Request Tracker Case Study

Project Overview

During my first week at MRI Software, I was tasked with designing and implementing a fully functional request tracker for developers, product directors, and the legal team. This project became the highlight of my internship.

Problem Definition & Requirement Gathering

Objective

Understand the current request process and define the problem.

Process

I began by meeting with the product director to learn about the existing process:

  • Developers emailed the product director to request permission to use open-source libraries from GitHub.

  • The product director reviewed the request and, if approved, forwarded it to the legal team.

  • The legal team assessed the request and informed the product director of their decision.

  • The product director then notified the developer of the final approval.

Problem Discovered

The process was inefficient, involving multiple email exchanges that often resulted in lost requests and delays in project development.

Goal

Create a streamlined solution to optimize the request submission and review process.

Design Phase

User Flow

Objective: Map out user interactions.

I designed a user flow diagram to visualize the interactions between developers, product directors, and the legal team. The diagram identified key touchpoints and streamlined the request-handling process.


Wire Flow

Objective: Develop initial wireframes.

Building on the user flow, I created early wireframes to illustrate how users would navigate the web application. This step was crucial for visualizing the user journey and refining the interface design.

Step 3: Wire Flow

Objective: Develop initial wireframes.

Building on the user flow, I created early wireframes to illustrate how users would navigate the web application. This step was crucial for visualizing the user journey and refining the interface design.

Detailed Wirf

Objective: Enhance wireframes with more detail.

I refined the initial wireframes, adding specific details to resemble the final web application closely. This included user interfaces for each step in the request process.

Presentation: I presented the detailed wireframes, personas, and user flow to the project manager for feedback before proceeding to the mockup stage.

 
 

HTML/CSS Mockup

Objective: Build a working front-end prototype.

Using the detailed wireframes, I developed a front-end mockup with HTML and CSS/SASS. The design adhered to MRI's Design Guidelines, ensuring consistency with other in-house web applications.

Conclusion

This project was a comprehensive exercise in UX design involving problem definition, user flow mapping, wireframing, and prototyping. The result was a streamlined request tracker that improved efficiency and communication within MRI Software.