Redesigning the PM experience for global printing

Led redesign of SGS's PM experience to reduce non-value-added labor in daily operational work.
Focused on dashboard, navigation, and order-entry flows where friction and workaround behavior were highest.

Before / After

Before: PMs relied on fragmented trackers and dense legacy surfaces.
After: next-gen dashboard and task flows improved success and reduced skipped actions.

Problem + Impact

Users spent most of their day in project management workflows, but legacy UX pushed them into workarounds and repeated validation loops. Research confirmed this as the highest leverage area for reducing wasted time.

• —+31% task success
• —-13.5% skipped tasks
• —2s average time saved on core tasks
• —5s target savings on simple tasks

Rapid-fire highlights

Information accuracy

Sheets, notes, docs — parallel “sources of truth” when the system felt unreliable.

File management

OneDrive, Box, Dragonfly, local storage — chasing the latest file outside MySGS.

Communication

Notes and paper — especially for coordinating with operators on the print floor.

Time management

Calendars, reminders, email — tracking follow-ups the ERP didn’t surface clearly.

Workarounds clustered around accuracy, file coordination, communication, and time management.

Client collaboration

Project management

Resource management

Enterprise-to-enterprise workflows

Data analytics

Technical issues (delegated to platform team)

Project management — where PMs spent most productive time after a deal was won — became the anchor for scope.

Six friction areas were mapped, with project management identified as the highest-impact intervention point.

Navigation structure was iterated through tree tests before UI polish.

123

1Operational home — tasks and pinned jobs surface what needs attention without opening search

2Scannable table — density tuned for enterprise PM work, not consumer minimal UI

3Room for saved views and team-published columns — reduces one-off Excel trackers

Next-gen home — annotated callouts for the core dashboard loop we usability-tested with PMs.

Next-gen dashboard balanced PM density needs with clearer task and job orientation.

Order-entry branching moved later so users could start faster and decide path only when needed.

Operator-specific views reduced scanning load by prioritizing execution detail over broad PM context.

Human-in-the-loop workflow architecture

Role-specific UX preserved human verification in high-stakes operational flows instead of over-automation.

Progressive branching over upfront complexity

One shared start: capture what you know first

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Branch when context is sufficient — three legacy entry paths consolidated here

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Order type A

Order type B

Order type C

Labels at the fork explain when to use each path — reducing “different but same” confusion from the legacy ERP.

Decision paths were delayed until necessary, reducing cognitive load and improving task flow.

Error-state handling through visibility and reference aids

Inline references and clearer structure reduced risky guesswork in dense records.

Low-fi exploration before high-fidelity convergence

Low-fi exploration

Early structure tests validated hierarchy and flow before visual refinement.

Assist-then-decide operating model

The system direction favored support and auditability over black-box automation.

Reflection

This project reinforced that enterprise UX quality is often won through structured research, workflow clarity, and role-specific decision support rather than visual novelty alone. The most valuable shifts came from letting data and user behavior define where to simplify and where to preserve control.