THE CHALLENGE:

Redesign of the file upload module, a critical function for group managers who could spend long and frustrating hours on trying to get their membership spreadsheets to agree with our database.

THE STRATEGY:

An extensive amount of competitive analysis lead me to a multi-part solution that combined industry best-practices for raw data file uploading, column mapping, and database intelligence. A few key steps in the upload workflow are shown below with the prior version of the upload screen.

Other key functionality upgrades included establishing a complete design language to communicate system status and provide contextual messaging. The notated view shown below describes styling and labeling of the new system.

INSIGHTS AND MORE CHALLENGES:

Late in the design process, I showed the prototype for file upload to a Customer Service Representative who thought the new design was very promising but he was curious about how the design would handle one particular problem. There were several clients of MemberPlanet that had memberships not just in the hundreds but thousands. How would this design handle a spreadsheet with more than 1000 rows and 50 columns? Would every row display in the upload preview?

After a few technical reviews and several usability tests, our answer was clear. Only exceptions would display full sample data. Correctly mapped columns would appear in a minimized format with the exceptions displaying important error messaging so that users could easily make corrections.

CONCLUSION:

The file upload module for MemberPlanet was a major hurdle to overcome and a significant pain point for users of the platform. The design was close but still needed some refinement. My primary focus had been on the usability of the upload process and I believe that aspect had been covered successfully. The UI would continue to evolve iteratively as we gathered feedback and continued to make changes.