UI/UX design for b2b value added services aggregator

Overview

Role & Deliverables

Role: Lead Designer
Responsibility: User research, Interaction, Visual design and prototype.

Design Approach

The Double Diamond approach is ideal for developing a Value-Added Services (VAS) Aggregator due to the challenge's complexity and the need for a user-centered design. The approach involves four stages:
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Discover (Divergence)
Focuses on understanding user needs and challenges associated with the lack of a centralised platform. Includes comprehensive research on user pain points and market analysis for differentiation.
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Define (Convergence)
Clearly articulates project goals, scope, and key features to address identified pain points.
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Develop (Divergence)
This involves prototyping and iterative design to address challenges identified in the discovery phase. Also collaboration with service providers to seamlessly integrate services while maintaining a cohesive design.
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Deliver (Convergence)
Focuses on implementing the VAS Aggregator with a seamless UI/UX design. Thorough testing ensures effective functionality, and user training/support is provided for efficient utilisation.

the problem

The absence of a centralised and user-friendly platform hindered their ability to efficiently discover, compare, and access a comprehensive range of services, including financial, communication, lifestyle, and entertainment. Existing service providers lack a cohesive approach to getting their services to the devices of subscribers(Telcos), resulting in disparate and inconsistent user experiences. The challenge is to develop a Value-Added Services Aggregator that not only unifies these services but also prioritises a seamless UI/UX design, addressing the pain points associated with service discovery, accessibility, and disjointed user journeys.

Problem research

I conducted qualitative research through interviews and brainstorming sessions with the client(primary users) and other stakeholders to understand their goals and needs, it was revealed that:

• The existing system operated in a decentralised manner, with each entity in the value-added services chain functioning independently. This independence resulted in a lack of synergy in the flow of information.
• There was no clarity about how the potential platform would operate.
• They lacked the understanding of how to engage with data from service providers, content providers, and telecommunications companies.
• They were required by the market regulating body to manage billing and revenue distribution for service providers and telecommunications companies but were uncertain about the process.
• They required a transparent system and a method to demonstrate to stakeholders the details of ongoing transactions.

Research Constraints

Researching competitors posed a huge challenge as only users/stakeholders had access to aggregators. As an independent or direct competitor, I faced restrictions in exploring the features of other platforms, hindering my research efforts.

product goals

From the above findings we identified the following key business goals:

• A user-friendly platform that allowed users to interact with both small and large datasets from telecommunications companies and service providers, including features for creating, viewing, editing, categorising, and deleting data.
• Give users the ability to control the billing and revenue split between service providers and telcos.
• We wanted users to be able to generate reports for small or large sets of data.
• They need to be able to add other users and assign roles.

Subsequently, I conducted a market research on competitors to explore the offerings in the market and take inspiration from features that were in line with our goals. I also received documentation from telcos, service and content providers.

I carried out several brainstorming sessions with the stakeholders for fine-tuning.

Solution

After the sketching sessions and carrying out more research and interaction with stakeholders, I came up with several user stories. Key user stories are listed below.

• Create, delete and edit an item: for telcos, service providers, SMS, USSD, IVR and WAP. Although the process of interacting with most items are similar, the parameters in each are different.
• Assign billing: Give users ability to determine profit split between the telcos and service providers.
• Add users: Ability to add users and assign roles.
• Generate reports: Give users ability to generate reports.

After the sketching sessions and carrying out more research and interaction with stakeholders, I came up with several user stories. Key user stories are listed below.

Mockups

After designing the mockups, and reviewing with clients and other stakeholders. I moved onto designing the high-fidelity mockups.

Tools

high-fidelity mock-up

Below are selected high-fidelity wireframes. The rest of the wireframes and prototype can be found via this link.