Surreal Notions

Overview

HumanConcepts enterprise products provide an end-to-end system for managing workforce change to help you navigate these turbulent times. From creating a basic organizational understanding to fueling sophisticated workforce analysis and management, HumanConcepts provides workforce decision support solutions that add value across any organization. Their solutions help executives, HR, finance and employees quickly answer workforce questions, plan for workforce change, and make better decisions.

Current Solutions

HumanConcepts is the global leader in on-demand workforce decision support solutions. Over fifty thousand businesses worldwide—including 400 of the Fortune 500—use OrgPlus® every day to better understand their workforce and manage change, using information-rich org charts, easy-to-configure workforce metrics, and advanced collaborative modeling tools. Named as Top HR Product of 2008 by Human Resource Executive® magazine, OrgPlus integrates seamlessly with Oracle, SAP, and other leading HCM and HR systems.

HumanConcepts also offers Transition Manager, a comprehensive, on-demand decision support tool designed to help large companies meet the objectives and minimize the risks associated with workforce reorganizations. Transition Manager is the only solution on the market for managing reductions in force, and is currently in use by ten percent of the Fortune 100 companies. By providing real-time insight, reducing legal and compliance exposure, lowering separation costs, and minimizing the loss of key talent, Transition Manager provides immediate and significant value to any company undergoing change.

Overview

Bumpr is the social messaging utility that helps people manage communication and create lasting communities. Unlike simple microblogs (e.g., Twitter) or aggregators (e.g., Friend Feed), Bumpr manages incoming and outgoing communication across multiple social networks.

Example Problem

Take an example user, Sue, who has friends on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. To update her friends, Sue must update her status on three separate sites. A conversation with friends on different networks is practically impossible. Sue could try to convince her friends to join more networks, but some of her friends prefer the pictures available on Facebook or music available on Myspace. Each new network Sue joins increases the amount of time she spends trying to stay in touch with friends and family exponentially.

Example Solution

Bumpr dramatically simplifies the problem by allowing Sue to create a list of people from multiple networks. She can share her status and have conversations with one or more of these friends without ever considering what networks they might prefer using. Those conversations are automagically conveyed to all participants across the network divides.

Overview

HealthLok is a Personal Health Record (PHR) designed for families. HealthLok began as a simple rebranding effort, but quickly turned into an innovative design initiative.

Example Problem

As economic strain increases both families and non-profit organizations are looking for new ways to improve efficiency and save some money. With healthcare costs spiraling out of control, many people are looking for ways to save money in this sector—especially people managing major medical needs such as family members with ongoing cancer treatment.

Example Solution

HealthLok provides an inexpensive solution that can help both of these stakeholders simultaneously. With an innovative monetization model that puts a percentage of revenue back into the hands of sponsors (mostly non-profit and religious organizations), the organizations can supplement their income by helping their patrons control healthcare costs. Furthermore, providing an affordable personal health record system to patients and the families of patients will 1) improve self-education, 2) improve efficient use of healthcare services, and 3) decrease the time required to track healthcare consumption and needs. In short, everybody can benefit.

Overview

1099reporter allows the business managers to correctly file their 1099-MISC forms with a simple interface and low cost. Over 160M 1099-MISC forms are filed every year of which 20M are filed on paper. This creates huge inefficiencies for the employers, government and recipients.

Example Problem

Providing electronic deliver to the IRS only partially solves the 1099-MISC paper problem. Millions of these forms are printed and mailed to recipients every year. In fact, two copies of each 1099-MISC must be delivered to each recipient. This process is expensive and susceptible to error. For instance, a few years ago a large company (that shall go unnamed) had a printing error on one of their presses. Because the forms were printed by address, the slip lead to tens of thousands of people getting one copy of their own 1099-MISC and one of copy of their neighbor's!

Example Solution

1099reporter goes one step further by providing recipients with the option of e-delivery—a secure electronic delivery system. E-delivery is instantaneous, so recipients can retrieve the forms as soon as the employer files them. E-delivery decreases costs, risks and creates an entirely green filing solution. 1099reporter also provides feedback to the employer as the process moves forward (e.g., notification when a recipient accepts e-delivery, the IRS accepts the form, etc.). In short, 1099reporter provides a solution that manages the entire 1099-MISC filing process with a single click.

Overview

Plum Keeper gives parents a digital journal of their children's achievements and development. They can add text, pictures and video from nearly any device, share content with friends and family, have conversations about events or instances, and even print physical books. Plum Keeper strives to help busy parents capture those important moments—without the hassle.

Example Problem

The rest of the team (Kyrie Robinson, Perry Mizota, David Straus) and I decided early on to create a strong journal metaphor. We tested several metaphors, including blog-like interfaces; however, the journal metaphor offered a novel, intuitive interface with strong emotional connections for parents. Despite the benefits, this physical metaphor creates some awkward situations in the digital realm. For instance, actions such as tagging, sharing and modifying entries aren't naturally exposed in a journal metaphor.

Example Solution

We decided to employ a method of revealing interface options when an entry is moused-over. I typically shy away from such interfaces, because of discoverability problems. In this instance, however, the large percentage of screen covered by entries mitigates discoverability while maintaining the easily understood journal metaphor.

Overview

Not just a budgeting tool, customers use Alight Planning for a wide range of planning activities including: annual budgeting, rolling forecasts, strategic planning, capital planning, decision analysis, project planning, event management, sales pipeline, cost estimating and client financial support.

Example Problem

Alight Planning has grown organically for years. This has created excessive and complex toolbars that create Cognitive Friction. Coined by Alan Cooper in The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, Cognitive Friction is a measure of the difference between the user's mental model of the experience against the actual performance. Of course, these never quite align, which makes people feel stupid or angry.

Example Solution

By reorganizing tasks and creating tools only shown within pertinent contexts, nearly all of the toolbars and navigation were consolidated into an iTunes-like design. In paper prototype form, initial walkthroughs with potential customers validated this approach. Rough prototypes of critical workflows were developed and tested to further validate the design. Due to substantial re-engineering (both for features designed and future product vision), the new design is still under development.

Overview

For nearly ten years, MyCorporation has helped small business clients and real estate investors incorporate their businesses in a reliable and affordable manner.

Problem

Expanding market penetration in the competitive space MyCorporation operates is difficult. First, the potential market is diverse and difficult to access. Second, the space is filled with jargon and subtlety. Lastly, and most importantly, the daunting complexities of incorporation obfuscate potential benefits. By informing new entrepreneurs of their respective options, they could save thousands of dollars for advice from lawyers and accountants on the subject—and every dollar counts in the beginning.

Solution

This calculator needed to provide potential clients with a quick, digestible result demonstrating value. This process encourages exploration of possibilities (every business owner likes fantasizing about making a few hundred grand next year), while maintaining realistic results for further exploration at the MyCorporation site. The calculator also needed to suggest a path for further exploration without giving a recommendation, which becomes a sticky situation in some States as it might be construed as legal advice.

The simple solution allows quick analysis in three steps. Further options and help are available in each step to encourage exploration.

Overview

Autodesk is the industry leader in computer-aided design (CAD) and 3D rendering software. The Dragonfly project seeks to apply the company's extensive experience and knowledge toward a consumer application on a software as a service (SaaS) platform. In short, Dragonfly seeks to put the power of professional tools into the hands of homeowners with DIY projects.

Example Problem

Information overload was one of the problems identified during heuristic analysis of existing consumer products. Due to the complex nature of designing a room (especially kitchens and bathrooms), CAD and BIM (building information model) must pack large numbers of features. Lazy interface designs simply create large toolbars, which negatively impacts the overall experience by dramatically increasing the learning curve and cognitive friction.

Example Solution

To avoid this toolbar overload, Brent Pennock and I designed a solution that brings pertinent information to the user as needed. Hovering over an object will give basic dimensions. Selecting an object reveals a little more information and offers several options. Drilling deeper into the object offers options, more information and even purchase options.

Here's an interview with the new product manager.

Overview

Northern Natural Gas (NNG) is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and operates an interstate natural gas pipeline extending from the Permian Basin in Texas to the Upper Midwest. The system includes:

• 15,141 miles of natural gas pipeline;
• 5.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of Market Area capacity, plus 2.0 Bcf/d of Field Area capacity;
• 5 natural gas storage facilities;
• dozens of internal applications to support operations.

Example Problem

Creating a consistent UX paradigm (navigation, widgets, dialogs, etc.) is critical when merging disparate applications. This, as it happens, is also very difficult because of the complex and, frequently, contradicting business requirements between systems. The simple act of navigating between applications and areas within a specific application can make or break the merger. Therefore, I spent a substantial amount of my effort creating UX standards for merged applications.

Example Solution

The solution offers deep navigation (3+ levels) while maintaining a consistent relationship to the related applications. This design was heavily influenced by Yahoo!, Digg, Amazon and other sites with deep navigation requirements.

Overview

With TurboTax Business, you don’t need to know a thing about business taxes. Its customized interview tailors itself to your type of business (corporation, partnership, or multi-member LLC) and provides extra guidance to simplify tax preparation and help you maximize tax savings. Just answer simple questions and let TurboTax do the rest.

Problems

The TurboTax Business product is built on one of Intuit’s professional products. It is a fairly complete solution, but still contains quite a bit of content originally written for accountants. Critical areas of concern for this release included the form selection and expense allocation processes.

Solutions

The form selection process was reduced from three separate steps to a single screen. The team and I improved the layout and reduced confusion between the different options, especially rare edge cases. Usability studies and A/B tests indicated users not only found the correct form faster, but were much more confident in their selection and the rest of the product.

The single biggest problem small business owners have when filing taxes, assuming their books are accurate, is correctly assigning business expenses. To improve this process, the team and I designed a novel way of customizing examples in each expense section. This better represents the type of expenses likely relevant to the user. For instance, if the user indicates his/her business is a manufacturing plant, expenses commonly associated with manufacturing are displayed in the respective expense sections and leave off unrelated expense examples (e.g., farming). Usability studies supported our hypothesis and demonstrated substantially higher confidence in decisions around expenses.

Overview

Intuit initially hired me as a staff UI Designer to support TurboTax® Estimated Taxes. Although I designed interaction for numerous projects while at Intuit, this project represents the majority of my time and effort.

Problems

I conducted several usability and marketing studies from late 2006 to early 2007. Each study focussed on different aspects of the user experience ranging from SEO to help the user find the application to specific tasks a returning user wants to accomplish. Among the many learnings from this research, we found the majority of our users were elderly retirees. Users had trouble finding where the tasks lived and weren’t sure when they were done with the task. We saw high rates of abandonment during setup and initial use.

Solutions

First, I redesigning the setup user experience from a 14 step process to 3 steps. This substantially reduced the abandonment rate and initial confusion. Ultimately, this decreased support calls and abandonment rates.

Next, I redesigned the home page with a checklist metaphor to guide users to the remaining tasks based on their needs. The checklist guided users to next steps required by the IRS, errors that must be corrected, and points of concern within their account. This further decreased confusion by giving users a clear set of objectives each quarter.

Lastly, I simplified the filing process to a single screen from a 4 step process; simplified the account management and reports sections; and improved navigation and confidence within the estimated taxes calculator.