"Optimizing Order Management: Developing an Intuitive Solution for Elite Insights' Fulfillment Challenges."
Client
Elite Insights
Category
Web, UI/UX
Delivered
2021
Elite Insights is an umbrella company to RevCatch. They designed a program to significantly boost revenue with minimal impact on existing resources known as “BEST IN MARKET’.
The BEST IN MARKET program aims at local radio stations to find and promote the best of their surrounding area and locations. Through the program, you can nominate and vote for local businesses to win awards for a variety of categories. The winners then can purchase ads or spots in the winner magazine or online. Elite Insight also sells products to help boost chances to win by promoting through online advertisement, or purchasing custom voting pages.
The Problem
Elite Insights required a scalable solution to streamline their manual, inefficient order fulfillment process for the growing “BEST IN MARKET” program, necessitating an intuitive, automated software to enhance efficiency and support expansion.
Scope & Goals
- User-Friendly Design: Create an intuitive interface with real-time updates for all skill levels.
- Process Automation: Implement automation to streamline email communications and order tracking.
- Centralized Order Management: Develop a system for efficient management from nomination to fulfillment.
- Enhanced Collaboration: Facilitate seamless team communication and information sharing.
- Scalable Solution: Ensure the system can adapt to new markets and products.
- Quick Onboarding: Design for easy learning and fast integration of new team members.
- Informed Decision-Making: Provide analytics for strategic planning and process optimization.
Constraints
Jumping into this project, I quickly realized the tight timeline wouldn’t allow for the luxury of extensive research or numerous testing cycles. With new markets being added to the “BEST IN MARKET” program regularly, the goalposts kept moving, adding an extra layer of complexity. Despite these challenges and limited resources, I had to innovate and adapt on the fly, especially since each product came with its own unique fulfillment process, demanding a flexible and creative approach from my end.
The Product Dilemma
Every product sold through the site has a unique set of steps in order to fulfill. I started by writing down that process. Luckily all magazine and banner products have a similar list.
Interviews
I talked with current fulfillment team members to see what they needed. I also referenced previous job experience I had with fulfillment. Here were my findings:
- The biggest tasks were tracking down various imagery and logos
- The product can take weeks to fulfill
- Emails would be better handled if they could be automated by a button
- Contact information can be hard to locate or missing altogether
Process
The process to fulfill an order starts by receiving the order.
From there a series of emails are sent to retrieve files, and images that are needed.
After retrieval, we create mockups and send them back for approval. Most products need approval before we can make them live or send them to print.
The team also needs to record the status and payment. Payment can be paid later or licensed.
Design
Low Fidelity
This project was twofold. I needed to design a general fulfillment tab where you could see the overall status and all of the products. After I needed to make the inside pages. This would include the business, the nominated categories, and the product history. It also needed an area for manager info, customer info, and badge history.
High Fidelity
I presented my high-fidelity mockups to a group of the team that had been handling the orders manually. We walked through many of the pain points and received a lot of good feedback! From that, I tweaked the prototype and added additional features.
General Fulfillment Tab
The design was heavily influenced by WordPress. Which is what manages all of our software. I didn’t need to worry so much about design as I did functionality. We opted for the tabbed style because as you will notice from the designs depending on the product they needed to see specific features. This way you could look at it all in one place.
Features
- Tabbed view
- Sort and filter by a variety of options
- Click/unclick button for assigning products to team
- Checklist with visibility matching inner checklist
- Status with color coordination
Inside Fulfillment Screen
The inside page was where I spent priority. We needed to be able to view a nominated business and see all at once their contact info, the categories nominated for, if they won, and their product history.
Features
- Accordions to limit load time and save space, while not overwhelming the user
- A fixed right side to make contact info and badge history visible while scrolling
- Tiled cards so that products could easily add or remove sections as products change
- Timeline to show automated messages and leave comments for one another
- Approval tile for communicating product changes with customer
- A checklist that automates with various steps
Results & Conclusion
Looking back on this project, it’s been a real ride. One of the biggest takeaways for me was the art of staying nimble—adapting to those unexpected twists when new markets rolled in was no small feat. It stretched my creativity and quick thinking to new heights. The crunch time really honed my skills in zeroing in on the essentials, making every second count. And getting creative with what we had on hand? That was a lesson in making magic with the resources at our fingertips. But what really topped it off was the feedback. Hearing the positive responses from the team and seeing the software still in action today? That’s the kind of stuff that makes all the hard work worth it. It’s a reminder that with a bit of flexibility and a dash of innovation, you can overcome any hurdle and maybe even leave a lasting impact.
