Legacy software redesign: change the controls first, then the tasks
TraqIT's event software had run since 1998. A first release changed the controls on the layout users knew; the task-based design came second.
A phased redesign of event-management software.
User experience and interface design for an existing event-management product, with transitional screens, task flows and reusable components.
Improve the product while keeping its context
TraqIT's event-management software dates from 1998, and its workflows had built up over the years. We started with a full redesign and new branding, then saw that it would take months. TraqIT on LinkedIn.
So we released a transitional design first: refreshed components on the structure users already knew, to help them adopt the change. Once it was in use, the work continued on the new task-focused interface.
Make daily tasks visible
The design work mapped routine actions and explored how to reduce unnecessary navigation. Dashboard concepts brought event information and reminders into a common overview.
Develop the design with the client team
The engagement included user research, interface iterations and collaboration with the client's product and engineering people. On our side, Bishal, our product design lead, worked on the strategy, user experience and frontend.
A foundation for implementation
Reusable components and interactive-state definitions gave the client’s engineers a reference for implementation.
From design into delivery
The work went on into 2020. From July 2018 we built the frontend of the modernised app and fixed what testing found in TraqIT's Jira. We rebuilt traqit.com on WordPress, with a beta sign-up page, a free trial page and three rounds of design changes. Newsletters, social media graphics and email templates followed in 2019 and 2020.
The design process
The stages of the design, with screens from our TraqIT design files.
Where it landed
The dashboard concept brings event information and reminders into a shared overview.
The redesigned dashboard. View image full size The product we inherited
We annotated the navigation to record the nested menus and intermediate steps the redesign addressed.
A transitional release
Refreshed components on the structure users already knew, released first so they could adopt the change before the full redesign.
Shortening the flows
We mapped the steps in a routine task, then drew it again with the intermediate steps taken out.
A task-based interface
The concept organises the interface around the tasks an event organiser needs to complete.
Reminders by event, by date and by who assigned them. View image full size Iterations between testing rounds
The dashboard and navigation changed between rounds of user testing.
The later interface
The later design brings dashboard cards and navigation into one interface.
The system underneath
The component and state specifications provide a reference for consistent implementation.
Primary and secondary colours. View image full size 
Form fields and their states. View image full size The website, 2018 to 2020
We rebuilt traqit.com on WordPress around a beta sign-up. A free trial page came next, and we kept the site current until December 2020.
traqit.com in July 2018, above, and August 2019, from the Web Archive. View image full size
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