Hightail - Adobe Integration

OVERVIEW

SKIP TO: PROCESS • DESIGN • RESULT

Hightail is a cloud application used by 5.5 million users in 193 countries to send, collaborate, and proof multimedia files virtually. Those customers bring in new users by asking them to discuss creative assets on Hightail; this virality is the primary way we grow. Therefore, creatives (eg. photographers, designers, and artists) that make and upload assets are central to our growth.

Our goal was to attract new creatives to Hightail using the 2017 Adobe Max conference. We had 8 weeks time, so it was all hands on deck. I worked on research and UX/UI, but this could not have been accomplished without my teammates.

PROCESS

SKIP TO: OVERVIEW • DESIGN • RESULT

Hightail creatives are not all the same

Sarah and I kicked off the project with ~10 qualitative interviews with creatives who use Hightail. We summarized what we learned in personas.

Our target market values integration

It’s not enough to just talk to our existing customers, but also see what creatives valued in general. We studied the annual marketing research report, and found:

Our CEO challenged us with coming up with a third party integration that could showcase our product at the Adobe Max conference in 8 weeks time. Challenge accepted!

Co-design possibilities

To maximize creative ideation, we dove deeper with co-design sessions with customers as well as our internal team members from marketing, sales, and customer support over the course of 3 days. We gathered 371 ideas, grouped them into 22 themes, and voted on them by feasibility, meatiness, most applicable to creatives etc.

Combine research into a story

The design team then combined the ideas and personas into storyboards. For example, I created a storyboard around Ann, who takes notes during a meeting but needs to ask clarification questions after while she is revising the asset:

Define requirements

We validated the storyboards with our customers, and chose the what resonated the most with them to define requirements. For example, from the Ann’s storyboard, the requirements were:

1. Ann needs to present her designs and take notes in the same window to show people in the meeting that she’s noting feedback down.

2. She creates todo’s as she presents that can then be checked off as she finishes them.

3. She needs to get clarification on todo’s later on as she works (with or without showing the new version of her current work).

4. She needs to be notified while she is designing on another file that there was a reply.

Ted worked with engineering to consolidate all the requirements. From there on, it was time to design!

DESIGN

SKIP TO: OVERVIEW • PROCESS • RESULT

Ted and I worked on the final UX and UI components of the Adobe-plugin. One of us would do a design pass, both of us would sit on calls with customers for a few rounds of feedback, and then the other one would do the second design pass. In this way over 4 rounds we arrived at our final design.

How might we make the command feel easy to use?

WELCOME USERS WITH CONVERSATIONAL ONBOARDING

The command line can be powerful, but in user-testing, it proved to be an intimidating first experience. We created HiBot to onboard new users. It will make intelligent suggestions for what the user should explore next.

SUGGESTIONS EVERY STEP OF THE WAY

In addition, I created a detailed schematic for all the interactions that happen when a user types each of our 8 commands. Interactions like suggestions, autocomplete, tooltips help guide the user on every keystroke.

/SYNC FOR QUICK ACTIONS

For the creatives that move very fast (our Speedy Sam persona), I designed the ‘/sync’ command to string multiple commands in a row.

RESULT

SKIP TO: OVERVIEW • PROCESS • DESIGN

The Hightail Adobe plugin successfully debuted at the 2017 Adobe Max conference, where we demoed it and ran further user tests. 15% of new and returning clients mention it as one of the reasons they are signing up or renewing their subscriptions. Download it here.