From sketches to a top-ranked customer data
platform launched in mid-2019, this creative journey has
been both rewarding and challenging. On a typical day I manage between 3 and 5 active projects of varying scales, lead different team effort and participate cross-team activities.
Sharing here are some project highlights
(More details to come).
Product Thinking
Adjusting course early. Setting standard for all.
The business requirement to present a product's
value proposition instantly after a user has logged in was a challenge. This new-to-market solution requires a user's investment in the data processing time. For months, engineering
hit a wall in inventing a faster horse.
This project began with
an expectation of me to
simply “pretty things up” to culminating with me a solution that sets a new standard across Microsoft.
Before redesign
The onboarding experience in 2018 required customers to overcome hurdles in order to see potential benefits. Customers had
had to provide contact information and authorize data access before they could proceed.
After redesign
The rearranged narrative sequence invite customers to participate in a journey that built up their own experience with the product.
With each selection or question they answered
they were being guided to the next, richer experience.
Current experience
The experience continues to evolve, but
the core idea of presenting a demo experience using industry-specific synthetic data remains.
This allows users to try out the platform's features with the least amount of effort, and continues to save the company high data processing costs.
Today, this demo solution not only saves huge COGS,
it has become the best practice widely adopted by other business applications across the organization.
Interaction design
Creating a cohesive experience after rapid organization growth
Experiences that optimize for engineering efficiency tend to sacrifice usability. This project is an on-going effort to advocate for prioritizing human logic over system logic.
The current experience
overloaded the customers with complicated operations on each screen. Users are lost in what they can achieve and how to get there.
Redesign focuses on human logic over system logic by guiding
user and providing reassurance along the way.
Sample iteration (Oct 2020)
Visual Design, Research, and Etc.
"Kalen, can you also...?"
From creating last-minute pixel-perfect mockups for demo reel, to
writing a research report, to mentoring designers on building
cross-team relationships,
I wear as many hats as it takes to get the ball rolling, and
I am looooving every part of it.
Product hero shot (2020)
Former live home page
(early 2019)
Former live home page
(mid early 2019)
Conclusion
No project is the same, and no two days are alike. A successful design outcome is a combination of both a strategic and a tactical approach to communications, technology, processes, and so much more. I love my work and the impact that I can make for people and their experiences.
Feedback from colleagues, partners, and manager
"Kalen, you are the heart of CI. Your passion that is not
only usable, but VALUABLE to our customers is infectious.
You inspire the team to reach a higher bar for UX quality
and thoughfulness - without overdoing it or overengineering."
~ Dev Manager at Microsoft.
"I really appreciate that I can entrust these responsibilities
to you, and that you have earned the level of respects and trust
from the engineers to manage such situation as it arises and
get results. Kudos!"
~ Principle Design Manager at Microsoft.
"Your contribution to wall reviews and other collaborative meetings are invaluable. You have such a great mind for seeing
an experience from the user's POV and coming up with approaches
and solutions that improve experiences. I really appreciate all the knowledge and history your long experience on CI brings to
the table, and your relationships with PM and engineering."
