Built an auditing tool for enterprise software.
An activity log was created for the Fleet Enterprise product to audit users, reducing support calls by 30%.
01/ Summary
The Product
Verizon Connect Enterprise Fleet
Fleet is a software solution designed to help manage large fleets efficiently. It offers vehicle monitoring and ensures driver compliance with ELD (Electronic Logging Device), HOS (Hours of Service), and EV (Electric Vehicle) management. Fleet is used by major businesses such as Costco and Aussiemove International.
The Problem
Many Fleet users encountered issues and reached out to customer service to determine who had changed settings or variables in the software.
20%
of these calls were related to identifying the user within their organization who made specific changes.
For example, one customer asked, “All vehicles for this account were set to inactive. Customer wants to know what happened.”
The Solution
Implementing an Audit Log Tool in Fleet
The audit log tool in Fleet would allow us to:
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Identify who made the change
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Determine when the change was made
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Assess the impact of the change
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Review the interactions that occurred
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Obtain information about who changed it
Note: We decided to name our audit log "Activity Log" because it provides details of activities performed by users in the software.
My Role
l led the activity log implementation in Fleet, collaborating with product owners, engineers, and support personnel. I worked with my design team for feedback, delivered the log to engineers, and supported the product during and after launch to monitor outcomes.
02/ Research
Competitor analysis
While looking into the market for potential solutions with the CFTs, we identified that many competitors were offering “Audit Logs” for the software they provide to their customers. Thus, the beginning of this project started with competitor analysis.
02 / 01
Competitor Analysis: I meticulously compiled all the data onto a single screen to get a clear snapshot of the competition. Yes, it's as satisfying as it sounds! 😊
Lucy, Vince and TJ. Key persona for building activity log for Fleet
Persona
Understanding the personas was crucial for the project. Identifying who needed the tool was challenging, so I reviewed our persona list and selected three personas who would be impacted:
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Lucy: Operational Manager
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Vince: IT Manager (System Admin)
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TJ: Small Business Owner
These are the individuals who typically couldn’t find out who made changes and contacted the support team for help.
02 / 02
03/ Process
Implemented the feature using the Double Diamond methodology, with a strong focus on discovery. This involved conducting research, understanding customer personas, crafting user stories, collaborating with product managers, engaging in "How might we" discussions with engineering, and performing competitor analysis. The development phase was equally critical, as it required creating an entirely new feature, which necessitated multiple iterations to refine and achieve the desired outcome.
Lucy, Vince and TJ. Key persona for building activity log for Fleet
Pen & Paper magic
I started by sketching wireframes to identify key challenges and defined three essential columns:
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Date and Time:
To track when changes were made and filter by timing to identify who made the changes. -
Location of Activity:
Indicates where the activity occurred within the software. -
Items Affected:
Details of what was changed, e.g., a driver's contact number in the driver column.
03 / 01
#1 Challenge
Fleet is a complex enterprise tool with many interactions, so simplifying these interactions is crucial. To ensure a good user experience, the audit (or activity log) should be presented in a straightforward and easy-to-understand manner.
Solution
To enhance clarity on who made the changes and what was done, we needed to streamline the filtering process. After a catch-up session with my design team, we simplified the interactions to four categories:
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Deleted
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Edited
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Updated
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Created
03 / 02
Interaction in Fleet
#2 Challenge
In the third column, Items Affected, there’s a potential gap where the user (admin) might not see detailed information. For example, if the item affected was a driver, it should include specific fields, toggles, or checkboxes that were changed. For instance:
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Driver: Mark Robin
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Field Changed: Last Name
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Previous Value: Robin
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New Value: Hutson
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Solution
While browsing through our competitors and consulting with the cross-functional teams (CFTs) and my design team, we discussed potential solutions. We noted that the Unity 3D game engine has a right-hand panel that holds detailed information about selected 3D objects on the screen. This inspired the idea of a “Detail Panel.”
03 / 03
Getting inspiration from Unity 3d for implementing "Detail panel" in activity log
04/ Design. Iterate. Design
I created some initial digital wireframe designs to get an understanding of how the Activity Log should look and feel.
Feedback
After discussing with my design team and CFTs, the majority were happy with the V3 design. We conducted some initial Gorilla testing with other teams at Verizon Connect and found some issues with this concept design.
Usbility testing
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Issues Identified:
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Confusion about the left-hand side panel and the numbers next to sections.
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Too many columns, making the interface cluttered.
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Support button deemed unnecessary and not useful.
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Lack of flexibility around filtering options.
2.Positive Feedback:
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The activity panel on the right-hand side was well-liked.
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The refresh feature was appreciated.
04 / 01
Concept V3: Gorilla testing underway internally.
Acitivity Detail Panel Design
Iterating the Activity Detail Panel was crucial for this project because it performs the heavy lifting. The Activity Logs provide a summary, while the Detail Panel offers more in-depth information, such as navigating who made changes and what those changes were.
04 / 02
05/ Rapid Prototyping
After the testing, did some change to the concept design and did some random prototyping to explore functionality and interactions within activity
Note:💡Please click to play
Prototype 1:
Streamlined the columns into 4 and added detail panel on the right handside
Prototype 2:
Usage of Activity detail panel
06/ A/B testing
It's time for me to conduct A/B testing for the two different design types I've refined to enhance user experience. I introduced chip interactions in the Activity Logs to make the tool more intuitive and user-friendly.
Concept V3
Conept V4: Refined concept after gather feedback from CFTs ✅
After A/B testing Concept V3 and V4, the admin and cross-functional teams preferred Concept V4. The reasons were its superior accessibility, ease of onboarding users, and quick comprehension of the activity log. The log features only three columns: date/time, activities, and affected items. For more details, the admin can simply click on the row to view a detailed breakdown of events.
07/ Hand-off Process
Showing a segment of design hand-off to the development team
Design hand-off
I brought together all the key stakeholders and handed off the design to the engineering team for development. The handoff package usually includes:
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Detailed documentation annotating all the features of the tool.
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Design notes.
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High-fidelity prototypes of all interactions.
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Various states, including error states.
07 / 01
Continuous Development support
I provided continuous development support by making design corrections, following up on implementations, and regularly attending engineering team standups.
07 / 02
I worked closely with the development team to fix bugs and ensure the design was implemented correctly.
08/ Outcome
Activity log implemented in Fleet
Achievement
The activity log in Fleet allows the admin to:
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Identify who made changes ✅
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Determine when changes were made ✅
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Assess the impact of changes ✅
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Review interactions that occurred ✅
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Obtain information about who made changes ✅
Impact
30%⏏
reduction in support calls for low-priority issues, allowing the support team to focus on higher-priority issues.
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Admins can now see who edited or made changes to items.
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NPS (Net Promoter Score) improved by 3 points after the release.