Obran is a worker-owned cooperative conglomerate corporation. Its central software, Obran OS, is used to manage the cooperative. However, the current Obran OS does not effectively meet the day-to-day needs of its members and businesses. To increase the engagement across the cooperative, our team conducted research to redesign the Obran OS under design sprint framework.
Duration
1 year
Team
5 designers and researchers, a product manager, and a developer.
My Role
Stakeholder Interviews, Experience Mapping, HMW Analysis
Obran is a cooperative, and its Obran OS supports members, administration, and leadership. - This sounds succinct, but since we, like most people, were unfamiliar with these concepts, we couldn't help but ask: What is a cooperative? How does this OS support the cooperative? And what exactly is the problem?
Here is a quick summary of the key concepts in this project:
A cooperative is an organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit.
Obran is owned by its members. The unique structure allows it to find, acquire, and hold profitable small- to medium- sized businesses and real estate on behalf of its worker-owners.
An internal capital account (ICA) is an account that records the amount of capital each member has in the business. It can be used to track individual member investments, earnings, and distributions of profits.
Members might contribute an initial investment when they join and make regular contributions or purchase equity shares in the cooperative.
Although fully understanding and conceptualizing the system was challenging, we didn’t just sit back and learn the domain knowledge passively.
We used ICA as the starting point to understand Obran's business goals and needs. We talked to stakeholders to establish a shared vision and understand the pain points.
🎯 Project Goal: Incentivize users to use ICA more frequently to fulfill business needs
User interviews, Personas, Journey Maps
We interviewed 6 existing and new users to explore their current experiences.
There’s no clear connection between users’ ICA balance and their larger role within the Obran community.
Obran OS does not have a centralized information section to keep users informed and engaged in cooperative events.
The positioning and hierarchy of features need clarification to align with the overall architecture of Obran OS.
The usability and organization of Obran OS hinder the user experience, thus discourages the usage.
💡 While enhancing the ICA experience is important,
the overall Obran OS plays a crucial role in shaping users' engagement with ICA.
Competitive Analysis
Based on the research, our design goal was to prioritize the optimization of ICA's user experience while considering the broader context of Obran OS.
Our team sought inspiration from existing products in the market. We explored various financial applications, community platforms, enterprise platforms, and cross-industry designs to gather valuable insights.
Lo-Fi Wireframes, Design Concept Prototypes
We conducted moderated user testing sessions with the design concept and iterated based on the feedback received. Each round of user testing involved five participants.
Here are the key findings to guide our design:
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Users need a personalized view of their employee information, including payroll and benefits.
A dedicated member center with specific channels can better facilitate member engagement.
Reconstructing the information architecture can improve navigation and enhance content discoverability.
I led the redesign of ICA interface to improve its clarity and make it more educational.
The current ICA only includes basic features such as transaction history and pay/request functionality.
Based on the research, we made the following updates:
A balance-focused ICA dashboard
Members see ICA balance as the main focus so I made the balance stand out. We then consolidated the send and request feature into the balance section, along with a notification board. All actions are posted in the transaction history below once pending or complete.
We also added a lot of educational information to relief users confusion about cooperative terms.
A contribution calculator with guidance
One of Obran's goals is to increase member's contribution rate. To help members understand how their contribution relate to them and Obran, I designed a calculator with step-by-step guidance.
Transaction history that's similar to a bank app
Inspired by bank apps, I designed the transaction history to include more transaction details based on members' feedback.
There are 3 membership statuses, but since the current OS does not support this feature, members often feel left in the dark, relying solely on administrators for help.
I suggested applying gamification to membership and training statuses in a visualized membership center.
Stakeholders have built Feed section in OS for communciation. However, similar to membership and training resources, members don't have a centralized place online to communicate with each other and Obran. For example, they are also rely on emails and Slack for announcements and events.
I suggested creating a community to increase engagement. The communication channels include 4 sections: Announcement & News, Events, Feed, and Member Directory.
The most frequent activity that members do in Obran OS is checking their payroll and benifits information. We synchronized cross-platform information here to boost usage and provide convenience for users.
Our final design prioritized ICA's user experience while considering the broader context of the Obran OS, increasing platform usage and improving overall usability and organization. We established a comprehensive design system from the outset and recognized the value of communication and collaboration between team members, stakeholders, and developers.
After completing our design work, we compiled comprehensive specification documentation and scheduled meetings for the handoff process with Obran. Throughout the project, we consistently presented our work from each sprint to our client and were delighted to receive positive feedback on our designs. We are excited to see our designs come to life as they are implemented in Obran OS. Our client plans to follow up with us to showcase the implemented prototypes, allowing us to see the tangible results of our collaboration.