UX/UI Design | Research | User Interviews | Web | Mentor
Dugout Platform
Overview
Background
Dugout was a project I had worked on mentoring apprentice software engineers, the platform is to support customer onboarding and customer service issues get solved fast to improve their experience. This was an exciting opportunity to relearn UI/UX principles with the eager students. The web app was an opportunity to mentor and maintain a good relationship with engineers to keep the collaboration mindset healthy through their whole career.
The goals:
Successfully launch a web app in 6 months to support the onboarding and bloated user triaging of issues
Improve the customer ticketing resolution time
Onboard users in bulk
Allow for broad and granular dashboards to get overviews of users, teams and organizations.
Insights from users
The user demographic were the internal customer support team, so we could really get valuable information easily with them and involved them heavily. We discussed the multiple use cases that helped shape the web app.
Key improvements identified to enhance the user experience included:
Uploading mass user information would significantly reduce account setup time.
Generating reports and meaningful statistics would help strengthen relationships with client organisations.
Reporting user onboarding statistics provided visibility and accountability
Identifying and resolving minor app issues internally before escalating to developers would save time and improve efficiency.
Early detection of app-related issues enabled proactive resolution, enhancing the platform’s reliability.
Research
The research phase provided a valuable opportunity to mentor the apprentices in product design fundamentals. We began with discovery workshops involving the customer support team, gathering insights into their workflows, pain points, and goals. These sessions highlighted inefficiencies, such as manual user data entry and a lack of tools for troubleshooting. These insights guided us in prioritising features like bulk onboarding, accountability tools, and dashboards for both granular and high-level views.
To build the foundation of the platform, we conducted competitive analysis and explored layout options through low-fidelity mockups and moodboards. The apprentices participated actively in brainstorming sessions and wireframing exercises, gaining hands-on experience in translating user feedback into actionable designs. We selected the MUI component library for its simplicity and used Figma to collaboratively create a clean, consistent, and accessible design system.
User testing was an essential step in refining the platform. The customer support team provided iterative feedback on prototypes, ensuring the solution was both user-friendly and aligned with their needs. This collaborative, hands-on process not only ensured the success of the final product but also equipped the apprentices with the skills to design user-centric solutions in their future careers.
Final Design
The Dugout web app launched successfully in early 2023, delivering significant improvements in customer onboarding and issue resolution processes. Key outcomes included:
- Faster customer ticket resolution times.
- Streamlined onboarding for large user groups.
- Improved visibility into user and team performance through intuitive dashboards.
- Enhanced efficiency in troubleshooting and resolving minor app-related issues internally.
This platform revolutionised the customer success team’s capabilities, allowing them to support more users without requiring additional staff.
The project also provided apprentices with invaluable hands-on experience, equipping them with the tools and skills to create user-centric products in their future careers.
