I actively contributed to considerable sales-related web application projects as a Senior UX Designer at Oracle Application Lab (OAL). I would like to highlight one among them: the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Cost Comparison project, which was a greenfield initiative focused on net-new concept development rather than iterating on existing platforms. Working within strict time constraints and minimal initial requirements, I was tasked with designing the core application workflows. My design goal was to visualize and automate a high-profile customer’s experience, comparing their costs against competitor data, while seamlessly integrating the vital communication touchpoints with their dedicated OCI sales representative. This process delicately intertwined the user journeys of both the customer and the sales team into a unified experience.
[*To comply with the company’s confidentiality agreement, I am unable to share the specific details of the project. However, I provided a high-level overview of its process and outcomes.]
Project>
OCI Cost Comparison
Team & Role>
As a Senior UX Designer within the Oracle Application Lab (OAL) team, I independently spearheaded a critical UX consultation project, providing expert guidance and strategic design direction in response to a direct request from OCI’s sales-related product team.
Objectives>
The OCI Cost Comparison project is focused on achieving several key objectives:
- Brainstorming
- Concrete methods for presenting and analyzing competitor data for the cost comparison effectively
- How to streamline the cost comparison process for two user groups of customers and OCI sales representatives
- Defining
- High-level workflows for the initial concept development
- Shared understanding for the stakeholder alignment
- Designing & Building
- Detailed workflows
- Polished high-fidelity prototypes
- Interactions
- Delivering
- UI handoffs to the development team
Technical Platforms>
Figma, FigJam
UX & UI Process>
- Defined core features from the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) requirements
- Discovered potential user pain points
- Brainstormed design ideations
- Designed two user workflows using the storyboard mechanism:
- Customer engagement – Customer Upload Center:
- Successful customer file upload workflow
- Unsuccessful customer file upload workflow
- Sales representative engagement – OCI Cost Estimator, Price Comparison Bill Guided Process:
- Getting Ready for the Price Comparison Bill feature
- Receiving the Notification feature
- Reviewing the Uploaded Comparison Bill in the Guided Process feature
- Customer engagement – Customer Upload Center:
- Built high-fidelity prototypes & interactions
- Delivered the UI handoffs to developers:
- Error handling
- Annotations
- Iterated on the design process based on the user and stakeholder feedback
Challenge) Stakeholders requested a premature high-fidelity prototype, risking scope creep and rework during the initial concept development stage.
=> Resolutions:
I advised the team against proceeding with a high-fidelity prototype during the research and discovery phase, explaining that detailed visual design before solidifying the workflow architecture can impede efficient iteration. Advocating instead for a low-fidelity approach focused on core functionality and rapid testing, I distilled the complex requirements into two distinct user workflow storyboards—one for customers and the other for the OCI sales representative—to effectively visualize and communicate the proposed information architecture. This strategic pivot was well-received by stakeholders and led to a successful presentation with positive feedback.
Lessons Learned:
When justified, challenge existing rules or conventions with superior alternatives.
I leveraged storyboards as a crucial visual storytelling mechanism to clearly define and present comprehensive user journeys and high-level workflows for both the customer and sales representative user experiences and interactions. This strategic use of visual communication successfully aligned key stakeholders, fostering a shared understanding and minimizing misinterpretation. The initiative culminated in a seamless transition to the development phase, delivering polished, interactive high-fidelity prototypes and detailed UI specifications, streamlining the handoff to the development team.
Despite a considerably short timeline, the OCI Cost Comparison project was successfully implemented and launched, introducing two key application features:
- Customer Upload Center
- OCI Cost Estimator, Price Comparison Bill Guided Process
The OAL team previously used high-fidelity prototypes for pitching the initial workflow presentation to the stakeholders as part of the discovery phase and brainstorming sessions. Following the positive feedback on my storyboard presentation, the OAL UX team adopted the storyboard method as a formal process during the early concept development stage for low-fidelity prototype and workflow design.