DESKTOP WEB APP CASE STUDY

Walt Disney World's

Training Planning Application

OVERVIEW

The Walt Disney World training team needed to overhaul their process of assigning, planning, and scheduling training for their employees.

The current training planning process had not been modernized in over three decades, and because there were over 500 employees (also known as Cast Members) in this role, there were a lot of individual, manual paper-driven processes taking place. I partnered with the Training Innovation team at Disney to create an application that would allow Cast Members to assign training to internal employees, schedule those employees for their training, and finally sunset the Excel-driven process that those Cast Members had been using for over 30 years.

ROLE & DETAILS

Lead Product Designer
User Research, Personas, Empathy Maps, Sketchboarding, Wireframing, Prototyping, User Testing, Documentation, Visual QA

Team
1 Product Designer, 3 Product Owners,
1 Business Analyst, 7 Engineers

Timeline
August 2018 – February 2020

THE CHALLENGE

"How might we design a  flexible application that would allow our over 500 users to assign, plan and schedule training in any order they wanted?" 

The opportunity to completely reinvent the process of assigning, planning, and scheduling training for Cast Members was exciting, but it wasn't without its challenges. Our 500+ users had been using Microsoft Excel, email, and verbal communication to get their jobs done for over three decades, and they all had their own unique way of doing things. The business team insisted that they didn't want to create a uniform user flow to complete these tasks even though it would improve the process and cut down on edge cases. Instead, they wanted each user to be able to assign, plan and schedule training in any way that they saw fit. Thus, this application had to be simple to use and flexible enough to satisfy all of the users.

USER RESEARCH

I first had to meet my users and learn more about their process.

By interviewing my users and walking through a day-in-the-life of their role, I was able to put myself in their shoes and empathize with them. Without doing this, I wouldn't have understood the sheer amounts of paper each Cast Member utilized, or just how much time it took to do so. It was vital that I design this new application to help reduce paper usage and save the company money, increase operational efficiencies, and be better for the environment.

PERSONAS & EMPATHY MAPS

Getting the entire project team aligned on our users was crucial.

I learned as much as I could about my users during my research: their motivations, frustrations, and ideal experiences. I synthesized these insights into three personas and empathy maps, because it’s not enough for just me to understand what my users want out of a new application – I also needed to get the business and engineering teams on board as well. By aligning cross-functional teams and focusing them on a shared goal, I was able to make this project go much smoother.

SKETCHBOARDING

I collaborated with the business team to sketch out user flows and rough wireframes.

The project’s requirements weren’t set in stone, so I set up weekly sketchboarding sessions to not only get the requirements down on paper, but also influence the different user flow decisions. It was exciting to be able to quickly iterate different design opportunities and have the business and engineering teams align on user stories and project goals.

WIREFRAMES

When designing for each screen, I  made multiple wireframes for feedback and discussion sessions with my internal UX team.

These wireframes look more high-fidelity than typical wireframes thanks to the Kingswell Design System. At Disney, the internal UX team had a design system with dozens of controls, components, and patterns which made iterative wireframing super quick. Another benefit that this design system provided was that I could show the business and engineering teams more high-fidelity options to aid in the finalization of our user stories and requirements. With my internal UX team, I would get feedback, answer any questions, and narrow down my options before presenting to the business and engineering teams for their review.

USER TESTING

Getting the chance to test my simulations with our users was vital.

After coordinating with the business team, I was able to test my simulations with five future application users for their initial reactions and impressions. I loaded up my simulation onto their computers and put them in the driver seat. I'd ask questions like: What do you see on the screen and how do you interpret that information? Say you wanted to perform this action, how would you go about doing so? This allowed the Cast Member to drive the conversation and think out loud, while I was able to observe and take notes. Afterwards, I met with the business team to synthesize these notes and decide what changes should be made.

Some notable callouts during user testing included:

• "What if I need to assign training to a Cast Member who hasn't been onboarded yet?" We added the functionality to identify which trainees hadn't been onboarded yet so they could be assigned training.

• "How can I create a training experience that doesn't have to do with a product?" We added the flexibility to create a training experience without having to specify a product first.

• "Pretty damn cool!" It was always exciting to hear when we hit the mark with our users and that they were enjoying the process.

USER FLOW 1

Assigning a training experience product to a new-hire trainee.

The goal of this user flow was to allow our persona (Tracey) to assign a training experience to one or more trainees. On her dashboard, I designed three main cards that represented the different tasks she had to perform (assigning training to Cast Members, scheduling Cast Members for training, and seeing which Cast Members have previously been scheduled). It was important to show upfront how many users she had to work with in each bucket of work; as you can see, there are eight trainees ready to go on her “Assign” card. Clicking on the CTA “Assign Products” brings Tracey to her list of trainees that need an assignment.

From here, Tracey can sort and filter her list to gather a group of trainees that are all going to get the same product. Upon selecting her first checkbox, a blue ribbon appears that will collect all of the trainees she selects. Clicking the “Assign” text link in the blue ribbon launches the “Assign Product” modal where she can quickly select one of her recommended products (by business location) – or, if she’d like to select a product outside of her recommended list, she can do that too. Finally, Tracey can click the “Assign Product” primary button and push the information through the system, thus triggering a success message confirming that the products have been assigned.

USER FLOW 2

Creating and scheduling a training group for the "Mad Tea Party" attraction.

The largest and most complex flow of the entire application was allowing our 500+ Cast Members to create a training group and plan those trainees in any which way that they see fit. The business team insisted that they didn't want to create a uniform user flow to complete these tasks – however, I was able to nail down some process rules where I could. All of our users would first start on their dashboard by viewing how many trainees needed to be planned on their “Plan” card. From there, the Cast Member could dive into a specific product to start the planning process.

Once our pesona (Tracey) selects whether she wants to pick up a plan where she left off or create a new one, she lands on the calendar screen where I created the flexible planning process. By separating the top shift cards from the bottom trainee/trainer list, Tracey can plan in any way that she sees fit. What if she only wants to add trainees? What if she only wants to add trainers on two of the shifts? What if she only wants to add trainees to three shifts, and select dates and times for the other five? All flows were now possible with this new, streamlined, flexible planning process.

THE SOLUTION

Finally, our users won't need to open Microsoft Excel anymore.

Launched in February 2020 with the rollout of the new attraction, "Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway", Cast Members were finally able to sunset the Excel-driven, paper-led process they had been using for so long. Ending with five personas and with over 30 screens (including more than 15 user flows) I was able to create a modern experience that would be efficient, streamlined, and a delight to use for decades to come. I'm looking forward to this application rolling out further!

WHAT I LEARNED

It's imperative to keep the users top of mind, at all times.

Because of the limited opportunities to talk to actual users, it's easy to trust the business team's word to represent the user. I learned how important it was to continually bring up and speak for the user throughout the entire process. I also learned how crucial it was to keep the engineering team up-to-date on any user story changes. Finally, as my first full-scale user experience project, I learned how passionate I am about this work, and was truly fulfilled in knowing I was making a difference in someone's day.

ONE MORE THING...

I also got to redesign the Welcome Itinerary that got sent out to new hires.

The Welcome Itinerary is a new hire Cast Member's first piece of documentation for onboarding, and it included information about their specific role, their schedule, their costuming guidelines and more. As you can see below, the original itinerary wasn't very on brand, nor was it a good first impression. I took it upon myself to redesign this itinerary to make it more exciting, immersive, and most importantly, mobile-friendly. Getting the chance to reimagine the training planning experience was fulfilling and exciting in itself, but knowing that I was able to impact tens of thousands of Cast Members at this stage of the onboarding process was truly a rewarding and honorable opportunity.