KRIS Workspace

Problem

Before the era of Dropbox and Google Drive, KRIS emerged as a pioneering solution for secure document management. Users could retrieve documents from anywhere, lock them for editing locally, and then upload them back to the cloud. In particular, its role-based access control and audit trails made it a favourite among organisations with strict data security requirements, such as government agencies.

However, as technology advanced, newer platforms like Dropbox and Google Drive reshaped how people worked with documents, and they increasingly adapted to and sought after more convenient workflows. KRIS users began inquiring about features that could offer similar conveniences in their daily workflows.

How might we help users seamlessly integrate KRIS into their daily workflows to optimise time and effort while maintaining its robust security features?

Discovery

We learnt that:

Context-switching is cumbersome

Users had to constantly switch between KRIS and their main task on other applications like Microsoft Office and Outlook.

Collaboration is difficult

Edits can only be made by one user at a time, so users found themselves relying on a patchwork of emails and messaging apps to collaborate.

Workflows are disjointed

KRIS's final manual upload step was often unintentionally skipped, highlighting its disconnect from users' core workflows

These insights revealed the potential to streamline workflows, particularly in how users interacted with and edited content, and we made the strategic decision to develop and integrate an online editor into the KRIS platform. We called it Workspace.

Brainstorm

I began by studying our competitors' products to better understand various mental models, and collect ideas on features we could incorporate into Workspace.

I mapped out a high-level user flow diagram to imagine how Workspace would fit into KRIS. This helped us identify the essential features to prioritise for our initial launch.

Next, I created wireframes to plan out each aspect of the editor, ensuring a logical layout and user-friendly interface.

Finally, high-fidelity mockups were developed to visualise the final design and gather stakeholder feedback before development.

Usability Test

I planned and executed two user studies to:

• Evaluate the ease of editing and publishing an existing document on KRIS using Workspace
• Test the actions users can perform on a document within Workspace
• Measure the effectiveness of the onboarding experience for Workspace
• Identify any other missing critical features not currently planned for Workspace

These studies were conducted with both users familiar and entirely new to KRIS, and we learnt that:

Balance clarity and efficiency

While the process to (i) first lock and (ii) subsequently select to edit existing documents on KRIS using Workspace was clear, users found that there were too many screens to get through.

Opt for clear and simple copy, and keep it consistent

The copy lacked clarity in some places. One user also brought to attention the inconsistent application of the terms 'document' and 'draft' across different parts of the site.

Users often skim onboarding tooltips and retain little from the process

For those unfamiliar with KRIS, this effect is more marked, as they first need to go through the primary onboarding to get a comprehensive understanding of the platform, before learning about specific features such as Workspace.

Challenges

One of the primary challenges encountered during the design of Workspace was its integration with existing KRIS features.

Designing robust feature pathways for security and usability

We needed to map out all pathways and edge cases between existing KRIS features and Workspace, while thoroughly considering users’ document access rights, in order to ensure data security and a seamless user experience.

Usability and relevancy of KRIS's existing features

A review of KRIS's existing features revealed that users did not understand what some of them were for, why they had similar names (e.g. ‘check out’ and ‘check out and lock’), and how their functions differed. We found that only a small handful of users were using these features and subsequently proposed for them to be sunset.

Final Design Highlights

Workspace was launched as part of both the existing on-prem KRIS Enterprise, as well as KRIS Lite, a newly released SaaS version of KRIS.

Streamlined document editing and management

Workspace allows users to create new documents, upload documents from desktop and edit existing documents on KRIS, offering flexibility across different workflows. Once edits are done, documents are published immediately to KRIS.

This solution minimises tool-switching by removing the need for additional Google or Microsoft products, allowing KRIS to be better integrated into users’ workflows.

Protected real-time collaboration

Workspace reduces communication overhead by enabling multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously. KRIS’ hallmark security is maintained through granular document access controls and comprehensive audit trails.

Enhanced usability of existing features

Workspace's launch was accompanied by an updated UI and copywriting for KRIS, and the removal of features with usability or relevancy issues. This helped to simplify the user experience.

Bite-sized onboarding experience

Key Takeaways

🤹🏻 Striking a balance when integrating new features into an existing product

While it was essential to introduce new features and update or discontinue some existing ones to remain market-relevant, we needed to ensure these changes were not so extensive as to alienate our existing users. Support should also be offered to users impacted by the modification or discontinuation of existing features.

💻 Engaging developers early as design partners

I collaborated with our developer team in China, who had built the existing core product, and their deep familiarity with the product was crucial in identifying blindspots and ensuring seamless user flows, especially when integrating new features with the existing ones.

An added perk of this bilingual environment was the opportunity to learn technical terms in Chinese. This lead to the creation of a handy mini-dictionary, which eventually became a shared team resource to enhance communication.

Feel free to send any other recommended resources my way!