Alloy: A Unified Platform for Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance
Cordium, a leading provider of governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) solutions, embarked on an ambitious project to enhance their existing software offerings by merging two data-rich applications into a single unified platform. This endeavor, aptly named "Alloy," presented unique challenges and opportunities for the product design team.
Addressing Challenges
The Alloy project presented a unique set of challenges. Firstly, we needed to identify and eliminate redundancies between the two applications, ensuring a robust yet streamlined platform. Secondly, we had to meticulously design a clear and intuitive navigation structure that would guide users seamlessly through the vast array of functionalities. Finally, we had to navigate the delicate balance of large-scale redesigns, minimizing disruption and maintaining a consistent user experience.
Research
As Alloy progressed, it became apparent that the second application, while serving a similar user base, lacked the comprehensive user research conducted for the first application. To bridge this gap, we embarked on a series of user and stakeholder interviews, delving into the intricacies of their needs, pain points, and aspirations.
Stakeholder Take-aways
Cordium wanted to be perceived as a tech-forward company, not just a consulting company that happened to have software
Scalability needed to be a primary focus to account for large future features
User Take-aways
Overall, users felt the system was useful but clunky to use
A lack of search functionality made wading through large amounts of data very cumbersome
The filtering system was unorganized and not ideal causing users to reorganize their exports to have their needs met
The data is incredibly dense but not laid out in a user-friendly manner
Users wished the system automated basic functionality
Users needed to trust the system because any errors would mean the blame fell directly on the employee
Personas
After Synthesizing the data, we updated our the initial personas to be more reflective of Alloy.
Nigel was the main persona we focused on for our initial designs. Because Nigel represented a COO working at a smaller company and performing many roles, his needs encompassed most user stories.
“We waste quite a bit of time just trying to piece together information that we know is there but we can’t get out of the system”
User Journey
Once we new which user to focus on, we needed to get clarity on how Nigel felt when interacting with out system. We used the research we gathered from user interviews and insights from our customer service team's experience in order to map out the pain and pleasure points. We discovered that the set up flow was a large issue for Nigel. The majority of his journey was tolerable, allowing for large areas of improvement.
Navigation Design
Before we could start designing individual features, we needed to focus on the information architecture. We took a look at the existing site maps for the two applications and iterated different ways of merging the systems. We needed to make sure that the navigation was laid out in a clear and concise manner, while keeping future scalability in mind.
While the site maps for both systems were large, the second application’s was confusing as well. Many of the pages linked to each other in a circular manner that left the user feeling disoriented.
Exploration
We explored many options for both the employee and admin navigation. We needed to keep the navigation intuitive and simple, while still allowing for the complexity of the system.
Side Navigation
Pros
Feels modern
Has clear primary and secondary navigation
Menu could slide in to allow for more workspace
Menu is scalable for future features
Cons
Sliding Menu
Main nav is hidden and users need to rely on icons to navigate
Extra clicks are required to access navigation
Users cannot see where they are in the system at a glance if menu is closed
Locked Menu
1/4 of the potential workspace is taken up by the menu
Top Navigation
Pros
Provides plenty of horizontal real-estate for the core functionality
Feels Modern
FAB allows common action items to always be accessible
Navigation is similar in feeling to existing navigation- allowing users a sense of familiarity
Navigation hierarchy was focused
Cons
Scalability was limited to to space limitations
“I want Cordium to be perceived as a tech company that just happens to specialise in GRC.”
Insight
We realised there were two main sections Alloy would have: "My Program" and "Activity and Reporting". Essentially, the sections were broken down into "do the work" and "view the work".
"My Program" contains task and plans. Basically, anything that a user is required to "do" in the system is located here. Since Pilot is a task-based system, we would be keeping the core Pilot features here. All Compliance ELF tasks were modified to fit into the existing task model.
"Activity and Reporting"contains all of the user generated data that the system logs, listed in various table grids. This section is a "read-only" section, where an admin can do activities such as running reports, viewing employee data, or looking for flagged items of interest.
Navigation Layout
Once we new where the information would live, we had to design the navigation structure. We explored both a side navigation and a top navigation.
The goals we kept in mind were
Create an extensible nav that could support future solutions
Promote task focus via simplified hierarchy
Support multiple user roles with varying tasks and needs
Reuse common functionality across user roles
Leverage functionality from the first application
Web-first but mobile aware
Results
Ultimately we decided on a top navigation design. The deciding factor was familiarity for the user: because we had released a full redesign a month prior, that included a brand new navigation structure with a top nav, we did not want to frustrate the users by making them re-learn a brand new system for the second time in such a short window.
