Smarter. Faster. Better. Increased Intuit's QuickBooks Point of Sale software's Net Promoter Score by 87% by delivering productivity features that enable multi-tasking and faster task completion.
Background
Intuit's QuickBooks Point of Sale software handles sales, inventory and customer tracking for retail businesses. Within the past couple years, QuickBooks Point of Sale's Net Promoter Score was declining. Detractors complained that it was difficult to use and had slow performance.
"I either have to wait till after business hours to do inventory, or do it during the day
and risk losing it all, which is a pain."
—Johnny
and risk losing it all, which is a pain."
—Johnny
Problem: No support for multiple windows
Before the redesign, Johnny needed to close inventory and purchase orders when a customer wanted to buy something. This meant that he needed to remember to return to unfinished tasks rather than rely on the software to store multiple windows with work in progress.
Representation of previous design which only allowed one active window at a time. People needed to navigate back to previously saved documents rather than browse open windows to continue work.
Goals
We needed to improve the NPS by making the product faster, more stable, and also design productivity enhancements that enable better multi-tasking and faster task completion.
Constraints
I joined the team as the only designer with the project already months behind schedule due to resourcing changes.
Because the timeline was so short, the development team's focus was stability and performance, not implementing a totally brand new design. My job was to propose a new information architecture that would enable better productivity, and introduce usability and design enhancements in the most critical areas.
Because the timeline was so short, the development team's focus was stability and performance, not implementing a totally brand new design. My job was to propose a new information architecture that would enable better productivity, and introduce usability and design enhancements in the most critical areas.
Approach
I needed to quickly understand the customer, the current product, and deliver a bullet-proof recommendation for the redesign. My process started with research and discovery, then design and evaluation. After iterating based on customer feedback, I was confident that we were launching a successful product.
Our provisional persona, Tatiana, was based on customer insights based on prior research done by subject matter experts on the team
Audit
I looked at the previous versions of Intuit’s point of sale software, which has a 10+ year legacy, and visualized the current product experience through creating task flow digrams of the most commonly used workflows. This helped me understand where we were starting from and I also took inventory of content.
Contextual customer research
Along with the product manager, I met with a variety of customers at their stores to understand how they use QuickBooks Point of Sale to run their business.
Along with the product manager, I met with a variety of customers at their stores to understand how they use QuickBooks Point of Sale to run their business.
Businesses ranged from koi and garden supplies stores to custom shoe stores.
High level interaction design plan
I created a shared, living Excel document to describe and prioritize scope of design changes:
1. Interaction Patterns
2. Navigation
3. Technical Bug
4. Visual design
I also wrote corresponding user stories in JIRA to communicate design requirements to engineering team and provide feedback on their progress.
Designs began as whiteboard sketches with the Product Manager.
I wireframed different options for information architecture (left). I created prototypes in Invision that I tested with existing QuickBooks Point of Sale customers (right).
I documented visual design specs in a Point of Sale (POS) Style Guide Wiki.
You can view the prototype we tested at https://invis.io/DB6OR3Y49
Design solution
Video featuring new design of most frequently used workflow: Make a Sale
Make a Sale with my original visual design recommendation.
Results
We increased Intuit's QuickBooks Point of Sale software's Net Promoter Score by 87% by delivering productivity features that enable multi-tasking and faster task completion. Within the first six months, combined revenue of software and hardware unit sales and payment processing fees totaled tens of millions of dollars for Intuit. I received a "Delivering Awesome Award" from the VP of Intuit Experience Design, which recognizes excellence in product design.
“I absolutely LOVE it. So many times, we would be in the middle of inventory or creating a Purchase Order and a customer would come in which interrupted it. Just what we needed.”
- Johnny
Representation of previous design (left) which only allowed one active window at a time and new design (right) in which people can easily multi-task by switching between multiple open windows.
What I learned
While I wish we had more resources to update the visual styles across the application to make its exterior match its newly updated core technology, I learned that upgraders to this version were happy with the enhancements delivered. Ultimately time savings and efficiency are much more important to these people's everyday workflow than a fresh coat of paint.
