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Redesigning IBM Pearl Alerts (now Pearl Insights)
Desktop Website | Internal Tool

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Overview

IBM Pearl is a marketing analytics platform that enables 5,000+ IBM marketers to interpret vast amounts of data within an integrated easy-to-use solution.

Pearl Insights (previously Alerts) was first developed in 2018 as an analytics service to provide performance and operational alerts at scale, advising marketers on where to focus to unlock the most value from their campaign data.

Tasked with redesigning the alerts feature to meet new business needs, our team carried out extensive user research to inform and develop designs firmly rooted in user needs.

My Responsibilities

Own product design from end to end

Design UX/UI updates

Build Invision prototype for research

Tools

Sketch

Invision

Zoom & WebEx (for moderated usability testing)

Understanding the Problem

Business Needs

With a need to update the Alerts feature so that the insights provide value to the business, the ask was a redesign to:

1. Reintroduce as “smarter alerts.”
2. Update alerts to align with new go- to-market strategy.
3. Identify opportunities for UI design and functionality improvements.

Launch Survey to Current Pearl Users

To ensure our solutions met the needs of users and the business, we needed to first gather feedback on the hypothesis that Pearl Alerts was underutilized.

We ran a survey to better understand the user sentiment and usage around the feature to inform design decisions. Out of the 63 survey respondents, nearly half (48%) indicated that they do not use Pearl Alerts, mostly due to: 

  • Low awareness of the feature

  • Not needed for certain roles

  • Unsure how to set up in a way that's relevant

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What is the Problem?

IBM Pearl users need access to relevant and timely insights about the reports they work with daily in order to know where to focus analysis and plan with their team.

Designing the Solution Part 1

Homepage Module for Awareness

Surfacing insights on the homepage makes them a focal point

BEFORE

AFTER

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Guided Setup for Customization

How might we help users receive insights that are actually relevant to their work?

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Onboarding for Education

Re-introducing the feature with an interactive onboarding experience featuring a welcome video and feature tour encourages users to learn about the value Pearl Insights is providing.

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Moderated Usability Testing

60-minute interviews. Participants provided feedback on the information presented, design layout, and overall user flow.

12 Participants

Across a variety of IBM Marketing roles

4 Tasks

More than 18 screens tested as participants walked through 4 tasks.

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Synthesis done on Miro

Findings

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Designing the Solution Part 2

Streamline Onboarding

Reduce cognitive load & add interactivity

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Visualizations to Digest Data

Increase scannability and digestion of insights through visuals

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Customized Experience

Not only do Pearl users need to be able to customize their insights during set up, they need to be able to adjust as their workflow changes

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Reflecting on the Experience

  • Managing an expedited research and design process was a rewarding challenge

  • Revisiting our processes individually and as a team forced us to work smarter than harder

  • Psychological safety: Healthy communication and trust amongst the team to execute each other's roles successfully

  • Lesson learned: prioritizing a dev presence early in the design process to validate decisions is a MUST

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