CINCSystems has a first-of-its-kind property management software that combines management, accounting and banking into one platform. The platform is incredibly powerful, however the team wanted to improve user interaction by refreshing the dashboard user interface.
CINCSystems is the owner of original proprietary property management software. However, they were seeing rising number of customer service requests. Many of the requests were caused by confusion of the users in the software. They were having a difficult time navigating the UI to complete tasks. Each one of these service calls equated with a company cost that CINCSystems wanted to reduce.
As you can see, the platform look was very outdated. I wanted to create a clean, user-friendly interface that would reduce service calls and overall call time.
Creating an easy-to-use web interface to reduce customer service time and empowering the customers more self-sufficient with their needs, thereby saving them time and energy.
Navigating the old dashboard was rather difficult for a user. It had two menus, the main small and reversed out black on top of the larger menu with icons. The double menu was confusing in the information hierarchy. In the new design, I broke up the navigation into two parts in separate locations on the screen. The main navigation remained at the top, in a larger bar with larger font so it can easily be read. The secondary navigation is now in the left panel vertically. I kept the icons, since they are easy visual identifiers for the user.
One of the conflicts of the original dashboard was the client’s need to provide updates to users. It competed with the need for the users to utilize tasks and reports. As you can see, the content in the middle of the dashboard feature the updates, but it dominated the information available. Users, as we found out, wanted to take action on the dashboard. So in the redesign, I created two panels: one panel featuring tasks and reports, and the other panel featuring the most recent platform updates. Now the two directives can live in harmony.
Creating a personalized experience is key for this project. Each user logs into the dashboard with a task list and reports to run. I created a customized user panel on the left hand side. This panel slides in and out, but is fixed on every page. This way the user can immediately address their needs or use the Quick Navigation feature to get easily where they need to go.