Tibco Cloud Scheduling
Re-imagining the application scheduling experience on cloud management applications.
TIBCO Cloud Scheduling
The Challenge
TIBCO Cloud Integration (TCI) is a suite of tools that provide data replication and integration solution for cloud services. The TCI Team found that 30% of user entered schedules were erroneous, causing the customer support to correct these schedules. Me and the UX Researcher conducted tests and iterated on design based on inputs from the Product Managers and the Developers.
Role
I conducted user research, interaction design, testing and lead workshops for Product Managers and Developers.
Duration
May 2019 - August 2019
2 months
2 months
Team
1 Researcher
1 Product Manager
4 Developers
1 Product Manager
4 Developers
Tools
Sketch
Invision
UserTesting.com
Invision
UserTesting.com
1. Released Design
Sentence based scheduling
From our research, a sentence is quicker to read and parse for the users, reducing errors in scheduling.
Contextual menu dropdowns
By hiding complicated scheduling interactions in simplified dropdown menus, user’s got a natural interaction flow to follow to create correct. schedules.
Released design reduced errors
on the user’s end by 15%
on the user’s end by 15%
In addition to reducing errors, the new design also improved time required to schedule by about 50%.
2. Research through Design
Understanding the challenge
To understand why user’s are creating erroneous schedules, I decided it was important to first check the standard scheduling interaction in famous applications like MacOS and Google Calendar.
Looking at the images below, it seems that TCI has similar idea to scheduling on these applications. But, I also saw that the scheduling visual experience is not consistent. I thought a more visual overhaul would be enough (as you will see, it wasn’t).
I tried some variations that were inspired from Google Calendar & iOS. These were supposed by visually easy to read.
User Testing Concept No.1
With the UX Research Team, we devised 5 different test scenarios with varying degrees of complexity. 7 Participants went through the user tests on UserTesting.com.
The Research Team and I went through the test sessions together to bring out their pain points.The research insights we found are as follows:
I have omitted condifential data here.
Participants
7
Their Profession
Integration Engineers,
Dev Ops
Dev Ops
Their experience level
2-5 years
Pain Points
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5e361d5f7c077b63bde2212f_icon%202.png)
Confusing Options
Participants are confused due to the layout used for scheduling, often failing to complete the configuration.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5e361d6d121267a009bba403_Vector%203.png)
Difficult Legibility
Participants had trouble interpreting the saved schedule through the layout.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5e361d78f4dd53718839bec4_icon%201.png)
Multiple UI widgets
Use of different types of widgets in one form is a cognitive load that is confusing the participants.
It was evident that a visual redesign of the screen won't reduce errors. The problem lies deep within how scheduling & errors have been interpreted.
I took a step back and reframed the challenge...
3. Reframing the challenge
How can scheduling be less confusing
and more efficient?
and more efficient?
If I take scheduling back to it's roots, when we want to schedule meetings with our colleagues, the quote below would be how we would schedule events.
Let's break down this sentence. This sentence has multiple data points like ‘recurring’, 'monday, , '20th May' which I have highlighted.
"Schedule the application, recurring
every monday and friday till 20th May."
It’s easy for a person to interpret these data points and quickly take a mental note of the schedule being discussed. A person can immediately interpret the sentence above and suggest tweaks to the schedule.
I tried to use such sentences in my concepts
Taking this human cognitive behavior in mind, I tried a very experimental prototype to test the usability of using sentences in scheduling user flow instead of UI elements.. Following GIF is an example of the prototype used for testing.
GIF Prototype of conversational scheduling in action.
User Testing Design No. 2
Since the idea was novel, I wanted to test this prototype with the help of our research team before showing it to the team. Having concrete test results will make it clear if I should pursue this direction or try a new one.
From our participants, 6/7 liked the new user flow for scheduling applications. The layout was refreshing, yet easy to use. I took these results to TCI's managers and developers and lead co-design sessions with them to refine the design to be more viable and feasible.
I have omitted condifential data here.
Participants
7
Their Profession
Integration Engineers,
Dev Ops
Dev Ops
Their experience level
2-5 years
Feedback
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5e36eeb27c077b3f47e80dd1_Group%206.png)
Confusing Options
Consistent options
Participants noted words and sentences make the configuration easier to understand and edit.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5e36eeba7c077bdef3e80dda_Group%207.png)
Difficult Legibility
Legible configuration
Textual schedule information is much more legible for participants.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5e36ef07c623302fca1b5023_Group%208.png)
Multiple UI widgets
Discoverable widgets
Participants quickly understood the contextual widgets that come up when clicking on a word.
4. Final Design
Sentence based scheduling
A sentence is quick to read and parse, so one can understand current scheduling faster and provide quick editing.
Contextual menu dropdowns
By hiding complicated scheduling interactions in simplified dropdown menus, user’s got a natural interaction flow to follow to create correct. schedules.
Design Deliverables
Wireframes
Due to restrictions, I can't show all the wireframes from the final design.
5. Take aways
What did I learn?
1
While creating a user centric design is what is expected off me, the design should be considerate of the business and engineering considerations as well.
2
I can experiment with the design space by proper collaboration with my team and sufficient testing to ensure the new concept is as good as the earlier design and then better.
What can I improve?
1
By implementing features like nested drop downs, it can lead to other problems like responsive design. Understanding the pros & cons of design decisions is key for long term product success.
2
In this project, I overlooked localization as TCI will be translated into multiple languages. Ensuring the design can work for different languages will be vital for it's success.
Other Design Case Studies
BMI Audit
Defined product ecosystem and built product designs for an enterprise insurance audit service company.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5f8c971beb866a0d583a3be2_blob%20orange.png)
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/629fbc4344191b5ac9e84b7e_Claims%20-%20Bulk%20Select.png)
Boost
Owned designs for an outcome-driven notification apps for students and universities.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/62952db0e9bad33fc1d23ee1_blob%20boost.png)
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/6295297b44499c61bfa0b3b4_Planner.png)
TIBCO Cloud Configuration
Helped dev teams with data replication by providing a visual data management experience.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5f8c8b0539466aef6bcab820_blob%20blue.png)
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5f8c9ce0c7688b8151f67c47_tibco%20config.png)
TIBCO Cloud Scheduling
Re-imagined the application scheduling experience on cloud management applications.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5f8c971beb866a0d583a3be2_blob%20orange.png)
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5f8c9deb24084b73bc4e6ec6_tibco%20scheduler.png)
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5e4cb842e19c925e098bcdbd_Group%202.png)
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5e4cb8593467633889e13b42_Group%203.png)
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5e587052f68ab80e48a6a4ce_Group%2087.png)
Stylo is a finalist for Cheng Wu Innovation Challenge 2020!
Stylo - AR Hairstyling
An augmented reality based hairstyling app that helps in communicating your hairstyle with your hairstylists.
![](https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5c95a7e8bf3e254ba25a720d/5f8c91fd0d48df73b848a9d7_mouse%20click.png)