Case Study: Aurelius

Developing key features to meet user goals. 

Tools: StakeHolder Interview, Primary and Secondary Research, User Journey Mapping, Sketching, Design Recommendations

Discover and Identify:

I began my research interviewing my client to understand the current system of work within Aurelius as well as the future vision of this web application. Aurelius is an existing web-application created for UX designers, researchers and product teams. It is a platform for gathering user research and synthesis. The tool help the user add, tag, organize, search and makes sense of their research notes and feedback so they can use it to inform new designs, products and features.  

Aurelius is a growing and developing information management and data systhesis tool and the next feature my client would like to launch is "Collections." This feature extends the functionality of Aurelius by creating the ability to share a group of notes, key insights, tags and/or documents with someone.  They requested a well-scoped solution that fits their brand guidelines. 

Currently, users of Aurelius often make reports to conclude and share their findings and/or recommendations. These reports are time consuming and likely don't have a connection to the original source data. Collections, is a new function that would allow a user to create reports and share researching findings from within Aurelius instead of relying on another program.  The user must be able to take certain information, make a specific shareable group and then send/share it with other people. These curated groups can contain specific notes, key insights, documents, and projects that are relevant to the users information gathering. 

Process: User Journey Mapping:

My research and information gathering informed my understanding of the problem space and assisted in the creation on this User Journey Map.  It depicts Aurelius in its current state identifies pain points and opportunities that will assist in defining the user goals for functions of the Collections Tool. 

Aurelius Collections Tool User Goals:

1. Discover and access previous inputs of research data through tags within an organizations information database.  This data may be collected, combined, and synthesized with new inputs, research and insights within an active project.

2a. Reference project planning materials within Aurelius such as timelines, strategy documents, goals and outlines.

2b. A user gathering and retrieving data from a previous project, should be able to simply understand the project context from where it originated.

3. The user may collaborate on projects with their design team but also feel their research and work is safe and will not be tampered with. 

4. The user will have a tool to report research insights, findings and recommendations internally, in turn keeping the raw data sources close to reporting. The report will be shared within Aurelius or exported for external sharing.

Feature Recommendations:

Here is a series of key feature proposals that address user goals within the new 'Collections Tool' of Aurelius. 

1. Tagging Standards:

A successful information management and searching system is dependent on language consistency and standards. The success of a user discovering information on a particular topic or subject matter is dependent on the assumption that the original research inputs have been properly tagged with the same language as is being searched.  A project that has more than one  user inputting data and tagging information is vulnerable to this condition as well.   

This proposed feature supports tagging standards across a project and organization.  When a tag is entered and it is associated with a previously defined organization standard, a pop up with appear with the standard language, definition and an option to keep or replace the initial tag entry.  

2. Project Platform

The project platform is an accessible reference feature intended for both active and completed projects.  This platform is the landing place for documents and information associated with a particular project, but not a part of the research and data inputs. Here, planning documents such as goals, timelines, outlines, and other reference materials are collected. 

For the current user this feature adds value by keeping a greater amount of project related information internally available within Aurelius instead of referencing an external document.  For a user that may be accessing a project or piece of information from a project at a later date in time, the project platform is a great reference tool for understanding the greater context of a project.

3. Accessibility Controls - Invite Collaborators

The collaborators feature is essentially accessibility controls that limit who can manipulate data within a project. Any member of an organization may view information, but only those on a team that have been invited to collaborate may change the data. This helps preserve project data by making it less susceptible to unintentional edits or deletion. Any one that is not a collaborator may still view information for any particular project. 

4. Sharing and Reporting Tool

The internal reporting feature is unique because it keeps original source data connected to it's output documents.  These reports will support collaboration and feedback.  Exporting from collections directly will reduce the time necessary to share findings with others.  A user can easily select information to be included in a collection.  This information can be manipulated, reordered, and annotated.  Also, a cover document can be added to the collection.  The purpose of the cover document is to assist the recipient in understanding the report to follow. Lastly, this feature allows the user to export a report to PDF for external sharing.