NEOLOGY
Product Design of Core Workflow
My Role
Project Lead / Senior UX Designer in a team of three
Client Team
VP and Engineering team
Duration
4 Months (Oct 2023 - Feb 2024)
Scope
Fixed Fee. Activities included discovery workshop, UX audit, user journey map, wireframes, visual concepts, visual design, prototype.
The Big Win
My team’s designs helped Neology win the largest contract in State Road and Tollway Authority’s history, which was running the toll roads in Georgia.
Neology runs the technology and services for major toll roads.
The Interesting Bits…
Discovery exercises helped the project run smoothly
The discovery workshop allowed us to dig deeper into the project’s needs, get a live demo of the existing UI, and smooth out proto-personas, user motivations, needs, and pain points. The client shared detailed text documents outlining requirements. Our user journey connected the documents and the fragments of the flow that existed in the current UI. Through this process, we identified that there was a high user turnover so minimal training was essential. This gave us the insight that we needed to avoid layered complexity, as there were no long-term power users.
My wireframes helped the client flesh out the story they wanted to tell
The project scope included designing four key wireframes. Our teams worked together to identify which screens were high priority.
My client had an aha moment once he saw the first wireframe, It helped him articulate more specific directions like what was missing, what needed to be reworked or removed, and how content should be visually prioritized. I got to work on the iteration based on his feedback.
My decision to add in a quick concepting round helped give them an edge in the Georgia bid
When the scope of work was created, we were under the assumption branded designs were in place, however, we found that the current UI was vastly under designed. I felt it necessary to squeeze in a quick concepting round to make the UI look professional, polished, and trustworthy. I knew my partner and I could efficiently to get the job done.
To save time, my design partner and I had a quick huddle to recall adjectives that were used in meetings by the client and how we could translate them into visual design. We created three different concepts that we presented in one of our standing meetings. The client was happy with our approaches and decided on one to use as the basis for our designs.
Efficient processes and quick decisions led to adding to more key screens to visual design
Because my team worked efficiently and our client was decisive, we were able to squeeze in designing two more key pages. The screens that were chosen were complicated and often overlooked by their competitors. Our client was happy to have fresh designs for them because it gave them even more of an edge in their bid.
One of the major challenges I faced during visual design was making long name strands fit into tables and cards without truncation. My team also had to expand the color palette to accommodate for all the status options in the calendar.
A professional prototype makes a complex story easy to tell
Prototypes can be tricky because there are usually 1px jumps that really stand out and the path forward needs to be clear to the person clicking through in a presentation. I combed through the prototype several times and corrected each jump or misalignment that surfaced. I put a cursor hand to help the client navigate the prototype and turned on the clickable highlight. Seeing hover states and hidden menus in action helped tell the full story of the product design.
I always create components and templates whether or not a design system is scoped
We weren’t scoped to create a full design system but since we had created some new patterns, I felt it was important to capture them. My team created components of patterns that we created, like buttons and cards, so that our client could build off of it in the future.
A professional prototype makes a complex story easy to tell
Prototypes can be tricky because there are usually 1px jumps that really stand out and the path forward needs to be clear to the person clicking through in a presentation. I combed through the prototype several times and corrected each jump or misalignment that surfaced. I put a cursor hand to help the client navigate the prototype and turned on the clickable highlight. Seeing hover states and hidden menus in action helped tell the full story of the product design.
Neology wins the largest integration contract in Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority’s history
My team created user friendly, professional looking designs that made collecting and sifting through data a breeze. Clearly, the state of Georgia agreed.
A Real Client Quote
We won the (significant) client project in Georgia - SRTA (State Road & Tolling Authority). I want to let your team know that the elements we worked out with them were scored very highly and elicited positive comments from the client's scoring and technical committees.
John M. - Neology
Want to know more?
Contact me at linwincreative@gmail.com