Being Device Management Portal

The Smartest Way to Manage Your Devices. Being Device Management (BDM) effectively manages all Acer BeingWare and connected devices while simultaneously securing and providing insights on all the data our business generates.

• Role

  UX strategy, User research, UI design , Interaction design, design lead and management

• Year

  2017 – 2019

The Being Device Management Portal is designed to meet the needs of Being devices. It covers a wide range of topics including devices, operators, applications, policies, and groups. The product aims to help users stay informed about device statuses, manage device enrollment, and easily adjust device settings remotely.

Group Navigation: Quick Access vs. Group Section

Problem: BDM is an application that is based on user roles, with different roles having different levels of access to the nested group organization. After conducting a competitor study, we found that the most common solution for group navigation was to create a group list column. However, our user research revealed that users sometimes struggled to view the full group tree in a narrow column. In some cases, the main content was forced to overflow off the screen due to the extra column. The primary design goal was to provide users with the largest space possible for their most important tasks. Therefore, we are seeking an efficient method to navigate groups for different user roles without relying on the group list column.

Process: The user research showed:

• Only less than 5% of the users have the privilege to navigation groups.
• All users like to have a larger space to operate their main tasks.
• More than 50% of the users have experienced the group tree structure is too wide to be viewed completely in the group list column.
• 80% of the users with the group navigation privilege only need to access tow or three levels of the groups.
• 20% of the users with the group navigation privilege need to see the full group structure and execute the group management tasks.

After identifying two types of users, I mapped out the user journeys respectively:

• For 80% of the users: Log In > Land on Parent Group > Go to Child Groups > Execute Task > Log Out/Back to Parent Group
• For 20% of the users: Log In > Land on Parent Group > Find Group List > Operate Group Management Task > Check Results

Based on the search data, the personas were created as following:

Solutions:
Quick Navigation: The Group Navigation design was intended to provide navigation functionality to the common component, Group Label, for users with minimal privileges. It includes a children group list dropdown menu and a breadcrumb, allowing users to quickly access the next level group and return to the parent group.

Group Section: For advanced users who need to oversee groups across multiple levels, the design includes a full-page display of the group list tree structure. This layout offers a more immersive viewing experience, access to additional group summary information, and more efficient group management capabilities.

Responsive Design: Form vs. Function

The BDM Portal is designed to be used on multiple platforms and screen sizes. In addition to using responsive design to adjust the user interface, we have also considered different scenarios to adapt the purposes and functions when the app is used on different devices.

Problem: BDM was designed for use in a desktop environment, with all use cases and functions defined based on the desktop experience. If we need to make BDM usable on mobile devices, what value proposition can BDM provide to users?

Process: The design process began with understanding who the BDM mobile users are. What are their roles? Why would they need to use BDM on mobile devices? What do they want to do with BDM on mobile devices? What are the potential pain points they might experience on mobile devices? After conducting user interviews with the stakeholders and potential users, I have compiled the following results::

• User role: Business Development Staff.
• Main purpose: To introduce and demonstrate BDM to potential clients
• Use cases:
  • To show the device analytic data.
  • To introduce the overall product structure
  • To display remote device status
  • To take simple controls on the devices remotely such as turn on/off devices
• Possible issues:
  • The text on the UI is too small to read
  • The analytic tables/chars are hard to use/read
  • Functions related to the local storage need technical solutions

Based on the user interviews, a new persona was created as following:

Solutions:

• Take the responsive design
• Identify the user roles and create user persona for the product on mobile devices
• Clarify the product goal for mobile devices is to demonstrate the product.
• Ensure the visibility of the text and charts on the mobile devices
• Remove the functions that not suitable to use on the mobile environment such as uploading local files
• Keep the suitable and simple remote control functions, and ensure their accessibility and affordance

Data Visualization: Summarizing vs. Exploring

Being Audience Rating (BAR) is an add-on service specifically for IoT devices with a camera function. With BAR, audience data collected on Being devices will be analyzed and visualized in informative graphs and charts for privileged users.

Problem: BDM provides analytical data to help users understand their audience profile, audience reactions to content, and device location performance. There are various ways to present this data. What are the best ways, and how can users make the most of them?

Process: Based on the user interviews, I created a new persona:

POV: Tiffany, a 27-year-old marketing specialist, needs to analyze marketing content performance to make necessary adjustments for business success.

The way users interact with data visualization differs from task-driven flows. When users come across an analytical data chart, instead of taking specific actions to move forward, they usually stay on the chart and try to find detailed information on the data points, compare trends or amounts, and further explore the data by filtering out unnecessary factors. From user research, we learned that users perform two types of tasks when using the data in general: 1. Checking the current or latest status and quickly comparing recent data. 2. Diving into details and looking for answers from specific factors. Therefore, the main design goal for this project is to create a reasonable structure that can help the user accomplish the different types of tasks easily.

Solutions:

• Use the dashboard design to present summarized information, allowing users to quickly grasp the latest status without additional steps.
• Create sections in different categories to provide specific in-depth analytic data charts or tables along with searches and filters, so users can explore the answers they are looking for.

Conclusions: The users are satisfied with the way the data is organized. They feel that the design makes it easy for them to access both summarized data and detailed answers. After some time of use, a few new requests have come in, such as the ability to compare data across different groups, customizable dashboards, and specific analytical data reports.

Design System

ITo ensure a smooth and efficient handover from design to development, we have established a modular design system. This system relies on reusable components and their various states, such as cards, list items, and controls. Each component can be rearranged or combined with others while still preserving design consistency and recognizable user interface patterns.