3 design principles for a pleasant administrative experience
Crealo has already simplified the royalty management workflows for many publishers thanks to its comprehensive tool. To make life easier for as many people as possible, I recently helped the Crealo team design a new, free, no-registration tool to streamline the quarterly social contributions to URSSAF.
Above all, Crealo was born with a clear philosophy: to remove the burden of administrative copyright management so that publishers can concentrate on their core business. Building on this foundation, our experience has enabled us to structure 3 key design principles that could almost make administration a pleasure…
Our 3 principles came to life while building the “Ma déclaration URSSAF Crealo” tool
With this tool, Crealo targets customers whose needs are relatively straightforward: to comply with standards, to respect the law. This implies not only a time constraint, but above all a significant confidence constraint. So we had to offer not a simplistic declaration tool, but one that was advanced but affordable and reassuring.
With this in mind, the first principle came to life: “The best tool is the one customers already use”. We could have imagined a bespoke system for transmitting this information, but a robust solution already existed: spreadsheets.
Any publisher who hasn’t yet switched to Crealo uses Excel on a daily basis, and it’s often the core of their tracking machine. Then, it’s much more efficient to enable them to use this tool directly, with a simple sample file that they can then adjust and even remap directly in Crealo. We then become a delicate overlay to their day-to-day tool, rather than a new tool to be adopted.
A project under heavy constraints
With a complex value proposition, detailed information requirements and a major trust issue, this unique web page needed to be effective. That’s when our second principle “Provide understanding, not information overload” came into its own.
The hero is a first example, where the entire sales pitch is made before the tool is directly accessible. The real value for the user is then presented, before explaining the practical implications of generating a file that can be read by URSSAF.
It would have been possible to go into the details of how it works, and the many arguments in its favor, but the second principle forces us to deliver value as quickly as possible. By giving the tool to our customers in the first few seconds, with the minimum understanding necessary, we accelerate its declaration.
Similarly, some of the fields can be complex to enter. We therefore guide the user with simplified options and context-sensitive tooltips on demand. This reduces the user’s mental workload, while providing the understanding needed for a smooth declaration process.
From a technical POC to a real product
As this service was hardly about processing a lot of data and structuring it in a format well-understood by URSSAF, we started by making a technical proof of concept with live design by the developer. As it was a technical product first, technicality quickly became visible to the user… and that’s what introduced our third principle : “Abstract technicalities, reveal complexities”.
On such a complex product, we should not make it look simple as it’s false and could end in hard to fix errors. However, we could try to optimize user inputs by autofilling its SIRET via a live search or by defaulting some options to their most probable value and saying it to our users.
Also error management was key to make this principle come to life. By making the user check the mapping between its file and the technical process, we show them the complexity while helping him to make sure its end declaration will be compliant with URSSAF requirements.
Take aways: 3 design principles for quality administrative services
1st principle: “The best tool is the one customers already use”
Your customers probably spend most of their time on another tool, discover which tool it is and inspire your design from it as much as possible. You can even use this tool as an entrypoint for your service, it will be easier for you to implement and easier for your user to learn. We can replicate this principle with communication medium or even vocabulary.
2nd principle: “Provide understanding, not information overload”
Your user should always be able to understand what is happening especially on a critical flow as URSSAF declaration. However, you should only display what is absolutely required by default. Provide step by step guidance and provide in-context information in a simple language. If needed, provide links to in-depth guides and documents.
3rd principle: “Abstract technicalities, reveal complexities”
Your product can be highly technical but it’s neither why your user came or what interests your user. Telling the user it’s complex can be a good move as it will put him in a focus mindset to make sure he doesn’t make any mistake. We should also handle this complexity with great autocompletion, error prevention and error management.
Build better administrative experiences
Administrative can be pleasant, Crealo team is working to build better, easier, more efficient experiences to allow its clients and the right holders to spend their time on what they value the most.
Discover Crealo now on www.crealo.app
