NCR Voyix has three major lines of business: banking, hospitality, and retail. During my time there, I was apart of the retail team that handled customer relationship, inventory management, and omnichannel commerce platforms.
I was in change of designing a new user interface for inventory management system for warehouse managers in retail. To access all the information for warehouse managers, however, I took on a side quest and created a comprehensive database that connects research, clients, and companies to streamline the design workflow by providing swift access to project data.
UI/UX Designer
Kate Womick (Manager), Berri Berto, Ava Lamb
4 months
Figma, Figjam, Airtable
I fell victim to a remix version of the Dunning-Kruger effect, where I was sitting on Mount Stupid thinking that it would be a smooth journey to improve a UI design for warehouse managers.
In reality, my main quest of improving the UI would be interrupted by a long side quest to develop a central research database due to the messy chain of information.
I aggregated data from various sources—Figjam boards, Figma drafts, Microsoft Sharepoint files—while interviewing multiple staffs at NCR Voyix to fill in missing information and maintain a current, credible database.
After merging with the research repository containing all of our past projects, I used the newly built database to enhance my rationale when designing the new user interface for a warehouse inventory management software.
To design and improve upon products, the team needed information on prior research, customer contact, and company information. However, all this information was scattered between various people's personal documents to outdated repositories.
The lack of centralized system led to significant challenges in accessing project data, particularly related to past collaborations with major clients. This hindered the research and design team's productivity as valuable time was lost in search for relevant information and insights.
The initial ecosystem was chaotic—an array of disjointed files scattered across various platforms. Figjam boards lacked links to crucial interview insights from a project months prior. Personal Figma drafts were absent from the NCR library. Microsoft Sharepoint files led to inaccessible personal accounts, while presentations for different workshops were scattered throughout the NCR ecosystem, unconsolidated within outdated databases.
To kick off the research process, I co-hosted a workshop with Janie Pan to identify what the researchers and designers needed out of a centralized system. The goal was to identify the current needs and gaps to provide more relevant information for the team in the future.
To kick off the research process, I co-hosted a workshop with Janie Pan to identify what the researchers and designers needed out of a centralized system. The goal was to identify the current needs and gaps to provide more relevant information for the team in the future.
People wanted to use something familiar with a low learning curve for new users, so I started by comparing pre-existing software and systems that the team was already familiar with.
Airtable allowed for the greatest customizability and collaboration while maintaining the amount of information needed from each research project. It hit most of the checkboxes that the team needed as it was already a tool that was integrated into their workflow and it can link all the information they needed together.
However, one issue I had to tackle was how to make Airtable new-user-friendly, which impacts the governance-ability of the database.
I proposed a few countermeasures: Airtable forms Training/documentation Microsoft Excel Microsoft Loop Notion New database And through testing, it seemed that the simplest solution was the team's preference: forms and documentation.
With this, the central database was developed, and I was able to continue onto the main quest of designing a new inventory management interface for warehouse managers.
At the end of the summer, every intern has the opportunity to present their project to all employees, and one delight was the look on my team members' faces when they ask whether the product is live. A thumbs up and a successful summer in my book.
While I did take a long detour to design the new management system, I learned and improved on various invaluable skills such as information architecture and system governance. I would also like to thank Berri Berto and Ava Lamb for guiding me around the complex system known as “Let me ask Jen.” While there is still information that is missing from the database, it gives people a good idea of what is validated and what needs further validation.