Paperchase — A Case Study
Paperchase is a renowned accounting firm specialising in serving the restaurant industry across the US, UK, and the Middle East. They provide comprehensive accounting services and a suite of software solutions to streamline financial transactions for their clients.
In early 2022, they engaged our services to redesign their client portal with the goal of optimising user friendly, intuitive interaction.
Project Scope
The redesign of Paperchase’s client portal encompassed several modules that helped users upload invoices, manage payments and expenses, track their revenue details, user management, and more. This also included redesigning their reporting and dashboard modules, presenting information in a usable and engaging manner.
In this case study we will cover the following modules:
Design Process
Research
To begin with we conducted extensive research into the product, starting with an audit where we used Neilsen Norman’s Usability Heuristics in order to understand the problems with the existing product, as well as spending a lot of time speaking with stakeholders and users in order to understand their needs and goals. User interviews were conducted routinely, for each module we worked on.
Strategise
Once we had a solid understanding of the requirements, we then got into strategising solutions, keeping the users’ needs at the forefront of our minds. We kept the Paperchase team in the loop through the entire process, taking their advice and opinions at every crucial step. As we are based in India, and their team is spread across India, England, and the US, we used asynchronous communication via Basecamp and Loom to make it easier to work across three different time zones.
Design
Once we were satisfied with the UX strategy, we then set about designing the visual aspect, making sure that all the visual communication is cohesive with the brand’s identity, and tells a compelling story. We used colours, layout, and emphasis to guide the users through the workflow without them ever having to think of what needs to be done next.
Test
In this final phase of the process, we tested our solutions with the users implementing feedback and iterating until the product perfectly solved the users’ needs.
eDocs Module
Simplifying Invoice Management
Challenges
- Overwhelming cognitive load due to a busy single-screen design.
- Difficulty tracking specific invoices within large PDFs.
Solution
- Introduced progressive disclosure with separate tabs for uploading and viewing invoices.
- Implemented automatic division of uploaded PDFs into individual pages with thumbnails for easy navigation.
Cognitive Load
The amount of mental effort it takes to carry out a task. Many factors can contribute to cognitive load; such as a cluttered screen, unintuitive workflows, or too many choices.Progressive Disclosure
A UX technique where the workflow walks the user through the task in logical steps, only ever showing the user what they need to see at every step.
Invoice Management
Unified user-centric solution
Challenges
- Invoice Approval and Payment were previously separate modules, leading to confusion among users.
- Clients needed to process large volumes of invoices at one time, while retaining the ability to customize payment options.
Solution
- Combined Approval and Payment via an overview screen with task-based cards for easy discoverability.
- Implemented editable tables with multi-select capabilities for high invoice volume organisations.
Discoverability
The ease with which specific functions can be discovered by the user. This can include a variety of factors from the size and colour of an element, to accurate and informative UX writing to help the user find what they need.
Cashup
Flexibility and Customization
Challenges
- The task of adding cashup details is a long and arduous one that required perfect accuracy and patience.
- The interface needed to be flexible enough to accommodate multiple sessions and locations in a single restaurant.
Solution
- Created a card-based landing page using chunking for easy data entry tracking.
- Allowed customization to accommodate different restaurant needs.
Chunking
A practice of separating information into smaller, logical groupings, in order to make sure the user is not presented with an overwhelming amount of unsorted information.
Dashboard
Tailored KPIs for Informed Decision-Making
Challenges
- Existing dashboard had too much information on it and required the user to scroll through a lot of data.
- Data was not presented in a manner that provided meaningful insights to users.
Solution
- Designed a flexible dashboard system with a single-page overview that provided insights into primary KPIs.
- Summary cards lead to detailed information with compare facilities for easy data analysis with consistent storytelling.
Storytelling
Using every step of the design process, from the information architecture, to the smallest UI details, to create a cohesive “story” that allows the user to form a simple and intuitive understanding of the product
User Management
Simplified user permissions
Challenges
- Each user had to be set up from scratch, involving cumbersome permission customization, leading to decision fatigue.
- Users with access to multiple locations had to have permissions set for each location individually, taking a lot of time.
Solution
- Designed a customisable template-based system for quick and easy setup.
- Enabled easy permissions copying between location.
Decision Fatigue
As the name suggests, making too many decisions can be exhausting! So much so that, as time goes by, our decision making capabilities actually reduce. And yes, this does count as cognitive load.
Outcome
Paperchase approached us looking to give their platform an intuitive and clean design. We did that and more; creating a sleek and intuitive user interface for their web and mobile based platform, allowing Paperchase’s clients to get more out of their tool than ever before.
