Fishery Resource Data Management System Enhancement
Overview
I collaborated with an international NGO marine fisheries organization to optimize their fishery resource data management system. The project focused on improving the user experience for marine fisheries experts, data analysts, managers, and editors, who faced significant challenges due to the system’s poor usability. By redesigning key workflows and enhancing the user interface, we streamlined the process for editing, uploading, and managing fisheries-related information, resulting in increased efficiency and user satisfaction. The improvements allowed users to handle critical data more quickly and effectively, supporting better resource management decisions.
Business Challenges
The primary business challenge of this project was the highly complex user operation process, which revolved around an intricate tree structure representing the organization’s business. This structure required the accurate presentation of large volumes of detailed data, with each node in the tree involving dynamic status changes and complex interaction logic. Managing this structure proved difficult for users, leading to a poor user experience, high operational difficulty, and significant learning costs. The challenge was to simplify the system while maintaining the accuracy and depth of information required for effective fisheries data management.
Personas
Three personas provide insight into how the system can be improved based on the specific needs and challenges of each user group:
- Retailer’s main frustrations: Struggles with ensuring supply security, explaining actions to corporate social responsibility (CSR), and facing inefficiencies and high costs. Motivations: Wants a cost-effective solution, independence from NGO suggestions, and reduced pressure from CSR and media. He also seeks frequent updates on changes. Goals: Peter needs accurate data and a simplified data viewing process.
- Scientist’s Frustrations: Difficulty finding relevant numeric fish data and confusion about data sources, leading to time wasted compiling information. Motivations: Access to a large volume of objective, accurate data, including fisheries and species information. Ray values easy data searching, analysis tools, and downloadable references. Goals: To quickly locate and download required data, conduct sophisticated analyses, and receive notifications about profile updates and comments.
- Editor’s Frustrations: Faces repetitive work due to the old model, confusion with data input, and too many operational steps leading to an inability to accurately assess risk ratings. Motivations: Driven by financial compensation, the need for quick task completion, and ensuring the sustainability of fisheries through her work. Goals: Marina aims to finish profiles quickly, accurately edit her work, and complete as many tasks as possible.
This user persona breakdown reveals their unique frustrations and objectives, highlighting the importance of tailoring the system to address usability issues and streamline user interactions for each group.
User Journey Analysis
Based on the AS-IS user journey learned from user interviews, we restructured a more organized TO-BE user journey.
Prototype Discussion
We communicated with clients & users across time zones, maintaining close collaboration despite the inability to interact face-to-face. Given the project's unique complexity and depth, we spent several weeks designing prototypes and confirming operational logic details with users. This ensured that all operations and interaction logic would run smoothly when various complex scenarios occurred simultaneously.
Solution
Ultimately, based on the users' business needs and detailed operational process analysis, we developed a comprehensive and logically clear solution. This solution not only meets current requirements but also considers potential future expansions and changes. Our solution enables editors to build complex marine fish species profile, while providing an intuitive interface and intelligent assistive features, greatly reducing learning costs and operational difficulties.
In this multifunctional database, we provide scientists and data analysts with a series of powerful tools. They can easily upload and manage various types of data on a regular basis, including but not limited to fish population numbers, ecological environmental parameters, fishing data, and more. Additionally, we developed a flexible status update system that allows users to update information status in multiple dimensions in real-time, such as endangered levels, effectiveness of conservation measures, etc. This not only improves the timeliness of data but also provides decision-makers with more comprehensive and accurate information support.
Final Design
This page displays the interface when a user accesses a fish species profile node. Users can see the position of this information unit in the tree structure, as well as the status collection of each node. Within the current node unit, users can also perform operations such as searching for and managing information and data.
In situations with complex information and logic, the need for search functionality becomes particularly important. Our designed search feature can display search results from different nodes based on the attribute structure diagram of all fish species information, and present the associative relationships between nodes and branches in the search results. Through clever design, we successfully visualized these complex requirements in an intuitive way.
Feedback from Client
The client was extremely pleased with the newly redesigned system and its streamlined workflows. The new system addressed and simplified the previously convoluted processes, greatly enhancing both user experience and operational efficiency. When it came time for the second phase of the project, the client enthusiastically requested that I return from another project to continue working with them.