User Experience Research Puts You First in Acquia DAM Design

Do you know how much your feedback shapes what Acquia DAM (Widen) looks like and does? Your experiences and expectations using the digital asset management (DAM) platform influence the design and development direction we take. Your input even gives us ideas on what we should include in the new apps we create.

We have a team of researchers and designers at Acquia called the User Experience, or UX, team. Each month they’re talking with Acquia users, gathering thoughts and ideas on a range of topics including products, integrations, user interface (UI), and more, to see what’s working and what could make life much easier. You tell us your pain points, your frustrations, and your ideas and goals and we use those to improve experiences in the DAM system, with help from our Product and Development teams. We’re making changes and iterating based on what we learn from and about you.

What to see just how iteration works? Take a look below to see a few examples!
 

Feedback for Channel Portals

The UX team met with 30+ customers to understand how they want to use Channel Portals. This helped uncover clear patterns of wishes and pain points, including the need for easy publishing, secure sharing, and more customization options.

After identifying improvements, designers created rich, clickable prototypes for task-based testing and, after that testing, iterated to create a final design. 

Because of this research, we were able to recently announce the release of Channel Portals. Channel Portals can be embedded into web pages or shared via a public or password-protected link. You can also create a custom portal for each dealer and distributor channel, exclusively featuring your organization’s branding, including logo, font, and colors. Read more about Channel Portals.
 

Caption: Error messages make sure creators are aware of potential [color] accessibility concerns before publishing their Channel Portal.
 

Insights feedback

Insights is a data-rich app that lives in the DAM platform. We had a chance to meet with several DAM admins to understand how Insights is being used.

In interviewing these admins, we found that they use the app as a resource for internal team questions about asset performance. We uncovered that it’s a key tool to help accounting, legal, sales, and marketing teams understand if they’re creating the right content.

However, admins wanted more granular data at the asset level to help them make decisions. As a result, we added the ability to view downloads, shares, and views for each asset. Also, to dive deeper, we included two filters — breakdowns and grouped assets —  where you can choose how you’d like to filter assets data. Read more about the latest Insights updates.
 

Caption: A look at a new Insights dashboard for downloads showing the breakdown of asset downloads on the left and groups asset download options on the right.
 

How can you get involved?

If you’re thinking, “Gosh, I’d love to give some input on what’s happening at Acquia,” you can! We love talking to you. Here’s how you can get involved.

Feedback sessions. These are probably the quickest and easiest way for you to see what’s being developed and give input on features even before they’re live to others. Conducted remotely and only taking about 30 minutes, all you’ll need to do is share your screen as one of our researchers or designers walks you through a series of tasks. Along the way, they’ll ask questions like, “What would you expect to happen if you clicked this button?” “How does the layout of this page feel to you?” and “What do you like or dislike?”

Usability surveys. We send your users a survey, review their responses, glean some data, and gain insight into what’s working well in your site, then share that with you in what’s known as an SUS, or System Usability Score, report. It’s a standard metric that is used across industries and allows you to take a look at your site and make any changes or come up with ideas to share with us for future iterations.

Let us visit! We put visits to you on hiatus during the pandemic, but we’d love to bring them back. We’re always game to come to your office and see how your team accomplishes tasks, day in and day out. There’s no such thing as too much information!

Talk to your DAM representative or get in touch with our UX team directly to learn more about how you can get involved in Acquia UX research.

Note: This article was originally published on Widen.com.