Layla jo
The Universal Calendar is a unified calendar displaying all scheduled posts across various platforms, designed to reduce the number of clicks needed to schedule content and create a more network-agnostic and user-friendly workflow.
See ProcessResearch prototypeMVP Slide DeckGo to articleToday, our clients face a cumbersome navigation process, requiring multiple clicks to access their social media calendar. Simplifying this workflow is a priority, with clients expressing a desire for a single calendar overview of their scheduled posts. Additionally, there's an opportunity to streamline the scheduling process across multiple networks by adopting a more network-agnostic approach, reducing the number of clicks involved.
The new Scheduler page in the Social area of the dashboard introduces a calendar displaying timeline, week, and month views for all scheduled posts across networks, allowing clients to adjust dates and set the first day of the week while providing clear indication of the associated network for each post.
1. Funtionality and Features
2. Enhanced User Experience and Workflow
Achieved 90% retention in week one, 60% in week two, and 44% by week four. Clients report an increase in weekly active and monthly active visitor numbers.
50% of clients with scheduled content have adopted the new universal calendar page.
Noted a 10% increase in clients scheduling content to two or more networks.
Before we start designing, we thought it was important to understand how our main persona, Bucky (a marketing manager), currently works and what his expectations would be if he were to use our solution. With an emphasis on developing this feature from the ground up, this is also a chance for us to explore how we can better serve Bucky's post-scheduling experience. This way, we can not only be on an even playing field with our competitors but also further differentiate ourselves from them.
1. Posting/ Scheduling behavior varies among users
2. Preview allows users to review, collaborate, and work more efficiently
3. Users are editing scheduled posts for
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Since we will work on Universal Scheduling in the future, we wanted to consider both projects since they're related to each other. We wanted to put ourselves in our users' shoes to understand what they want to see and have their questions answered. We also referred to the user interviews above to categorize users' expectations and goals when interacting with our product.
During user interviews, we learned that users typically collaborate with creative teams (graphic designers) to generate campaign ideas. Therefore, we decided to start the user workflow from that point. And also, many clients mentioned that their content approval process begins early. Based on this information, we designed the user flow to start from 'Generate or receive campaign ideas' to 'Publish post.' We also mapped out many potential questions along with possible interactions users might have with the product. This helped us identify the steps users take to accomplish specific tasks, pinpoint redundant steps, and potentially streamline processes.
We researched direct and indirect competitors and conducted interviews with internal proxies who use similar products. We compiled all the screenshots and discussed which features were interesting. This competitor analysis helped us understand market trends, identify strengths and weaknesses, uncover opportunities, and avoid pitfalls. By benchmarking against competitors, we could tailor our product to meet user expectations better and inform strategic decisions about feature prioritization.
I was tasked with designing post details, which will potentially include a post caption description, post type, profile, and CTA buttons along with a preview. As you can see from the user interviews, the majority of users wanted to see the preview to save workflow time. I explored different orientation variations, from a pop-up modal to a slide-in pop-up. I discussed these options with a PM and other designers during a design critique and also shared them with developers to assess feasibility. We decided to go with the pop-up modal, as other interactions might be better solutions for the future.
A senior designer and I then worked on week and month view design explorations. We explored the drag-and-drop functionality—should it snap in 30-minute increments or in hour-long slots? When a user wants to drag an item to the next month, should they drag it to the bottom or to the right? We had many questions during the design process. We decided to test these options during the design validation research later.
While exploring design options, I decided to create different components to enable scalability and increase efficiency by reusing pre-made components. Since we have many different statuses (posted, scheduled, failed, and so on) and various social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and so on), I wanted to quickly create easily updatable components. Later, these components were used by other designers and team members, saving a lot of time when building interactive prototypes.
We collaborated with a researcher to work on 6 different tasks to validate the use cases of using the Universal Calendar:
We conducted design validation research with 5 clients. The purpose of the research was to collect user-centric insights to create a better user experience and reduce the risk of building a product that does not meet user needs or expectations. Our main goals were to identify any usability issues and assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the designs we created.
Overall feedback was positive from five clients, and we aimed to prioritize key findings into different categories: high, medium, and low priority. When a researcher presented to a larger group, we discussed which actions we wanted to take immediately and which could be delayed to a later date. Additionally, we validated various other design insights, such as drag-and-drop behaviors, expectations regarding drafts, and other UI feedback.
"There's a lot that goes into one post and I just like being able to see it all from a bird's eye point of view." - Client A
"I think this is a super useful tool. I would love to stop using other calendar programs.I just have a lot of things in a lot of different places. So I have a space where I'm scheduling content, another where I'm reviewing all of my numbers, and so on. Having all of that in one Program is just a really nice concept." - Client B
"Layla is a wonderful UX Designer. Throughout our collaboration on various projects at Bazaarvoice in the social commerce space, I've consistently appreciated her ability to create visually stunning and user-friendly experiences. What sets Layla apart is the positive energy she brings to our work environment, making collaboration feel effortless and enjoyable.
Layla has a user-first approach, ensuring that designs resonate with our personas. Our brainstorming sessions were always dynamic, filled with enthusiasm and innovative ideas.Working with Layla has been a pleasure, and her impact on our projects is evident in the seamless blend of user enjoyment and functionality in her designs. She's a valuable asset to any team, and I look forward to future collaborations with her."
"Layla is a phenomenal teammate and a talented designer. Her background in graphic design shows through her product design work, resulting in visually stunning and intuitive experiences. Having worked alongside her on multiple projects, I was continually impressed by the level of care and attention she puts into her work. She would make a fantastic addition to any team."
1. Better use of Figma auto-layout and components
While working on auto-layout and components for a project involving five different social media platforms, I encountered challenges due to the extensive use of these tools. I would like to enhance my skills in auto-layout and component usage for future projects, utilizing better coordination with engineers and team members, and saving time.
2. Handling multiple projects
While working on this project, I simultaneously managed several other smaller projects. Struggling to balance multiple tasks, I resorted to taking numerous screenshots to promptly communicate my ideas. Despite the challenges, I successfully managed all projects by consistently and efficiently sharing my ideas with team members throughout the process.