Productivity Task Manager
Streamlining PNNL's workflow through enhancing AI Microsoft tools
Client background check
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Outlook Calendar
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My Calendar
PNNL
Client
Team Meeting
Tuesday, May 16, 10:00 AM
User Research Team
Room 384 B
One-on-One with Supervisor
Tuesday, May 16, 11:00 AM
Product Team
Company All-Hands Meeting
Tuesday, May 16, 5:00 PM
Team Bulding
Tuesday, May 16, 10:00 AM
User Research Team
Product Team
Design Team
Lab Safety Training
Tuesday, May 16, 3:00 PM
Client Lunch
Tuesday, May 16, 12:00 PM
Product Team
Room 149
Project Status Review
Tuesday, May 16, 2:00 PM
Product Team
Client Presentation
Tuesday, May 16, 5:00 PM
User Research Team
Design Team
OVERVIEW
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Our client, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), is a premier research institution laboratory dedicated to solving critical challenges in energy, environmental sustainability, and national security through cutting-edge science and technology. The diverse team of scientists, engineers, and researchers elicit many working needs in order to work towards advancing scientific discovery and technological solutions.
DURATION
20 Weeks
MY ROLE
Lead UI Designer
TEAM
Ashley Vu
Mark Summer
Jessica Kuo
Austin Yung
UX-DESIGN
DESIGN SYSTEM
PROBLEM SPACE
Task management at PNNL
A heap of risks and inefficiencies.
At PNNL, the absence of a standardized task management system creates significant inefficiencies and collaboration barriers. Employees rely on a fragmented mix of tools—including Microsoft Planner, Outlook, GitHub Issues, and even pen and paper—leading to inconsistent workflows and misaligned team efforts.
Without a centralized platform, tracking progress, managing workload, and maintaining visibility on important tasks become difficult. Additionally, time spent organizing and onboarding tools rather than executing work further exacerbate these challenges.
Complex Tools — Overly intricate systems create friction, making task management cumbersome
Fragmented Workflows — Inconsistent task management causes misalignment, redundancy, and tracking difficulties
High Barrier to Entry — Complex and inconsistent tools require extra effort to learn, slowing adoption and efficiency
Disjointed Tools
Complex Systems
Inefficient Workflows
so on
so fourth
High Learning Curve
DESIGN QUESTION
How can we effectively enhance the task management system at PNNL to boost employee productivity and operational efficiency?
SOLUTION
A Centralized PNNL Workplace Hub
Our solution is a centralized workplace hub in the form fo a SharePoint template that streamlines personal workflows for PNNL employees.
Reduce platform switching friction
AI powered task automation
Integrated Microsoft ecosystem
TIMELINE
Our process
Week 1
Problem Discovery
Understanding PNNL Mission, Constraints, Productivity and Workflow
Week 4
User Interviews
Analyzing 6 Diverse Employee Groups to Walkthrough Platforms
Week 8
Product Immersion
Experimentation with Company Design Systems and Ecosystem
Week 12
Competitive Analysis
Assessing Alternative Experiences and Plugins for Enhanced Workflows
Week 16
Participatory Design
Engaged with Employees for Unsupervised Blank Canvas + Widget Design
USER RESEARCH
Conducting user interviews
6 Interviews
Zoom
To understand the diverse task management practices at PNNL, we conducted a series of user interviews with six employees working in various roles across different disciplines. Our goal was to gain insights into their current methods of tracking and managing tasks and identify common pain points and requirements for a standardized solution.
Synthesizing the interview findings
To uncover the common user pain points, we conducted affinity mapping. By clustering user feedback we uncovered hidden patterns and prioritized user pain points. By translating raw interview data into user insights, we were developed a baseline to refer to when making any design decisions to ensure our solution was rooted in real user needs.
Main user insights
Through our synthesis we uncovered several major pain points addressing multiple areas in users’ current work stream.
Balancing AI innovation and security
Users are excited about AI's potential but need to balance implementing robust security measures with adopting AI to protect data security and privacy
Disjointed tools
Users reported experiencing difficulties and inefficiencies when needing to switch between multiple tools and platforms to task manage.
Lack of simplicity in tools
Users actually valued low-fidelity tools (i.e. pen and paper) for task management their universal accessibility and ease of use.
High barrier to entry
New and existing employees are deterred by a steep learning curve in learning new tools inhibiting their ability to optimize their workstream.
USER RESEARCH
Translating user needs into design requirements
DESIGN REQUIREMENTS
Integration of multiple platforms into a centralized place
Seamless AI Adoption
Consolidated task management system
Simple interface for simple tasks tracking tasks
Automated data synching from other platforms
Leveraging AI to reduce manual task tracking efforts
DESIGN ITERATIONS
Wireframing solutions
Sketching out the ideas
After gathering design requirements from user insights, we explored the company's design and tool ecosystem to develop low-fidelity mockups featuring modular widgets. These early prototypes allowed us to test and refine solutions that directly addressed user needs.
Welcome name
Search for any file, folder, etc
To-Do List
Latest News
Recent Tools
Suggested Items
Task 1
Task 1
Task 1
Date
Date
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Task 1
Date
Title
Description
Recap
Tool name here...
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Enter task here...
Add collaborators
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George Green
Today
Patty Pink
Today
Patty Pink
Today
Patty Pink
Today
DESIGN ITERATIONS
Designing solutions based on user insights
Communication Feature
FEATURE
Create tasks and events easily by inputting natural language prompts and AI will create, assign, or schedule tasks seamlessly integrating with tools such as Microsoft Outlook and To-Do.
INSIGHT
Employees seek effortless task management that reduces manual effort and multi-platform navigation
Information Feature
FEATURE
Access a quick view of their categorized and prioritized events without switching platforms by integrating Outlook Calendar.
INSIGHT
Employees value immediate visibility of their calendar throughout the day making it an essential tool to surface.
Notes Feature
FEATURE
Consolidate recently accessed files, browsers, and emails in a single access shortcut.
INSIGHT
Employees expressed a need for a centralized workspace balance personal and tasks without navigating multiple systems.
Task Feature
FEATURE
The embedded To-Do widget enables employees to quickly add and manage tasks while prioritizing visibility and ease of use.
INSIGHT
Employees preferred simple and highly visible task-tracking tools, similar to pen and paper.
USABILITY TESTING
Conducting partipatory design sessions
Designing with users not just for them
We decided to conduct several participatory design sessions in effort to co-create with users ensuring the design was as closely tailored to the users as possible. After designing several of the widgets we allowed users to place the widgets in the location that felt most intuitive to them.
SOLUTION
Delivering the solution that users need
The participatory design sessions helped us to ultimately deliver a solution that was user-centered and increased employee productivity.
SIMPLE AND VISIBLE
Prioritizing a simple and easy to use interface that simulated low-fidelity tools like pen and paper
OPTIMIZING WORKFLOWS
Leverage AI to reduce manual task tracking efforts.
UNIFIED TASK MANAGEMENT
Provide a seamless one-stop shop by centralizing important tools and information
DELIVERY
Final Design
