Improving admin work areas
How are system notes used during external financial audits?
Intro
Overview
Optimizing system notes to be used in external financial audits
Oracle Netsuite is an all-in-one business management and ERP software with a large range of capabilities.
In the efforts the refresh the product for Netsuite Next, our team was doing a complete redesign of the administrator work experience.
I focused on a small piece of the larger system notes use case: improving how administrators use system notes during external financial audits.
Timeline
May '23 - August '23 (4 months)
Role
UX Design Intern
Team
Netsuite Platforms team
Impact
Redesigning admin work areas
- Ideated and created end-to-end designs for the new Netsuite Next launch using the Oracle Redwood design system
- Collaborated with a global team of PMs, content designers, UX researchers, and developers
- Facilitated user testing sessions with subject matter experts with auditing experience & performed a competitive analysis
- Documented detailed design specifications for the developer handoff process
Discovery
Context
What’s auditing? Who’s auditing? Why auditing?
System Notes
noun
The system notes show administrators the who, when, and how the system was changed for troubleshooting, audits, and more. It’s a line by line record of what is going on in their system.
When do administrators need system notes for audits?
Users of Netsuite are often small business owners juggling multiple roles. While they are the primary users of system notes, during a financial audit an accountant will come into the system to facilitate external audit sessions.
They need to find and relay requested information without wasting their time.
Design Challenge
Problem
How can accountants efficiently find requested data to share with external auditors
Because system notes is a product used both by administrators and accountants, the final designs need to address a large range of use cases. I used the research to define some design goals
Design Goals
Ideation to Design
Making design decisions
Based on these design goals, I centered my design solutions around 5 key considerations.
Final Designs
Constraints
Limited templates & components available
A global audit log was required in the CVP, and these designs were needed urgently. This meant that our designs were constrained by what templates and components currently existed in the design system.
Process
Ideation → Dev Handoff
Back to the basics
I went through multiple rounds of iteration and feedback with subject matter experts that led back to designs similar to our original concepts.
We found the basic table format was sufficient for users to understand changes to the system, and that it was better for us to decide the order information is consumed rather than allow for complex customization.
Defining what columns to include
Complete
Column order, priority, and content
Understandable & Scannable
Template choice
Scannable & Searchable
Recap
Next Steps
Implementation and template improvements
- Project will be sent through first round of development
- Future discovery & testing with real users
- Propose new templates that better group changes
Reflections
Learning through iteration
- How to design around design system constraints while maintaining creativity
- Balancing technical accuracy with user understanding for content design
- How to best gather information for an unknown, large-scale, technical project
- Subject matter experts are not perfect users
- Going back and forth on a design decision feels frustrating but can lead to new insights
My thoughts
This was a first time of many things: my first time working with an extensive design system, my first time working with a project manager, content designer, and larger design team, and my first time starting a project in the middle of the design process.
During this 12 week internship, I've become better at presenting my work, communicating across time zones, and being more assertive and confident in my voice as a designer. I had the privilege of working with an amazing team, and I have learned so much from everyone I talked to and worked with!
