Designing for clarity and simplicity

Company
Sion

Startup - B2B

Fin-tech

My Role
Design Lead, [UI, UX & Research]

Year
2019

Project duration
4 months (design to launch)

Impact
The redesign of Sion which was in Beta at the time saw significant reduction in time to complete key workflows from ~45 sec to less than 15 sec, and reduced rage clicks (noticed through Fullstory)

Context & Background

What’s Sion ?

Sion was established to streamline the travel agent booking process. By replacing manual spreadsheets and notes with a centralized platform, Sion eliminates data inconsistencies and improves efficiency.

What are we solving for?

Sion aimed to modernize the travel agent industry by providing a unified platform for data management. However, the beta version, launched during my tenure, faced usability challenges and limited functionality for agents. My primary objective was to identify shortcomings in the existing product and redesign the interface to enhance user experience and offer a more personalized and actionable perspective for agents.

Exploratory research

To identify usability issues and gather stakeholder feedback, we conducted user observation studies using FullStory and conducted interviews. A common theme emerged: while stakeholders recognized the limitations of their existing systems, they were hesitant to transition to Sion due to the effort required to migrate data and learn a new tool.

Our goal became clear: Sion needed to be more intuitive and user-friendly to overcome this barrier.

Where should we start?

Based on our user research, we focused on three areas to improve Sion’s usability

AREA 1

Relevance: Ensure all displayed data is relevant and actionable for the viewer's role.

AREA 2

Predictability: Create a consistent and intuitive user experience.

AREA 3

Actionability: Streamline the interface to support efficient task completion.

What did we build?

To validate our design concepts, I created early mockups and prototypes. Through multiple rounds of user testing and iterative refinement, we incorporated valuable feedback to enhance the user experience.

Solving for relevance

Tailoring data presentation to individual roles ensures immediate relevance and actionability. The redesigned interface provides tailored data views for different roles:

  • Accountants: Focus on unmatched commissions.

  • Agents: View upcoming, owed, past due, and paid commissions.

  • Admins: Monitor total revenue, gross and net receipts.

  • Account settings - as seen by the Host agency

  • Account settings - as seen by the Independent contractor

Solving for predictability

Previously, agents faced challenges when trying to view booking details. The existing system required navigating to a separate page with multiple tabs, often leading to confusion and loss of context.

The redesigned details view addresses this issue by providing a streamlined and intuitive experience that keeps users within their current context. This design paradigm of clicking on a row for more context presented in a flyout was further used in other areas of the app.

Solving for actionability

To accommodate the diverse user base, Sion's design prioritized efficient task completion. A system of consistent modals, tailored to each user's role, was implemented to present relevant actions and streamline workflows.

Impact

Sion's redesigned interface significantly improved usability and speed. Common tasks that previously took between 45 seconds and 1 minute can now be completed in less than 15 seconds.