Oracle HR
• 5 min read
ROLE
UX Lead
UI Development
COMPANY
Codestream
Oracle JAPAC Human Resources and Systems Support Division wanted to provide employees with focused career paths, relevant to their current role. Collaborating with the Oracle team, we developed a bespoke Content Management System (CMS) that is presently being rolled out globally.
Our team joined the project shortly after Oracle had produced an internal prototype using Wix. Initially, we were required to expand upon this prototype using their Digital Brand Guidelines and develop the web application. However, before we could progress with the implementation, we acknowledged that the full team needed a greater understanding of both the problem and project goals.
In order to gain more empathy for the users and the business problem, we used a series of short workshops and key stakeholder interviews. We defined a Problem Statement to guide the conversation and prioritised ideas for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
Through these early interactions, we were able to determine a greater shared understanding of the project motivations. After outlining our assumptions, we were able to use this understanding to guide the UX and keep in mind the desired outcome of increasing internal applications.
With clearer picture of the outcomes, we turned our attention back to initial the internal prototype.
Lesson 1.
You can determine many high level usability problems even without the final users of a product.
So far, the prototype had only been reviewed by members on the immediate project team. We needed a fast way to highlight usability issues but our immediate access to users from the Systems Support Division was limited.
The team decided to use Lean User Testing methods and review the prototype against heuristics and domain relevant practices. We shared the findings of the exercise in the format of a UX Review. Structuring the results around gaps and opportunities helped the team focus on the project goals and created an open atmosphere where everyone felt they could discuss the risk in the current design.
Lesson 2.
Remember, you can always be creative with Technology challenges too.
The UX Review helped the team collectively decide that the content was compelling but the Design needed to be simplified. The Information Architecture needed to better match to the users mental model and the navigation needed to be more intuitive. We used Axure prototypes to test the Design changes and iterated the flow and Architecture based on user and business feedback.
Lesson 3.
The availability and readiness of a Design System directly affects your time to MVP.
After the Architecture was finalised, we had to move directly into Development. I worked with the team creating the User Interface directly in code using the wireframes. We focused on developing a distinctive interface with interactions and visuals that reflected the concept of a journey.
The experience of designing with code, underlined the importance of having a Design System that is accessible to all teams. The Brand Guidelines provided the core Design principles but not the code of the final components. This meant that everything had to be built from scratch. If the building blocks of the interface were readily available, the wireframes could of been converted to a basic prototype much more efficiently.
The MVP proved to be a success and Oracle are now rolling out an extended system globally. The timeline forced our team to be creative with both processes and technology.
Adopting lean practices wherever possible was effective but there should have been greater emphasis on our understanding of the users and defining measurable outcomes.
WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY?