How I designed a feature that helped improve the work-life balance of Kargo Commerce’s internal and external users.
The impact of scheduled designs
Scheduled Designs automates the process of setting overlay designs for ads, it has been highly praised by our users for its positive impact on their work-life balance. It allows users to pre-schedule designs, eliminating the need for manual effort during inconvenient hours.
Scheduled Designs is one of the most well received features I’ve ever designed due to it positive impact on the work-life balance of our users. These are digital advertising professionals such as customer success managers, account directors, and paid social campaign managers.
The essence of the Scheduled Designs feature is its automation capabilities, which drastically reduce the manual effort previously required from our users. Before its launch, users had to manually set overlay designs for their ads to go live on platforms like Facebook, often during inconvenient hours or over weekends. With the introduction of Scheduled Designs, this cumbersome process was eliminated. Users can now pre-schedule these tasks, allowing them to focus more on strategic aspects of their work instead of getting bogged down by repetitive tasks.
This feature not only fostered a better work-life balance but also boosted overall productivity. Our internal users and external clients have reported a significant positive impact, appreciating the freedom and flexibility it provides them.
Let’s rewind to start from the beginning
Scheduled designs aimed to streamline operations, reduce manual oversight, and improve ad delivery effectiveness, particularly for time-sensitive promotions like holiday sales or events occurring outside regular working hours.
This project was a feature I designed at Kargo Commerce, which is the social advertising division of Kargo, a leader in digital advertising technology.
Our primary goal for this feature was to create a solution that would allow users to schedule the launch of overlay designs for ads across various publishers. In the digital advertising realm and in the context of social advertising, "publishers" refer to entities that own digital advertisement spaces, such as Facebook and Pinterest.
Before this feature was launched, there was a lot of tedious effort involved anytime overlay designs had to go live at odd hours, on public holidays or for seasonal promotions such as holidays sales. For instance, if a client wanted to run a Black Friday promotion, our users had to ensure the overlay was activated at midnight and remember to update the designs once the promotion concluded. This process not only demanded excessive manual intervention but also led to less than optimal ad delivery.
Recognising the inefficiency of this workflow, the need for a more streamlined process was clear. We then set out to develop a solution that would simplify these operations, reducing the need for manual oversight and enhancing the overall effectiveness of ad delivery.
Highlighting the wonderful team that worked on this.
I collaborated closely with my product manager and my engineering team to create designs that met real user needs, with the help of my project manager who always ensured that everyone could contribute effectively.
I had the privilege of leading the design efforts on this project. Throughout the process, I collaborated closely with my exceptional Product Manager, Helen Fulkes. Together, we engaged in brainstorming sessions and user interviews to ensure the designs met real user needs.
Bringing our ideas and the designs to life were our skilled engineers: Eric Grehan, Cronin-O’Mahoney, and Antonio Del Castillo. Their skills was pivotal in transforming our design concepts into functioning features.
The project's success is also greatly attributed to Stella McKay-Firth, our Project Manager. Her exceptional management skills kept the project on track, ensuring that every team member could effectively contribute to our shared goal.
How I designed the solution
The solution features a modal interface with intuitive controls for setting dates, times, and durations, as well as a toggle switch for progressive disclosure of advanced scheduling options, all aimed at simplifying the setup process and addressing user pain points effectively.
Due to confidentiality agreements with Kargo, I'm limited in the details I can share publicly about the interface. However, I'll outline the essential aspects that demonstrate my approach in this case study.
Leveraging Kargo Commerce's Component Library made the UI design process smooth and efficient. It eliminated the need to extensively focus on style guides, colours, and component design, allowing me to concentrate on strategic problem-solving.
My primary goal was to address user pain points effectively and a key aspect of my design strategy was to prioritise simplicity and clarity, ensuring the setup process for scheduled designs is straightforward.
My solution features a modal interface that simplifies essential scheduling functions such as selecting start dates/times, setting time zones, and determining the duration when the overlay designs will be live. These core functionalities form the backbone of this feature.
I aimed for an intuitive user experience by using clearly labeled fields and straightforward language to create an intuitive user experience.
There’s an information icon next to the title that provide users with additional context or help regarding the scheduling process, which is great for managing the learning curve for new users.
Critical actions like "Cancel" and "Apply," are placed at the bottom of the modal, following conventional design practices for dialog boxes.
Introducing the 'Select Duration' toggle switch allows for progressive disclosure of information, revealing the functionality to set an end date and a recurring frequency.
When setting up the recurrence, users can set up a custom frequency tailored to their needs.
While setting up a custom frequency, users are allowed to set up schedules that repeat at specific intervals (daily, weekly, monthly) and on selected days.
They could also set when the repetition ends, either on a specific date, after a certain number of occurrences providing even more flexibility in how overlay designs can be scheduled.
I also accounted for proper error handling so that the system displays error messages when the user sets a repetition that conflicts with the event duration or exceeds a certain limit, ensuring the users are informed and can make necessary adjustments.
Validating this solution before developer handoff
The usability tests yielded overwhelmingly positive results, with all users completing the tasks unaided.
I conducted usability tests to ensure that newly designed solution fully met users’ needs. The feedback was exceptionally positive. Each of the five participants completed all 5 of usability tasks without assistance, confirming that our approach effectively addresses user pain points. This success bolstered my confidence in the viability of the solution I designed.
Reflecting on the impact of this project
This feature has significantly improved workflow efficiency for users and clients, reducing manual workload and enabling seamless management of time-sensitive and international campaigns. This feature has also facilitated easier A/B testing and future scheduling of seasonal promotions, leading to more informed decision-making and improved campaign effectiveness across different time zones.
The journey with scheduled designs has been transformative because it marks a significant shift in how our users and clients approach their work. Witnessing firsthand the positive feedback and hearing how our project has made a difference has been incredibly rewarding. Below, I’ll delve into the key areas where this project has made a significant impact.
Reducing the Manual Workload of our users and clients
Scheduled designs dramatically reduced the manual workload for our users and clients. By enabling them to schedule overlay designs in advance, we streamlined their workflow, allowing for things like seasonal promotions to be scheduled ahead of time. This means that even when users are away, their overlay designs go live as planned without the need for manual oversight.
Ability to seamlessly launch Time-Sensitive Campaigns
For promotions or events that are time-sensitive, such as a flash sale, the scheduling designs feature ensures that the overlay designs goes live at the exact moment it's needed without manual intervention.
Future scheduling of seasonal campaigns became so much easier
For seasonal promotions, such as holiday sales, scheduled designs can be set up in advance to align with the start and end of the promotional period, ensuring that the campaign is timely and relevant.
Managing international and global campaigns became a breeze
Kargo Commerce has staff all over Europe and North America, with a even more diverse list of clients all over the world including the middle east. When managing campaigns for clients in different time zones, scheduled designs became crucial to ensure that the overlay designs are displayed at appropriate local times, regardless of where the campaign manager is located. This ensured that campaigns reached target audiences in different time zones without manual intervention, leading to improved campaign effectiveness.
Users could perform A/B Tests more smoothly and easily
With scheduled designs, it became easier to conduct A/B testing on different times and days to see when overlays are performing best. This data was then used to inform future campaigns, leading to more informed decision-making and strategy development.
To conclude
Scheduled designs really changed the way our users worked and managed ad campaigns on Facebook. Previously, users faced the challenge of manually activating overlay designs for multiple client accounts across various time zones, a process that was both complex and time-consuming. Now, thanks to our innovative solution, this cumbersome task has been streamlined into a simple, intuitive flow, allowing for the automation of what was once a tedious process. This change not only saves our users valuable time but also enhances their overall workflow efficiency.