This project seeks to completely redesign the existing Back Office experience—to a modern web app that aims to empower B2B retailers to run their retail stores and businesses efficiently.
The existing (legacy) application was outdated relative to modern web standards.
One of the biggest challenges for me as a lead UX designer was to plan the project in terms of the timelines and feature priorities. I accomplished this by creating and sharing a roadmap doc to plan design reviews and feature delivery/design hand-off with all stakeholders in the team.
Another challenge was with development work happening in parallel to design. This meant that in addition to our feature design and delivery, we had to account for quality control in the production environment, and also handle any dev issues popping up due to unforeseen tech constraints.
Once again, I accomplished this through the aforementioned roadmap doc — assigning a "QA" status to all previously handed off designs.
Additionally, I made sure that there were proper communication channels; setting up Office Hours with the engineering team to keep track of their progress and to answer any questions. I wanted to build a bridge between design and development as opposed to the teams working separately, in siloes (this was especially crucial because I was a remote employee).
I began by assessing and auditing the legacy back office application. It was developed for the web, and had over a 80 different screens / views.
This task was a massive undertaking, requiring me to identify inconsistencies, offer recommendations aligned with the existing architecture, adhere to usability heuristics and web accessibility principles, and elevate the app and user experience to modern web standards.
I worked closely with the product team to streamline the information architecture, ensuring that each component, from Product Management and Business Rules to Security and Transaction Monitoring, was logically grouped and easily navigable by the user.
This approach aimed to improved the overall usability and improve the efficiency of the back office operations. Consequently, we generated the site map shown below, which clearly organizes key sections such as Sales, Cash Office, Operations, Catalog View, Utilities, and Reports.
Viewing and configuring the multi-store experience—customising product listings, crafting point of sale messaging, and creating targeted promotions.
Viewing and managing products, and setting up price lookup menus for in-store point of sale devices from the back office.
Data visualisation for in-store cash flow reports; managing and keeping track of till and safe balances.
The back office solution shipped successfully and is in use by 10+ customers and retail establishment operators across the EMEA and APAC regions.
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