Otrafy is an AI-powered management software that ensures supplier compliance using risk management principles. Companies who buy food products can connect with supplier companies to exchange and request information on a platform that keeps everything organized and easily accessible. I worked with the company's COO and a few other designers to redesign how Otrafy users communicate with each other.
UX Research
Product Design
Branding
Web UX/UI
User flows
Myself
Rachel Tseng, Designer
Adithya Krishnachand, Designer
Lucas Cunha, COO and Co-Founder
Figma
Adobe Indesign
1 month
March 2022
Otrafy's platform is comprised of user-to-user account connections. Once a supplier accepts a buyer’s connection request, they can start to communicate with each other to request products and inventory information. Otrafy’s former system was allowing multiple errors in communication that would lead to supplier confusion and radio silence.
Using the most common customer complaints as a starting point, my team and I used evaluative research methods to conduct analyses of the problematic email designs while using the platform’s jobs to be done to identify pain points -this—led to a complete redesign of the system’s email.
Our point of contact at Otrafy was able to provide the most common complaints they were getting about the suppliers' experiences with the platform. By using these pain points as an introduction to the problem, we got a better understanding of how Otrafy works, and how users feel.
With a simple heuristic evaluation, where I pick 3 out of the 10 defined by the Nielsen Norman group, I was able to find roadblocks in how emails were being sent, and the confusion caused by the visual design. I analyzed the aesthetic and minimalist design, error prevention and recognize rather than recall heuristics.
A few more of the original email designs that Otrafy had been using.
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In our kickoff meeting, we were also provided with the current email logic that was created by Otrafy’s dev team. We took this information and mapped it out so we could see who was getting what email, and how they were getting them. This also allowed us to find the kinks in the system that may be holding users up.
Supplied email logic currently used by Otrafy that gave us an understanding of how Otrafy sends emails to it's users.
Our remade email logic of emails sent to suppliers only. Transferring the information from the provided spreadsheet to a visual map let my team understand the problem space better.
My team and I used the information we gathered to create some user flow maps to help visualize how suppliers were being affected by the current email process.
Different user flows used to map out how emails could better serve users.
Due to time constraints and at the request of the client, we used a few current use-case client scenarios to map out how emails were being sent. We found the current emails caused confusion and lacked the initiative to attract suppliers to the platform while bombarding the user with unnecessary emails.
An example of a new user receiving emails from a single buyer.
An existing user receiving multiple requests in separate emails.
A new user email flow with automated reminders included.
Distilling our research into actionable items helped us create thoughtful design decisions that would be directly correlated to our users. With these in mind, we were able to come up with a few How Might We statements to properly address this design challenge.
How might we statements created to complete the research phase and launch the design phase.
1.
How might we convey the value of connecting suppliers to buyers?
2.
How might we communicate pertinent information to suppliers to encourage them to act?
3.
How might we guide the supplier through Otrafy’s process?
By creating and using templates, we could save time as well as save the development team trouble when it came time for them to set up the deliverables.
A collage of my team's various sketches and early designs of emails.
In order to not limit creativity or efficiency, each team member came up with different ideas, we then compiled the best ideas from each team member. This gave us extensive results that would help suppliers know where they fit into Otrafy's system.
Being a fairly new tech startup, Otrafy did not have solidified branding guidelines. We took it upon ourselves to create a brief style guide that would help us create the designs, and help the company for future design decisions. Due to limited exisiting resources, I pulled certain information from the code of the platform.
The style guide we created and used specifically for the new email designs.
We fleshed out our sketch ideas and introduced our style guide to create a few first rounds of email template designs. We focused on three specific emails that we determined were most important when connecting users: the connection request, the daily digest and the welcome email.
The first round of email designs. (From left to right) A connection request, the daily digest and the welcome email that new users would receive.
These three types of emails completely revamped how suppliers get information from Otrafy. A connection request allows the supplier user to be made aware of future requests from a buyer user, the daily digest gives the supplier a list of outstanding actions, and the welcome email is sent to new supplier users.
Based on feedback from the Otrafy team, we adjusted some of the designs to cater more towards the supplier's needs.
A sample of before and after designs.
Welcome Email
Daily Digest
Connection Request
With the new designs in place, we were able to revisit the original jobs to be done and replace the old designs. The new designs convey the value of connections and accurately communicate where the supplier fits into Otrafy’s process.
This project proved to be a considerable challenge due to the extremely foggy initial request from the company. With tight time and resource constraints, I was able to help my team gather necessary information to find the problem, then create engaging, visually pleasing designs to create a better user experience.
I learned a lot about working with developers who don’t necessarily have a clear vision of what they want. Each day forced me to constantly evolve while sticking to the UX design process in a way that would work towards a solution.
Because this project was contained to a month, there was not an adequate amount of time to test and validate success. With that said, if more time was available, I would have liked to measure success through user testing, member metrics and traffic to the platform.
