Internal Tool Activity Log
Records all user actions inside the Ops internal tool
Project Overview
Currently deployed in prod as of June 2021
Domuso is a late stage Fintech startup in the property management sector. Their internal tool known as Ops UI performs a number of critical functions for business operations such as onboarding/offboarding properties, updating property information, and more. As the company grows, so did a need to remember what actions where being taken within this portal. For example, it would be necessary to see when a user changed a routing number to a property for documentation and security reasons. This can save work hours, establish documentation, and improve security.
The Problem: Create an activity log which displays all actions taken within the Ops internal tool. Create everything using stock Ant React components.
Complexity
- Within the Ops UI, multiple fields will appear when toggling on a section. How will we log these items?
- The activity log will fill up quickly with just a few actions being taken
- Interaction will change with many log items, a user may need to search or filter to see actions rather than glance
Approaches
Reducing complexity
After interviewing users, it became clear to me that I would need to reduce the complexity of the log items.
Iterations
Early prototypes:
- Earliest iterations included a drawer to view changes made in the Property Information. Due to the large scope of such a project, this was abandoned early on for a simpler approach
- Other iterations included grouping similar log items. The user could then view individual log items in a modal, nested page, or accordion. Due to the large number of log items and difficulty in grouping many, this was also abandoned in favor of a simpler approach.
- Ideas from these early versions, including the Comments feature and Category/Verb/Changes dynamic was used in the final product
Later prototypes
- Doing away with groupings simplifies things, but also necessitates the addition of a filter feature
- Ant Design incudes some filter components, the challenge is how to apply them
Later prototypes: Filter
User testing is your friend
- Based on user feedback from testing, quick settings can include selected intervals of time
- User can also select a date range
- User can filter for actions made by a specific user
- User can filter by type of action
- Both filters can be combined for higher level granularity
Implemented solution
- Several tests later, the Activity Log was rolled out over the course of a 2 week scrum sprint
- Working with QA, I was able to account for all log item edge cases and represent them in the activity log
- Feedback from the team has been excellent. The process of contacting a developer to investigate changes used to take 1 week or more, and now is instantaneous. Reduced developer hours means reduced operating costs.
- There is no longer a need to contact multiple support members asking if they recall making a change.
Takeaways
I am able to address complexity when approaching a design. Not all UX work is sleek B2C interfaces, and I am able to work on internal tools just as well as other products.
The key to success in this product was my communication between various departments Product, Internal Ops, Engineering, Sys Admin.
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