Using UX to unearth a design system for modular software
Ocuco - 2019
The context:
Ocuco is a multi-national software company that specialise in Optical practice software. With a portfolio of software products resulting from 20 years of R&D and many corporate acquisitions, Ocuco wanted to consolidate their efforts into the design and development of its next-generation flagship solution suite - called Acuitas or A3 for short.
The challenge was to redesign this product suite, starting with the retail practice product.
The process:
Based on a previously agreed scope, I was to start defining a design system that would be used to build out the rest of the designs. The goal was the design system.
I fundamentally disagreed with that approach, since this was not a simple UI refresh where the flows and journeys were known. This was a complete redesign and we had to start from scratch. But it was tricky to publicly contradict my company.
So I suggested that we plot the use journeys for one task, and see what design elements emerged - and then repeat. Using iterative design sprints, we managed to break down this very large problem into smaller pieces and gained some velocity with design output.
The results:
The obvious outputs were the extensive set of mockups produced, alongside multiple prototypes and a pretty comprehensive design system which represented an entirely new user experience.
However, this was more of a consulting challenge than anything else and the main achievement was teaching the (internal) team of product owners how to design with the user in mind. Even after handover, this process continued.
My Contribution
I was the lead designer of this project and the sole designer for the most part. I did both the UX and UI design - sometimes in one go, which is not something I’d like to do again, but needs must.
Later in the project, I was helped by another UX/UI designer and that presented it’s own set of challenges - e.g. maintaining consistency across features.
I implemented a design system (as it emerged) and made sure that our components were shared. I did design reviews and owned the design direction and strategy.
What I enjoyed:
A completely different challenge from anything I’d ever done. Enterprise design is not at all the same as B2C. I eventually wrote about this.
A lot more interaction design than I’d done for a while, and pushing for space-saving, clever design tricks.
Learning about an industry and its challenges - listening is often more valuable than speaking.
Where I struggled:
Doing UX without users or user research available. Very hard to validate without that sort of input.
Doing UX as well as UI design together often meant that the quality of one was sub-par (handling all aspects of design under strict timelines with a huge scope is very hard)
Stakeholders not always being available, and decision-making all resting with one person.
It was bittersweet - but having to do the UI design was a struggle because it wasn’t my strength, but I’ve since gotten much better at it and I can credit this project for that.
Tools I used:
Workshops & facilitation
User journeys
Wireframes
Prototypes
UI Design
Design System