Internal Metadata (Suzy, 2023)
Users relied heavily on tags to organize similarly named surveys, but this workaround became unmanageable as survey volume and complexity grew.
A phased approach, focused on scalable yet simple organizational tools, emerged as the ideal solution to improve usability and long-term effectiveness.
Impact
Folders and internal metadata have had measurable user benefits:
Folders adoption: Over 20% of users now utilize folders, streamlining project organization.
Description Field adoption: 47% of launched surveys now include an internal description, increasing user engagement and capturing critical project context that had previously been lost.
Search utilization reduced
These enhancements also achieved tangible business results:
Increased CSM efficiency: -XX% time needed to understand users’ credit usage
Internal NPS: ±47% of launched surveys now include an internal description, capturing critical project context that had previously been lost.
Scalable Framework: These changes lay a foundation for future functionalities like "Projects" and "Brand Trackers," which will enable users to group multiple surveys under a shared purpose.
This phased approach not only resolved existing usability pain points but also established a modular framework that can evolve to meet future user needs.
The Challenge
Unable to organize projects effectively, Suzy users faced challenges in maintaining workflow efficiency. This lack of structure made client retention and satisfaction a critical focus, as disorganization led to platform fatigue and potential reliance on competitor tools.
Budget and resource limitations meant that we had to work within current design patterns, leading to compromises such as modal-on-modal interactions instead of preferred inline editing options. This constraint shaped our design approach, requiring creative solutions to deliver high-impact functionality within a constrained environment.
The Solution
The solution introduced a “popover” component, strategically placed to educate users on new features. This component became a versatile asset in the design system, guiding users with contextual support without crowding the UI, thus fostering autonomy.
Our solution unfolded in three phases:
Action List Enhancements: Improved the core interface where users track all launched projects.
Folders Feature: Enabled visual grouping of projects, directly addressing user needs for simple, clear organization.
Internal Titling & Metadata: Introduced metadata tagging, allowing users to add custom identifiers to projects for easier future retrieval.
Strategy & Approach
The choice to implement Folders was data-driven, emerging from user insights and competitive analysis that highlighted "folders" as the most user-friendly method to address our organization problem. Internal metadata fields were added to allow users to store context, offering deeper project clarity.
We employed an iterative process grounded in user feedback. Following user interviews, we held workshops with empathy mapping and round-robin ideation sessions. These workshops deepened our understanding of users' organization challenges, and the insights directly shaped key elements of our phased approach.
As the lead UX/UI designer, I drove the project from research through to deployment. Working alongside the product manager, I led competitive analysis, coordinated stakeholder workshops, and orchestrated usability testing. My role required balancing user advocacy with technical feasibility, a negotiation I managed closely with front-end developers to optimize for both functionality and user experience.
Research & Key Insights
Key Findings That Informed Design:
User interviews confirmed that the lack of organizational tools led to workflow inefficiencies, with users relying heavily on tags due to repetitive survey titles. This discovery guided us to focus on project visibility as the primary design goal.
Unexpected Discoveries or “Aha” Moments:
During empathy mapping, it became clear that users weren’t just seeking organization—they wanted tools that adapted to their workflow rather than tools they had to adapt to. This insight cemented the phased approach, allowing users to gradually adopt new organizational structures without overhauling their existing processes.
Problem Statement:
Users on our platform struggled with efficient project organization, heavily relying on tags to differentiate between similarly named surveys. This workaround became unsustainable as user volume and survey complexity grew, impacting user experience and limiting platform effectiveness.
Key Insight:
Instead of simply adopting complex organization features seen in competitor tools, we realized that a phased approach—tailoring our features to support immediate and scalable organizational needs—would offer a balanced solution that prioritized usability and flexibility.
Next Steps
This project aimed to solve users’ project organization challenges on our platform, introducing features like Folders and Internal Metadata that offered a scalable, user-friendly solution to managing complex survey data. Our platform supports clients from SMBs to large enterprises, each with diverse organizational needs. The new features positioned our platform as an adaptable solution capable of scaling with users’ goals and needs.
Looking ahead, we plan to build on the folder and metadata structures to support “Projects” and “Brand Trackers,” allowing users to group related surveys for deeper insights. We’re also considering adding automation capabilities, helping users organize their projects based on customizable triggers, further enhancing platform efficiency.
