Phased mobile app logic restructure and redesign

90%

Why

Both our iOS and Android apps previously utilised a design language that wasn’t based on either of the respective platform’s design systems, which proved restrictive for customers in terms of interaction. The apps faced technical scalability issues and problems with feature delivery. Moreover, some of our high-profile customers were at risk of churn. Essentially, both apps required a complete overhaul from both UX/UI and engineering perspectives.

How

This project was, in reality, an umbrella for high amount of smaller projects. We utilised an extensive range of quantitative data to inform our decisions; however, the unique business nature limited our ability to perform bigger qualitative user research.
The project took off with an effort I dubbed “The Year of Research,” aiming to shift our reputation from merely a feature factory. Alongside our new mobile Product Manager, we established data points, conducted interviews with key customers, and determined comprehensive timelines. Our initial sprint endowed us with nearly a full quarter’s worth of head start from the engineering department.
This was an intensely agile project anchored in UX principles, reflecting in the numerous UI iterations we underwent. The changes were not just superficial but involved deep alterations in UX and logic, leading to a radical transformation in the usage of the app. A prime example lies in the file panel – one of the key facets of the app. Piloting nearly 30 iterations on its fonts, colors, position, and more, we strived for perfection. While we could not dedicate exhaustive attention to every component, our ultimate vision was to develop the finest file management application in the market.

How it ended

Data is severely limited due to this being a project at previous company. Throughout the redesign process, we successfully prevented churn from several high-impact customers and introduced new functionalities, some of which decreased the time to value by 90%. Overall, the staged redesign was very well received.

Key learnings

1. When qualitative research is difficult to perform due to lack of users as they are mostly part of enterprise accounts that do not wish to be contacted, it’s still possible, only requiring specific and profiled targeting while building rapport with key customers. Showcasing potential gains from such research works well for imagination.
2. With complete redesign of multiple apps on multiple platforms you have two options: hide it until everything is done, essentially building new app while maintaining old one, and then release as one new big package, or stagger release with logical parts slowly updating everything. We went with the latter, and I believe better approach: while there are inconsistencies, the new direction gets better with every release as there’s very short feedback loop, where end result might be visibly different to vision shaped in the beginning.
3. Exciting users with vision ahead of release works wonders as they are never surprised by the change, which is especially important for enterprise users. Getting buy-in with presentations of vision led to not only increased trust, but also to much less complaints and support tickets upon actual release, as observed when comparing to releases without prior story-building.