B2B Product | Data Visualization

Redesigning PepsiCo's Waste Management Tool to provide stakeholders with prioritized, efficient insights

Project Type

Contract

Duration

4 months

Team

4 UX Designers

2 UX Researchers

My Role

UX Designer + Visual Designer

PROJECT OVERVIEW

THE CHALLENGE

Inefficient Retrieval of Important Insights

PepsiCo's E2E Waste Diagnostic Tool offers crucial insights into waste management performance across the value chain, addressing varied departmental needs and KPIs. However, users face obstacles in accessing key insights due to issues like information overload, inconsistent hierarchy, and insufficient interactivity.

THE SOLUTION

Enhancing the Efficiency and Usability

We focused on redesigning 4 key data tabs to optimize the efficiency and usability of the tool by streamlining the user flow, creating diversified data visualizations, and implementing intuitive interaction designs.

Brand Detail

*The data used in the prototypes does not represent actual data and is for illustrative purposes only

THE RESULTS

65%

Improved in data extraction efficiency

Before

After

Benchmarking View

Before

After

Value Chain Detail

Before

Value Chain Summary

After

Before

After

30%

Reduced in unnecessary user actions

95%

Achieved in user satisfaction rate

THE PROCESS

Let's dive into the process!

BACKGROUND

Why do we need to redesign?

What are the high-level goals?

*current design (Important data was hidden for confidentiality)

PepsiCo's E2E Waste Diagnostic Tool is currently being used by multiple departments to gain valuable insights into waste performance throughout the entire value chain.

However, users are experiencing inefficiencies due to excessive time spent navigating and drilling down to access relevant insights.

🎯 Enhance the efficiency of the insights retrieval process

🎯 Improve the overall visual design and user experience

🎯 Foster increased user engagement and satisfaction

RESEARCH

THE METHODS

Given the limited access to the platform and database, how do we choose research methods to help us better understand the functionalities and identify any potential issues?

RESEARCH PROCESS

01. Heuristic Evaluation

What are the issues in the current interface design?

✦ Insights: Based on the heuristic evaluation, we found that the current design was overwhelmed by a large amount of data and lacked visual consistency.

02. User Interviews

What are the users’ opinions?

Research Goal: Obtain valuable insights into users' opinions regarding the tool, identify their specific needs, and uncover any pain points they may have encountered

Participants: 10 Business owners from different sectors/divisions in PBNA

03. Walkthrough Observations

How do users interact with the platform?

✦ Observations:

01. Repeated steps and excessive clicks to accomplish their tasks

02. Large amount of irrelevant data often distracts users

RESEARCH SYNTHESIS

Summarize research findings with persona and user journey map

◈ CHALLENGE #01

With the platform being used by multiple departments, how can we identify the primary users?

Despite being utilized by multiple departments, we finally identified two primary user types based on their distinct needs, goals, and interactions with the tool.

✦ Key Insights from Research

Persona #01

Focusing on general waste performance

These users are interested in the overall waste performance, trends on a monthly/yearly basis, and comparisons between markets, brands, and divisions.

Persona #02

Focusing on detailed waste information

This user group utilizes the tool on a weekly basis and requires access to detailed waste metrics across the value chain.

◈ CHALLENGE #02

While the user KPIs may vary, what is the typical user journey when interacting with the platform?

Based on the findings from interviews and walkthrough observations, we created a user journey map to help us synthesize the collected information and gain a comprehensive understanding of the steps and actions required to extract key insights, allowing us to identify potential opportunities for redesign.

Insight #2

Confusing Hierarchy and User Flow

Users expressed dissatisfaction with the tool's unclear information hierarchy and user flow, resulting in a time-consuming navigation process and difficulties in locating specific data.

Insight #1

Information Overload

Users frequently encountered a significant amount of irrelevant data while using the tool. The overwhelming data on the interface often diverted their attention and hindered their ability to focus on their intended directions and goals.

Insight #3

Limited Visualizations and Interaction

Users expressed frustration with the limited visualizations and interaction options within the tool. This limitation made it challenging for them to grasp the scale of waste and actively engage with the interface.

DEFINE

THE PROBLEMS

Problem #1

Information overload makes it difficult for users to focus on their intended directions and goals

DESIGN OBJECTIVES

Problem #2

Confusing hierarchy and user flow lead to excessive time navigating and locating data

Problem #3

Limited visualizations and interaction prevent users from gaining an intuitive understanding

We identified 3 major problems based on the user research insights and established clear design objectives & HMW Questions for each problem to provide guidance for the redesign process.

PROJECT SCOPE

Define the project scope by considering the constraints and priority

Evaluation of Urgency: To determine the urgency of the redesign, we assessed the user research findings, focusing on factors such as the frequency of usage and the severity of problems.

Evaluation of Feasibility: We also considered the feasibility based on constraints, including time limitations and our estimated capabilities.

◈ CHALLENGE #03

Faced with all these constraints, how can we determine which part of the platform should be prioritized for redesign?

Priority Analysis: Feasibility vs. Urgency

IDEATE

IDEA GENERATION

Visualize potential redesign solutions with sketches

With 3 major problems in our minds, we conducted brainstorming sessions to generate redesign ideas. We also sketched some data visualization ideas to illustrate our concepts for further exploration.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

Revamp information architecture to ensure an organized layout

We created an information architecture to determine the inclusion of information in each tab and employed low-fi wireframes to visualize the overall structure, ensuring a clear and organized interface

USER FLOW

Redesign the user flow to streamline user experience

We revamped the user flow for each tab, reimagining how users will interact with the interface to efficiently retrieve insights in a streamlined manner

DESIGN & TEST

MID-FI EXPLORATIONS

3 rounds of design explorations and weekly feedback sessions

We spent 4 weeks exploring various layouts, visualizations, and styles based on the information architecture and user flow. To ensure we were on the right track, we engaged in weekly feedback sessions with our users to gather their valuable input. We then proceeded with three rounds of iterations based on their feedback to refine our design.

USABILITY TESTING

Evaluate the prototype with users and gather suggestions for further refinements

Before designing the Hi-fi prototype, we conducted usability testing with 3 primary users to evaluate the prototype and identify any usability issues that require further improvements

Methodology: Task Completion, Think-Aloud, Interviews

Metrics: Task Completion Time, Number of Clicks, Satisfaction Rate

KEY ITERATIONS

Improve the design based on the feedback from usability testing

DESIGN SYSTEM

Establish a design system to ensure visual consistency across all pages

To ensure a consistent visual style and improve the efficiency of designing hi-fi prototypes, I have developed a design system for my team. In creating this system, I have taken into account PepsiCo's brand identity and visual accessibility guidelines.

HI-FI PROTOTYPE

Finalize the design solutions and the interactions

To simulate real user scenarios, we have designed hi-fi prototypes that incorporate intuitive interaction designs (The data used in the hi-fi prototypes is not actual data and is for illustrative purposes only).

Brand Detail

Before

Problems

01. Lack of descriptive and insightful comparison across brands

02. Similar bar charts take up spaces; require vertical scrolling

03. Too many columns and numerical data

After

Key Improvements

01. Streamlined User Flow

Reorganized the order of information presentation to enhance efficiency and clarity, ensuring a smoother user experience.

02. Diversified Visualizations

Used various visualizations to illustrate the brand performance and enable direct brand comparisons, ensuring comprehensive data understanding. Color highlighting emphasizes important information and notable changes, facilitating efficient insights extraction.

03. Reduced Data Display

Minimized information overload by reducing data on the interface. Instead, we implemented interactive designs for users to access detailed information directly from the graphs, resulting in a focused and interactive experience.

Benchmarking View

Before

Problems

01. Difficult to find important data in the spreadsheet

02. Difficult to make comparisons and understand the waste scale

After

Key Improvements

01. Intuitive Visualization

Designed visualizations that represent the scale of waste in different divisions, enabling intuitive comparisons.

02. Interactive Pie Chart

Implemented interactive functionality in the pie chart, allowing users to click on each division to access detailed data.

03. Collapsible Forms

Incorporated collapsible forms to reduce distractions by hiding unnecessary data, enhancing the overall user experience.

Value Chain Detail

Before

Problems

01. Similar visualizations take up spaces

02. Visualizations are crowded and too small to read

03. Too much data without highlighting the important ones

After

Key Improvements

01. Consolidated Interface

Merged similar visualizations and added a toggle feature for waste sectors, reducing information overload on the screen.

02. Intuitive Visualization

Employed intuitive visualizations to compare waste across the value chain between the previous year and the current year.

03. Enhanced Interaction

Integrated the bar chart and form, allowing for seamless interaction, and incorporated hover effects for quick access to detailed data.

Value Chain Summary

Before

Problems

01. The Information hierarchy is chaotic

02. Difficult to understand how significant they are & compare to other markets

03. Does not show how each market contribute to the waste

After

Key Improvements

01. Reorganized Information Architecture

Redesigned the information layout, grouping relevant sections together to improve the interface's scannability and overall user experience.

02. Diversified Visualizations

Incorporated a wide range of visualizations, including bar charts, line charts, and waterfall charts, to effectively showcase the scale of waste changes.

03. Intuitive Interaction

Implemented intuitive interaction designs that allow users to gain a comprehensive understanding of each market's contribution to waste in the entire value chain.

IMPACT

How do we measure the success of our design?

After completing the hi-fi prototype, we conducted a second round of user testing to evaluate our final solution using multiple success metrics.

Improved data extraction efficiency by 65%

By measuring task completion time, we discovered that users spent 65% less time retrieving important insights.

Reduced total user clicks by 30%

By analyzing the number of clicks, we observed a 30% reduction in user clicks while navigating through the tool.

Achieved a 95% user satisfaction rate

Users expressed high levels of satisfaction with the diversified data visualizations and intuitive interaction design.

NEXT STEPS

What are our plans for future improvements?

We have also developed plans to further improve the tool, focusing on exploring the capabilities of Power BI, enabling customization for each department, revising educational content for effective onboarding, and highlighting the tool's capabilities to attract a wider user base.

REFLECTION

01. Designing a Data-Heavy Platform

To address the complexities of the data-heavy platform and our team's limited experience with business intelligence systems, we adopted a proactive approach. We engaged in frequent communication with clients and users to gain a clear understanding of the tool's functionality, capabilities, and specific needs and use cases.

02. Addressing Diversified User Needs

To accommodate diverse user needs across multiple departments, we condensed them into two personas to gain a comprehensive understanding of their goals, motivations, and behaviors. Through user journey mapping techniques, we simulated their interactions with the platform, identifying pain points and redesign opportunities.

03. Working with Limited Time and Resources

Despite limited access to the database, we employed alternative methods to understand the tool's functionality. This included heuristic analysis, user interviews, walkthroughs, and testing. Considering time constraints, we conducted feasibility analysis and prioritized the redesign scope to ensure timely delivery of a high-resolution design.

Thank you for reading :)