challenge, to know the user needs for each profile and each interactive time.
Wireframing & Prototyping
Next it was time to start with a white canvas! After hard work discussing concepts, profiles, and technical steps, the time to start to synthesise and materialize, arrived. To start to solve any design problem, we created all possible flows for any user profile, how the platform must be shown to an administrator, is not the same as how it must be shown to the user who attends an event, for example. Once we had that point clear, we started to shape different sites, for different roles and along with specific architecture information.
In the early stages, we produced wireframes, that allowed us to work just on features and functionality, without any requirements about brand guidelines, working in black and white, and focusing on the real important task at this time.
Once we had an approach to the final solution, we worked on prototypes. It is an essential part of the process. How could I know, that a vehicle can be driven by a person? Yes, by testing it!
Every feature we designed was tested by a prototype, allowing us to detect some inconsistencies that could appear along the task. When we had prepared a prototype, it was easily distributed to the team, customer, panel person, etc, to get new insights or, report some problems. At this point, we had qualitative interviews with users, which were very helpful to avoid bias.
UI Design
In this project, we worked with a waterfall framework, allowing us to implement the new features, that we had created on each design sprint, and grow the product incrementally.
For this purpose, one of the first was to create a Design System, which was the platform where we could share, and add new components, updates, specifications, etc.
Working closely with the Marketing team, we had meetings regularly, to check every component we have produced, and follow the Brand guidelines to the letter.
Testing
As I commented before, testing is an essential part of the process, and for that reason, we wanted to test and iterate on different stages, from ideation to final version. According to this, we have established points to test on each part of the process, which allowed us to iterate quickly and produce a better digital product.
Regarding testing, we implemented solutions to test prototypes and production versions. For this proposal, we implemented tools before, when we were working with designs in Figma, and then, for production software. These tools offer us all kinds of information such as demographics, devices, language, etc.
Outcome & Learnings
I always say that with every project I have been involved in, I have learned, and this one was no exception. One of the biggest challenges with no doubt in my career was being part of the design of a SaaS product that works on LIVE Connect.
Furthermore, I had the biggest opportunity to work with different teams, service designers, developers, project managers, business team, etc, across the platform, which was truly enriching for me, and I am very grateful to them.
Conclusion
Never stop learning. This project brought me not only the opportunity to continue learning about digital software, I had the chance to learn from my colleagues, from other disciplines, that finally was so amazing to imagine the product that we were going to build.