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SK Gas Design System Consulting
CLIENT
DATE
SERVICE
INDUSTRY
SK Gas
2023.08
CXUX Consulting
Energy & Sustainability
SK Gas aimed to establish a consistent and user-friendly employee experience standard through the development of its UX/UI standards for the business support portal. This was intended to help all members become more familiar with their work and enhance productivity.
To address issues such as the vast amount of information, complex structures, repetitive functions, system-centered screens, text-heavy information delivery, and the lack of usage guides in the existing internal systems, a comprehensive design system was needed.
The UX/UI standards guide prioritized efficiency for internal employees and partner companies, focusing on management innovation and collaboration based on the distinct purposes and usage methods for B2B and B2C contexts.
SK Gas aims to become a global leader as a ‘Total Solution Provider’ in the energy industry by expanding its existing LPG business, maximizing synergies, and creating new growth drivers in response to the rapidly changing energy sector.
Principles for Building a Design System
The SK Gas design system incorporates the client’s business characteristics and considers user environments across various business settings. To achieve this, we conducted interviews with field personnel and system development PMs, analyzed the status of existing systems, collected best practices through benchmarking, and gathered client feedback through UI hypothesis development and reviews.
The expected benefits of SK Gas’s optimized design system are:
1. Optimized Information Structure: Proposing solutions to improve the information structure based on an understanding of business needs and identifying gaps between system menus and user tasks.
2. Consistency and Usability: Reducing confusion and providing a consistent user experience across B2B systems by establishing UX standards.
3. Governance for Expansion: Setting up governance to support the scalability and integration of internal systems.
Looking into external environments
We benchmarked publicly available business systems actively used in global environments to gather recent trends on user-centered workflow improvements. These insights were deeply shared with the client, contributing to a more precise reflection of their requirements in the final deliverables.
01. Menu Tree & Storyboard Analysis
We conducted research and analysis to identify common features and workflows based on business support systems that handle vast information sharing, task processing, status tracking, and purchasing, as well as employee workspace services. The goal was to achieve an optimized system.
< Domestic vs Global B2BC System Benchmarking >
02. Finding UX Clues for Business System Innovation
In corporate business systems, UX design significantly contributes to intuitive information retrieval, optimized workflows, enhanced accessibility, consistent UX environments for improved collaboration, and minimized human errors. Typically, internal business systems are built and operated with a focus on functionality due to constraints like budget and process changes, often continuing without UX updates for extended periods. However, as digital work environments have evolved, employees are increasingly exposed to various B2B and B2C services, leading to complaints about their own systems and demands for improvements to drive business innovation.
While it is well-recognized that user experience-focused business systems can enhance corporate productivity, there is often a lack of clarity on how to implement these improvements and whether the expected benefits will justify the costs. Therefore, UX design improvement projects for business systems require extensive initial communication with the client.
Since business systems are used by skilled users for repetitive and specialized tasks, without sufficient insight into UX/UI design, there is a risk of either overcomplicating the system in an attempt to accommodate users or oversimplifying critical steps that require explanation and caution. Additionally, client representatives may be concerned about whether the new UX/UI will be readily adopted without resistance, given their familiarity with the existing system. Thus, meticulous review, thorough retraining, and sharing of UX/UI case studies from similar domains have a significant impact on the success of the project.
Understanding Information Architecture Before Design
We focused on avoiding the approach of merely producing design outputs by concentrating only on design resources. Since the system is used by internal employees, it was crucial to consider both usage frequency and importance to improve work efficiency. We identified the following key aspects:
We assessed the tasks with the highest frequency of use and importance for decision-making, and chose to separate components that impact the overall workflow. Additionally, we categorized menus to fulfill environmental compliance requirements, addressing ESG governance aspects.
Deriving Insights on Design Governance
Through the analysis of task frequency and importance, we gained an understanding of information processing standards from the user’s perspective. We identified the following four viewpoints:
01. Navigation in Layout
The analysis showed clear distinctions between GNB, utility, and sub-menus, with the LNB structure on the left enhancing intuitive navigation and accessibility.
02. Layout & Grid system
The analysis showed that using the Top (GNB, Utility) – Left (Sub menus) structure and navigation reduction features ensures content area expandability.
03. Visual Hierarchy
The analysis of menu structure depth and visual hierarchy showed that information grouping, infographics, and intuitive visual hierarchies using accordion (up/down) and slide (left/right) UIs were effectively provided.
04. Aesthetic Design
The analysis of aesthetic design and identity reflection revealed a tendency to use neutral or muted colors as the main color, with ID colors used only as accents, focusing on content delivery rather than corporate identity colors.
Defining the Principles of the Design System
By applying the UX/UI standard guide, we aim to enhance consistent system access and improve task efficiency, offering solutions for smart and fast processing in a digital environment.
We can discuss the five key directions that the system should follow:
Establishing the Design System
Firstly, we aimed to establish the foundational design materials before delving into the UI/UX guide of the design system. It was necessary to initially select design elements applicable to SK Gas and identify items that could be immediately implemented.
< UX Design System >
Expected Benefits of the Project
• Propose optimal information structure solutions based on understanding business characteristics and analyzing gaps and issues between system menus and users.
• Reduce confusion in system usability for employees by establishing a UX standard guide for the B2B enterprise system, providing a consistent and familiar experience across multiple systems.
• Establish governance for the design system to support scalability and integration of internal systems.
A New Beginning in Digital Transformation
Now, digital transformation has become an integral part of the industry, and it is increasingly familiar and commonplace in our work environments. This project reaffirmed that understanding the business is crucial and that focusing solely on superficial phenomena and goals is insufficient. A good system must start with a deep understanding of the users’ work characteristics. Analyzing the system based on this foundation and finding the direction the system should take are the key challenges and objectives. Ultimately, the goal is to innovate the work environment and integrate the optimal system to maximize efficiency. We hope that the standardization of this design system will not only enhance work performance but also provide a comfortable working environment.
Efficient UX can reduce work time by 30%.
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