Creating Consistency

Identifying patterns. Defining standards. Thinking different.

Pentaho's flagship product, Pentaho Data Integration (PDI), is a desktop application rooted in years of open source contributions. When PDI was acquired by Pentaho, many extensions and plugins were written by contributors in the open source community. These contributions were often created by individual developers for niche purposes. There were few interface standards for developers to follow and interaction designers were rarely involved in the process. This introduced inconsistencies and challenges with usability due to randomly placed interface elements.

Narrowing it down and prioritizing.

By meeting with product management and support teams we were able to identify the most frequently used features and areas of user frustration or confusion. Once we had this list we worked together on prioritization. One of the first areas identified for improvement were incosistently implemented dialogs throughout the app. Some dialogs had poorly positioned layout that didn’t follow common design patterns. We also discovered more serious bugs, where interface elements were stubbed out with no backend functionality applied.

Defining standards.

Next we defined standards for placement and layout to allow designers and developers a reference for the basics of the interface. (PDI is built on an SWT framework, so understanding the abilities and limitations of the technology was important to allow us to recommend improvements that were not only helpful, but possible.)

Now the fun part. Making things better.

We drilled into the individual features and evaluated them one by one. This allowed us to not only design more usable experiences based on repeatable patterns, but also identify legacy features that were no longer needed and in some cases even functional.

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A new approach to ETL

Guiding users through complex techniques.

Traditionally IT users are required to build transformations that output data for analysis by the line of business user. While buidling a transformation, the IT user is forced to consider each step in their transformation to define the result of the data output. This creates a technical barrier between IT and line of business users.

The goal for this proof of concept was to show how business users can gain insights into their data, while learning that they are actually building a transformation, thus bridging the gap between line of business and IT.

We did this by flipping the concept of ETL on its head and instead of forcing the user to understand the implementation of their transformation, we allowed them to work in a familiar way. Providing them tabular data, they are able to apply their updates while seeing their transformation being built allowing them to gain a familiarity with how the ETL flow is build and learn that it can be updated as needed.

As the user gets more comfortable, they are able to shift from using the spreadsheet to building out more advanced transformation workflows, thus making ETL more accessible to a business user.

Sketches & Wireframes

By starting with whiteboard sessions, we were able to draft a flow and decide on primary screens. Transferring those ideas to wireframes allowed us to refine where controls might be placed . At this point these early concepts can be shared with subject matter experts and product architects. We may even share wireframes with certain users for early feedback.

High Fidelity Mockups

Building on the wireframes, high fidelity mockups allow us to get a better sense of how the finished product might look. These concepts become artifacts for socializing with subject matter experts and targeted end users. This early feedback allows us to pivot where needed before investing too much in development efforts. As they are refined these are vaildated and eventually leveraged by the developers for implementation.

Interactive Prototypes

For new concepts like this one, it's important to build an interactive prototype tfor validation. In this instance we used Axure to publish the concept and share with different stakeholders and users.

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Visual Design

A Modern First Impression

Pentaho products evolved from disparate applications into an integrated suite. The broad range of products included desktop, web based and mobile design applications, allowing for big data extraction and transformation, pixel perfect operational reporting, ad hoc analytics, and dashboard creation that could be distributed throughout large scale enterprises. As these products matured the interfaces were gradually updated to create a more cohesive experience.

User feedback

Conducting usability studies with evaluators helped us identify areas that would make an immediate impact on first impressions.

Updating the overall product branding, including icons and default themes for the web based tools provided a more modern, consistent look and feel to the suite resulting in positive feedback from end users and evaluators.

Planning, organization and getting to done

We began by creating an inventory of splash screens, customizable interface elements and icons. This approach allowed us to not only simplify visual elements and colors but in the case of the icons we consolidated more than 25 different “action” types down to 12 common categories. This also ensured that the more than 200 icons more clearly communicated their purpose and were used in the same way throughout the suite.

Communicationg with style guides and documentation

In parallel we published design specifications allowing OEM’s and open source community contributors to build on the patterns defined for their custom needs.

It all came together

Each product had common elements, but also required specific consideration based on operating system and technical implementation. Although the process was involved, the efforts allowed for a repeatable process for major releases or OEM requirements.

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User Research

Decisions grounded by feedback

User feedback is invaluable at each stage of a project to help inform the design process from the perspective of the end user. Conducting interviews, producing online surveys, observing users, and leveraging analytics are methods I’ve applied to better understand what’s working, where things can be improved and how to prioritize recommendations.

Gathering information and measuring results

To gather information and capture user feedback, I’ve used tools like Survey Monkey, GoToMeeting and Google Analytics.

Reaching the user

By using scheduling tools that allow users to self-select meeting times that are convenient, I’ve created an environment for collecting feedback throughout the lifecycle of projects. This helps build two-way communication between users and our team for more rapid, immediately actionable improvements for features.

Repeatable Approach with Actionable tasks

Starting with a goal, I target specific personas and build a project plan and schedule for testing that will best answer what items we’re trying to address. A program can be simple, involving quick conversations to identify user insights or more in depth involving fully moderated user testing. Once I’ve determined the best approach, I put together a schedule, user screener, outline questions and begin working toward recruiting the right audience.

Simplifying Findings: Scorecards, and References

After each session, I translate findings into actionable tasks that can be prioritized. I also break things down into scorecards or session quotes for stakeholders and other team members. These are simple to review and present, allowing for high level insights to be easily communicated. This also lets decisions be made more quickly and creates metrics for identifying progress as more research is done.

Socializing Change

Why We Do The Things We do

Gathering feedback from users and making improvements is an ongoing process. By building walkthroughs of where the product was, how we plan to improve and the updates we’ve already made, anyone in the company can better understand the benefits of the work being done and why. Team members are able to view these at any time and the simple navigation eliminates the need for deep product understanding so anyone in the company can see how the product is progressing. The light-hearted nature of the presentation and narratives keeps the tone entertaining, drawing return visits and requests for new content.

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My Logo

Inspiration from the "Real World"

Growing up with the same name as a famous “block head” Peanuts character can have it’s drawbacks, but being named Charles Wesley Brown II, after my Grandfather, I quickly learned there was fun to be had. Not only was I able to get in a few jokes, but as people discovered my name was "Charlie Brown", I learned it was memorable. I embraced the concept and designed my logo as a twist on the iconic Charlie Brown shirt.

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