Background
This was a proposal to bring the company’s SaaS web portal to an iOS mobile app. The process started by sketching out a slightly condensed sitemap of the existing product.
Research
Meeting with small groups of users and key stake holders revealed the vision for the mobile experience and the differences it would have from the web app. The main takeaway was the need to be able to see general information at a glance, but be able to easily see specific employee information. The rationale was that a manager could quickly be able to assess retention issues, but be able to see specific information while preparing for a meeting on the go.
Site Map
Meeting with product, we worked on a revised site map so that the core mobile functionality would be no more than 2 levels deep.
Sketching/Wireframes
From there, I sketched some rough wireframes necessary to port the most important features to iOS. Many features that were part of the desktop web app could not be incorporated and other features (like being able to view specific employee data) were brought up in hierarchy based on early research.
Low Fidelity
After the wireframes were well received, rough mockups were drawn to be used in some early user testing.
Testing
Early testing revealed a few problems with the initial design. For example, the team filter feature did not make sense existing as a separate screen along with the others on the bottom menu. I relocated it to the top right corner and made it a drop-down menu where the filters can be chosen for the list and graph views. The employee data features were well received and found useful for retention effort activities.
High Fidelity
Going from those initial results, I began to make higher fidelity mockups.
The mobile project was cancelled before further work could be done in favor of remaining focused on the web app.
Takeaways
This was my first experience with taking a desktop web product and converting it to a mobile experience. I learned that sometimes concessions must be made in order to deliver the functionality that most make sense on a mobile device. Contextual use was a huge factor in the direction of the mobile experience and was the main reasoning for the removal of many of the bulkier core features of the web product. I also had my first experience with having a project get canceled even after a lot of time and effort was spent on it. Learning to not get too attached to products and knowing when to fight for a project vs knowing when to let something go is a huge lesson that I'm sure I will continue battle with.