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HDP & Arista hired Human Interface Group to design two new web applications and a portal that would be the link between the commercial website and the company's web services.

The Project

HDP & Arista is a Belgian company that consists of various daughter enterprises: Social Secretariat, Children's Allowance Fund, Social Fund for Independents, AristA - External Service for Prevention and Protection at the Workplace, and MedConsult. All enterprises developed their own web services with their own look and feel. As a result, web services at HDP & Arista were characterized by a variety of colors and flavors.

When HDP & Arista decided to develop two new web applications and a portal, they started thinking about providing one HDP & Arista look and feel for all web services. In order to face this challenge and because of the complexity of the web applications, HDP & Arista considered it wise to hire Human Interface Group to design the new applications' user interface. Human Interface Group designed the user interface for:

• HDP Okay: a Social Secretariat application for managing employees, payroll administration, etc.
• e-Reporting: a general HDP & Arista application for searching and producing reports.
• Portal: the link between HDP & Arista's commercial website and all web services.

The Challenge

In designing the new applications and portal, Human Interface Group had to face various challenges:

• For HDP Okay, the main challenge was the translation of the application's complex functional specifications into a straightforward user interface. Furthermore, the level of complexity of the user interface had to correspond to the complexity of the user profile.
• For e-Reporting, the application's commercial touch was vital.
• The portal had to be an attractive and catchy entrance point for the web services that would also allow HDP & Arista to attract the user's attention to HDP & Arista's other services.

What We Did

In a first step, Human Interface Group defined the applications' conceptual model and navigation model. In this phase, basic structural designs of a few representative pages in the application were presented to HDP & Arista, and the applications' navigation structure was visualized in a navigation model.

In the next step, Human Interface Group provided the user interface design for all of the applications' pages. Basic requirements included:

• Branding possibilities for daughter companies and various applications.
• Windows XP look and feel.
• 'Light' design.
• Complexity according to user profile.
• Commercial touch for e-Reporting.

(Click images to enlarge)

In order to meet the requirements, Human Interface Group proposed the following solutions:

• Branding possibilities in the top area of the applications' pages.
• Windows XP-like colors, tables, controls, icons, etc.
• Combination of various shades of blue.
• Integration of wizards to reduce complexity.
• Integration of clear user feedback and instructions to decrease complexity.
• Various designs, depending on user profile.
• Integration of commercial features for e-Reporting: lists of best-selling reports, panes showing the user's most wanted reports (for quick selection), HDP & Arista's new reports and reports that were bought by companies with similar profiles.

During the design process, the conceptual model, navigation model and user interface design were evaluated during user tests . Test users used a mockup of the application to perform a task-oriented test. Additional user opinions were gathered using a questionnaire. User test results were integrated into the previously made designs in order to make them even more user friendly.

The Results

Positive user feedback was registered during the user tests:

• "I'm very positive. It's quite simple."
• "It's user friendly."
• "I would like to get started right away."
• "Can we have it?"

Related pages

Refer to:
Services: Design for more information about user interface (re)design;
Services: Evaluation for more information about user tests.