CASE STUDY - 2023

Sedex: Link Summary

Transforming a SaaS Platform: Sedex's Link Summary

I led the end-to-end design process for a complex solution at Sedex, a SaaS platform for enterprises. I transformed the Link Summary from a pop-up into a full page where users could manage site visibility, track updates, and control shared data. Based on user feedback, I introduced an "Updates" section and a "Tube map" concept to help users move a step closer towards understanding their position in the supply chain.

What is Link Summary?

Sedex is a data exchange company specialising in supply chain data with a strong emphasis on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues. Its primary mission is to help retailers assess and reduce the risk of selling products that fail to meet ethical standards. The product team I was part of, focused on connecting members and facilitating the exchange of crucial information, managing everything from initial setup and configuration of connections to overseeing existing connections and controlling the visibility of shared information.

Retrospectively, when two members are connected and exchange data together, we call that a Link. To manage the data shared with other members and own their data, each company has an area in the platform that manages their visibility and decides what data they share with each of the companies linked with them. This area is what we call Link Summary.

Click here to read more about the Supply Chain project (opens in a new tab)

Problem origin

As we were conducting all the workshops for both the Linking and the Supply Projects some themes stood out regarding our members’ current experiences with owning their data and keeping up with all the data changes in the platform. Members wanted to:

Other usability problems

Due to the above insights taken from user workshops, I decided to do an audit to our existing communications sent to our users related to their links, and also their experiences when it comes to managing the visibility of data shared with other members.

I audited the functionality using the following methods:

The results from the usability exploration were:

Quick win

The first thing that we all agreed on was that we needed a way to search and find a company site faster and more efficiently. So the easiest and quickest decision was to give users the ability to search through the Site management table.

So we added a search function. As a best practice, I quickly noticed that this page is gaining even more content and major functionality, which is something we want to avoid.

So we added a search function. As a best practice, I quickly noticed that this page is gaining even more content and major functionality, which is something we want to avoid.

After this, the main thing that we all agreed on, was that we needed to tidy up the missed communications sent from our platform and keep the users up to date with the latest changes for each of their links. This means that we need a form of notification centre in the platform.

New concepts in the platform

After this, the main thing that we all agreed on, was that we needed to tidy up the missed communications

Because of the above, we thought that it will be beneficial to re-invent the modal with Site visibility controls. So I started by putting some potential solutions on the current experience according to what we heard from our calls with members.

I came up with a concept to introduce a notification centre on the platform and collected important notifications such as

I later found out that doing an all-platform notification centre is not something that we can engage with now because this would:

This got me back to the drawing board and I came up with another idea. This idea would still keep the concept of in-platform updates, but it would be exclusive to each link.

This meant that we would keep an even tracking API for our product team only, because secured a buy-in from the stakeholders and we had the capacity to build an in-platform “Updates” experience for members.

Building this feature for Link updates only, meant that it wouldn’t need to be platform-wide while still giving our users important updates on the platform, about their links. Something that we found out that is needed when talking to the members during our research sessions.

Experimenting

At first, I started by putting the Site visibility management on its own page. The idea was to evolve the Site visibility modal to a full Link Summary page to help users focus on their task, explain what they see on the Link and provide additional information by giving important updates about the link.

This decision was driven by the clear results from our members’ feedback that an “Updates” section would be extremely helpful for their day-to-day work tasks.

I created a new page with a consistent layout to the previous Links page and played around with changing the hierarchy on the page, by moving the top “Commercial relationship” section down just above the footer.

We decided to get some tracking on the modal to understand which features are the most used and help us define the hierarchy.

At the same time, I took this concept and tested it with both live users as well as unmoderated tests on usertesting.com.
The results from this exploratory work were:

  • The commercial section is too important.
  • Designing the updates section as a tab confuses the users with the other tabs - Active & Inactive sites.
  • Users need to see more visual context to help them understand the link.
  • Taking Site Management to its own page helps users consume the data they need, with positive experience.
  • Generally, adding an “Updates” section is a very nice idea.

This decision was driven by the clear results from our members’ feedback that an “Updates” section would be extremely helpful for their day-to-day work tasks.

I created a new page with a consistent layout to the previous Links page and played around with changing the hierarchy on the page, by moving the top “Commercial relationship” section down just above the footer.

We decided to get some tracking on the modal to understand which features are the most used and help us define the hierarchy.

At the same time, I took this concept and tested it with both live users as well as unmoderated tests on usertesting.com.
The results from this exploratory work were:

How it works

Now a member can view their entire link summary on a new page. The new page keeps track of all the updates that have happened in a link, it allows the users to change any visibility they want about the link.

During our discovery for the supply chain project we also discovered that a way to show one’s supply chain would be something similar to a “Tube map” (London Underground). So I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to introduce this concept with our current link structure.

This “Tube stops” concept responds to the users’ problem to help them understand who they are in a link and what’s their relationship with the other members in a link. The feature can be seen below the header.

Results

Credits

What disciplines did I collaborate with? Notable mentions:

Adding to the previously introduced members, we also have those working in multiple teams who've made noteworthy contributions to Synergy.

Our team has experienced changes in personnel over the course of the project. Some members have left, while others have joined during this time.

Key takeaways

Thank you!

LinkedInDribblevaggosdesign@gmail.com

©Evangelos Angelis ️