Role

Design system
UX/UI

Client

Contact Center services startup

Team

Crystal, Emma, Joe, Victor, Ozgun

Overview

To meet the demands of modern customer service, we set out to create an omnichannel support platform that unified Voice, Chat Messaging, Voicemail, and Email within a single application. The goal was to deliver a holistic agent view enabling seamless and efficient support across all channels. I collaborated with other designers and product managers to deliver a consolidated desktop app. The designers and I handled separate areas of this project — I led the design of general session navigation, Chat Messaging, and Voicemail.

Laptop with the desktop app open

Objective

Reduce tool fragmentation and app-switching across communication channels

Create a holistic agent workspace that supports multiple, concurrent interactions

Discovery

Due to budget and time constraints, I could not perform a full discovery and research process. The product manager handled general discovery and shared their insights with me. In a personal effort, I created a user persona to help me keep users in mind.

Along with internal insight, users were providing feedback on what they dislike about the product offerings via  G2, a B2B software and services review platform.

"But I thing that the biggest issue is that since the tool is web based, it uses a lot of memory and if your computer is not fast enough, you might be waiting for minutes to see the list of agents and if you try to change the aux, it might take some time to load or it will not load at all. The tool needs some polishing on that part or maybe offering a desktop version might help solve the issue, however, it would lose the portability and the easy access it currently has."

- User in Enterprise (8/21/2019)

Challenge

Agents were frequently required to switch between multiple disconnected applications to access information and respond to customers. This slowed response times, increased cognitive load, and reduced customer satisfaction. The core UX challenge was to unify all channels into a single intuitive interface without overwhelming agents.

Research

For session tab navigation, I performed an indirect competitive analysis of applications with multiple tabs functionality. I researched apps like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Figma, and Adobe products. I took a particular interest in understanding how their tab components behaved with responsive sizing. What was the minimum width? Did they truncate the text? Did they hide the favicons?

Solution

I focused on designing comprehensive user flows while asking questions on how our products interact in a new context. I had multiple review sessions with the product managers to discuss missing use cases to fully flesh out our user journeys. We found many scenarios to cover missing contact points in the app as these are new situations not covered in the standalone products. I introduced a session tab bar that allowed agents to seamlessly navigate between active conversations and provide crucial data like various notifications. I designed the Chat and Voicemail experience ensuring they functioned cohesively within the broader system and within the app. There are cases when both Chat and Call channels were used in one session with a customer.

Feature Highlight: Real-Time Announcement System

Problem: Internal communication between admins, supervisors, and agents was previously handled via email or third-party tools, leading to missed updates and operational misalignment.

Solution: In collaboration with a Product Manager, I led the design and implementation of a real-time announcement feature, built directly into the agent desktop application.

Agent experience

  • I added in-app notification for critical updates, alerts, or announcements.
  • I emphasized how these alerts should be non-disruptive to the interface while agents are in active sessions.
  • The ability to view and manage announcements were handled in a notification menu

Admin experience

  • I designed a setting addition to the back-end interface for creating, targeting, and scheduling announcements
  • There were options to define the duration, recipient scope, and message priority.
  • I found a missing feature neccessary to complete the entire user journey and support long-term efficiency. We added an archival system for storing expired messages and the ability enable its reuse.

Outcome

This feature improved:

  • Real-time agent awareness during a fast-paced environment and reducing communication gaps
  • Operational alignment across the platforms without relying on third-party systems
  • Communication efficiency for admins through lifecycle management

Results and Impact

Due to the fast-paced startup environment, I don't have numerical metrics for the impact of the desktop app. However, I have pulled a quote from user reviews on G2, a B2B software and services review platform.

"What I like best about [...] is how it brings everything together in one place! My favorite part has to be the agent desktop - having all the tools and data I need in a single interface saves me so much time and frustration. It just makes my job so much easier and more enjoyable overall."

- Customer Service Representative (5/28/2024)

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