Workday

A cloud-based system that supports hiring, payroll, planning and financials. It’s the backbone of many Fortune 500 companies. It manages high volumes of data with complex security models for large international companies.

Discovery Boards

A data viz dashboard platform. It lets HR Analysts explore data by making drag-and-drop custom charts with powerful drill features.

Discovery Boards was the only product, out of approximately 30, featured in the Workday Super Bowl Ad.

My Role

  • Lead Product Designer

  • UX Researcher

  • Visual Information Architect

  • Involvement in almost every feature and strategy as the product evolved over 6 years

Case Study 1: Exposing Filters

Chart viewers wanted to be more self-reliant in filtering the data on their dashboard, but not overwhelmed with technical settings navigated by Chart Creators. Chart Creators want to expose only select filters to Chart Viewers Chart Creators without having to make multiple tailor-made charts for each department. Creators and Viewers have different security privileges. Thinking through the override logic and when to fire the query is important as The Chart Creators will have 2 sets of filters that can update their charts.

Before

Chart Creators want to expose only select filters on the left to Chart Viewers.

After

Chart Creator can control both filters and controls. Both elements update the charts with intelligent overrides. The Chart Viewer get a Controls panel scoped to what they are allowed to change.

Requirements

  • Multiple input filters

  • Static and Dynamic data types

  • No engineering budget to create new UI elements

  • Timing a heavy query

  • At no point can the charts be inaccurate to either the creator or the viewer

  • Logical overrides

  • Chart creator might have different security privileges than the ultimate chart viewer

Outcome

  • The product was successful. Chart Creators could make a board once instead of custom boards for each department.

  • Customers requesting the feature were able to figure it out, and it increased sharing.

  • Kept Engineering budget low by cobbling together existing UI elements in a logical way

Iterations

Reviewed in presentation. This project is intended to demonstrate creative problem solving on a tight budget.

Case Study 2 : Internationalization

Translating an information-dense dashboard to capture the Canadian, European, and Asian markets. Additional accessibility requirements meant designing for human and non-human readers. Automated translation could only go so far. That meant working with both a human and non-human agent to design a multi-cultural experience.

Global corporations needed static strings and user generated data, in multiple languages.

Requirements

  • Designing with Automated tools to keep Engineering budget low

  • Meet government and cultural standards

  • Automated and human translation incorporated into the design process

  • Accommodate pixel level readability challenges

  • User-generated data in multiple languages blended with automated data

  • Accessibility : Human and non-human readers

Jumbled Buttons

Before

Buttons cluttered by some languages but not others. Triggered a debate on their significance in the user flow.

After

Outcome

  • Meet government and cultural standards

  • Eliminated interface redundancy

  • Balanced multiple levels of automatic translation from both Workday and browser

  • Translated both static strings and user generated data

  • Mixed languages displayed in dashboards and charts

  • Japanese was challenging because of character density and widow characters. French was challenging because of long the words and no engineering budget to intelligently break the words down in a way that was grammatically correct.

Menu Redesign

Iterations

Before

Menu needed to be redesigned with a new approach to iconography. Ultimately, a more standardized look and focused workspace.

After

Reviewed in presentation. Menu and toggle explorations using automated tools and human translation.