JOIN
JOIN is the first Luxembourg-based telecommunication operator offering integrated IT solutions and is the first offering a European tariff equal to a national communication. The company offers free outgoing and incoming calls, texting and internet.
the Project
In May 2014 I joined a design team that builds a resposive website for ongoing telecommunication startup company JOIN Experience. The product contains brand oriented marketplace and internal account system.
A new telecommunication company appearances is not a common thing nowadays in Europe. JOIN choose to target young, progressive population from the beginning. With the help of branding design agency, the company developed their look and future design direction.
JOIN hired design agency Frog Design to make work on the product. I made it to a team of 3 designers which expanded a little bit in the future. As most of the early stage companies JOIN changed it’s business aspects a lot, making new deals and agreements. We were there to adjust the design of live product rapidly while creating the design for the new features.
As I joined the team, MVP of the product has already run. But most of the features and functionality were yet to come. I worked gradually on all sides of the project. One of the biggest plans for the company was to launch JOIN Cloud. An application store inside of a user’s account. The project has integration with a variety of 3rd party apps which puts a lot of design constraints and challenges.
Goals
To fulfill the promise of the TelCo 3.0 Join wants to add a cloud store becoming the one-stop-shop for Online services.The customer will be able to buy and use cloud services through JOIN’s website.
BUSINESS
Offer an on-demand cloud services platform for professionals. Respond to market needs fast and without involving sales agents directly.
USER
Users need to find and order helpful services for their business needs. The process should be easy.
DEVELOPMENT
Create a workable and scalable system that can evolve. Regardless of the Cloud partner or the Cloud catalog size.
Challenges
1. FIND A SERVICE
The user must get services fast. Browse the store through categories, discover new services via marketing campaigns or use the search.
2. INFORM USER
For each service, the user should get the right amount of information. He must be able to get service at the right time to make a decision and place an order.
3. PURCHASE AND GET STARTED
The user needs an easy method to purchase services and get started with documentation presenting how to set devices and use the service.
4. MAINTENANCE
Managing services & licenses, upgrading a service for a fleet of subscribers must be easy.
Sructure & Navigation
Creating a comprehensible structure, that enables users to efficiently find, identify and purchase services.
TAB FILTER
Using a tab navigation to filter the shown content.
+ common navigation system
+ all categories visible on top
– no feed-forward for categories (what’s behind a category)
HUB OVERVIEW
Displaying apps grouped by category, with a link to drill down.
+ flexible dynamic system (buckets could be group or categorized)
+ feed-forward (shown services give an insight into the category)
– no content overview
– need to scroll
GUIDE TOUR
Provide a questionnaire to guide to the right services.
+ common navigation system
+ all categories visible on top
– no feed-forward for categories (what’s behind a category)
Advertisement & Marketing
Enable Join to showcase premium options or new offers.
ONE CENTRAL SPACE
Central marketing area on the store home page.
+ front door approach
+ central advertisement space
– works only on home page
COMBINED SPACE
Combined area of categories navigation and marketing banners.
+ one central spot for bundles and offers
+ banners can be used for multiple purposes
– no separation between navigation and advertisement
DISTRIBUTED BANNERS
Hero banner on top of home and each category page.
+ very clear and targeted
+ each section can have it’s own
banner and offer
+ simple to maintain
– limited number of options to advertise per page
Decision Making
Show the right amount of information to make an acknowledgeable decision. Curate content carefully and show it in a consumable way.
TEASER
Complete summary, with a
banner/screenshot on top.
+ multiple triggers (image, summary,
price, icon)
+ all needed information
+ could be used for marketing
(through banners)
– needs a lot screen space
– too much information
SHORT SUMMARY
Icon with title, short service
description and price.
+ short description, easy to read
+ space efficient
– no real visual trigger
MINIMAL
Recognizable icon with title
and price.
+ easy to scan
+ emphasis on product icon and name
(branding)
– almost no information, user needs to
drill down to learn more
– distinction depens on the
service icon
Up & Cross Selling
Help users to get the right service, by offering supplementary based on his choices. This is an opportunity to increase sales.
RELATED SERVICES
Display related services. Learn user selections and behaviour.
+ know model
– relations have to be establised
STAGGERED VERSION
Provide diff erent versions with
diff erent prices.
+ the customer can purchase to their needs
+ eases the customer into services
– the customer might always purchase the
cheapest version first
UPGRADE NOTIFICATIONS
Notify users if an upgrade
would be recommended.
+ good up-selling moment, with
the actual need for the customer
– might annoy people who don’t want
to upgrade
Account Administration
Giving users a place to see and manage his purchases.
To make the discussion more tangible, we created a mockup combining multiple solutions discussed above.
It shows the tab filters and the hub overview combined. We used the distributed banners on top. It changes depending on the tab filters selected. The services are represented by a screenshot or banner and provide all the needed information.
JOIN Cloud Store Wireframe Version 2014
Result
We spent a couple more weeks on design refinements and development analysis. We needed to adjust our design to new APIs constraints. Most important we needed to stay flexible and ready for new functionality to be added. The first MVP release went well and held most of the functionality planned.
However, the design process didn’t end here. Over the next few weeks, we spent time adapting and improving the UI according to various development constraints. After the first release, we start getting first analytics data and feedback from users. The information helped us to make further improvements in next releases. JOIN started getting revenue from cloud apps partnership and got a platform to add more products.
JOIN Cloud Store Design Candidate
Besides Cloud itself, I worked on numbers of other things for JOIN. Those include JOIN public website, e-store where users buy devices and tariff plans and a bunch of third-party integrations.
Unfortunately, as our design team left JOIN, the company changed its direction. In the attempt to migrate it’s functionality to Drupal the whole website got redesigned. As a result, most of the current public website is completely redone by other design agency at the moment.
Other than that, the experience I got working with people on this project made one of the most significant impacts on my career.
