Program Tracker

The National Foodservice & On-Premise (NFSOP) team consists of marketers who are responsible for tracking consumer promotions and customer campaigns in several hundred locations across the country. Overall, the site is mostly a repository for reference documents and a directory for team member responsibilities, though they did want us to rethink their new tool called the “STAR Program Tracker.” For years, the team had been inputting data into a massive spreadsheet for each program - which had proven to be quite burdensome for the marketers managing the data and the leadership team monitoring program progress. 

Discover – A researcher and I conducted phone interviews with marketers and senior leadership. Several distinct patterns emerged: leaders wanted a quick and visual view of all programs at-a-glance; marketers hated the spreadsheet method and wanted an easy way to input the data incrementally; each marketer mentioned sorting/filtering capabilities and only viewing their programs easily.

Define – I created a clickable prototype of the Program Tracker to validate the needs of the marketers and leadership team. The prototype helped me define the details needed in the “at-a-glance” dashboard. The prototype also helped me understand the design needs for the four data segments that marketers track throughout a promotion or campaign.

Design – With design needs validated through multiple prototype revisions, I was able to provide the leadership with the exact details that they want to reference at-a-glance. Unfortunately, I have been asked to not share the incremental data entry segments the marketers use when adding / editing a program (just imagine a tabbed form with customized drop-downs and checkboxes).

Deliver – We put extra care into adding fun interactions into the user's experience, primarily due to the frustration expressed by the end users. Plus, several pages lacked substance – I described several micro-interactions for the developer to implement - to add a little delight to the experience. We also added animations to the Program Tracker dashboard content on page load, plus some show / hide animations throughout the interface.

Results – The marketing and leadership teams appreciated the thought and energy we put into improving their tracking experience. They are already planning a phase two that will incorporate another currently burdensome tool. UX wins another advocate!