Optimizing the Admin Portal for Ecopreneur
Overview & Problem
Ecopreneur Media is an educational technology company with a goal to provide students with more volunteer opportunities and create a lasting sustainable, circular economy through partnerships with non-governmental organizations.
Our team needed a page in the back-end portal to send data from our database to the website, this way volunteer activities show up properly for clients. While designing the data approval process, I found a common frustration towards the internal portal from our team— the lack of detailed analytics. I set out to tackle this issue and deliver a more streamlined experience to better support the marketing team and provide easy access to frequently used features.
Company
Ecopreneurs Media Inc.
My Role
UX Designer
Timeline
1.5 Months
Skills
UX/UI design, service design, UX research, heuristic evaluation, product design, design system, wireframe, user flow
Tool
Figma
Discover
During one of my team’s meetings, I noticed a common frustration geared towards the experience of internal admin portal.
This peaked my curiosity and I began asking questions--
What frustrates you the most about the internal portal? What are features you like and don’t like about it? What do you wish the portal can help you with?
Research Insights
The data analytics page is limited, offering only minimal information without the ability to filter or dive deeper into the data. This creates a frustrating and inefficient experience.
Our team was frustrated by the lack of a clear way to review the data’s history, which made it difficult to pinpoint trends or identify areas where we could intervene and improve performance.
“the most important data for me are the total user signups with a breakdown of schools, admins, and students” - Phil (Marketing)
“I don’t use the Requests, Brands, Non-profits, and campaigns tabs at all” - Jared (Operations & Client Success)
“I want to be able to see the schools that haven’t been active for more than two weeks, this way I can easily follow up with them” -Jared (Operations & Client Success)
“It would be best if I could approve projects with a simple click of a button. I don’t need to see the details of the projects.” -Phil (Marketing)
“I wish I could see what kind of projects are popular amongst our users” -Hana (Senior UX Designer
Problem
My team felt they were stuck with surface-level insights, making it difficult to extract any meaningful or actionable information.
Without access to this deeper layer of insight, it was nearly impossible to make informed decisions or adjust strategies effectively.
Goal
How might we redesign the website to assist the marketing team quickly and easily access the data they need through better navigation and streamlined search?
I found the marketing team’s frustration stemmed from the time spent on searching for data. Hence my solution was to create a more detailed dashboard of data with a filter system to quickly sort through the information.
Development
I wanted to see if adding an extension to the current analytics page would help my team with finding the data they need, so I presented the wireframes to get their feedback.
Development
Through my team’s feedback, I found that the marketing team has specific data they want readily accessible, preferring it to be front and centered rather than having to search for it.
“For the school’s last active status, I’m mostly looking for those that haven’t been online in a while to follow up with them. Is there a way I can get notified on those inactive schools?” -Jared (Operations & Customer Success)
“I want to be able to make the follow up emails as quick and easy as possible” -Jared (Operations & Customer Success)
Solution
The Homepage
Key features my team looks for are—
to view the total users count
to view and approve pending projects
to view the idle client accounts
Solution & User Flow
Viewing the Total Users Count
The number of total users help the marketing team to present to stakeholders, and our team can view the data history in more detail from clicking on the cards.
Solution & User Flow
Viewing and Following-up to Idle Client Accounts
Our internal team can easily spot and keep track of clients that haven’t been actively using their accounts.
Solution & User Flow
Viewing and Approving Projects
The volunteering projects coming from our database need to be approved by our internal team before they are pushed to the client facing platform, and here is where pending projects sit to notify our internal team.
Final Design
Making key features easily accessible with detailed data history for deeper insights.
The Homepage
The first page when our internal team opens the site is the homepage, and here our team can quickly see what tasks require their attention along with information they look for the most frequently.
Project Updates
This page is where our team approves volunteering projects from our database which then shows up onto our client facing platform.
Analytics
Our team can get a quick snapshot of the total number of active users, signup history, schools we work with, combined economic impact, and popular volunteering opportunities through this page.
Our team can click into the top row of cards to view a more detailed report of that data.
In-Depth Report
Here is where our team can interact with the filters to see the exact scope of data they need.
Reflection
Challenges
One of the challenges I ran into was figuring out how to present a ton of data in a way that’s still easy to read. I had to find the right balance between showing all the important information and keeping it clear. I tried out different design ideas to organize the data so my team could get insights without feeling overwhelmed.
I also thought about making each page a bit different so there are more visual cues as to which page they are accessing. By adding subtle differences in design and organization, I wanted to create a more engaging experience that keeps my team interested as they navigate through different sections.
Limitations
I had a lot of ideas and features to add to the portal for this project, such as a more detailed filter system for the data report. Unfortunately, given the limited timeline and engineers available, we focused on the most impactful features to deliver.
AI
I’m excited about the potential of incorporating AI into the internal portal in the future, particularly through a predictive model that analyzes user influx and engagement. By examining trends in user sign-up rates and project submissions, my team could estimate future growth and identify potential drop-off rates. This would not only enhance our decision-making but also allow us to proactively address user needs and optimize our strategies.