Amplio Network
Desktop Software Application
I redesigned and modernized the Audio Content Manager, a desktop software used by program managers in Ghana to deport audio books for communities with low literacy.
Currently serving more than 2 million individuals, this project aims to increase accessibility to education and raise the overall literacy rates in Africa.
Role
Product Design Intern
Team
1 Project Manager
1 Design Manager
5 Design Interns
Timeline
10 Weeks
Summer 2024
Skills/Tools
Figma
Product Design
Client Relations
CONTEXT
What is Amplio?
Amplio Network is a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower the world's most vulnerable communities through knowledge sharing. My task was to redesign Amplio’s severely outdated internal tools, the Audio Content Manager (ACM) and Talking Book Loader (TB Loader). I worked on transforming ACM’s main audio library and three essential assistants, which simplified the process of creating deployments where audio contents are stored.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Improving the task of Audio Deployment by 40%
After countless user testing feedback and hours of collaboration, I handed off the brand new Audio Content Manager.
However, this product would never have made it to final stage without understanding users’ frustration with the original interface and what was causing program managers to spend many hours just training to use the original ACM.
THE PROBLEM
Amplio’s internal tools have been around for decades with outdated designs...
The Audio Content Manager hasn’t been updated since the 2000s, causing the current interface to look like this.
USER RESEARCH
How are program managers currently using the ACM?
I first needed to understand how audio contents are imported into the ACM, deported to the TB Loader, and then delivered to communities around the world.
Using the ACM, program managers import new audio content into an existing library database. The audio content gets deported to the TB Loader.
From the TB Loader, field officers download the audio content and put it into Amplio Talking Books.
The Amplio Talking Book is a battery-powered audio device that is delivered out to users with low literacy skills.
From there, we conduced 4+ user interviews with experienced and inexperienced program managers to understand how they are using Amplio’s internal tools. I grouped the feedback from the user interviews and the heuristic evaluation into a priority matrix.
With this categorization, I focused on the quick wins and major projects: modernizing ACM’s interfaces for faster interactions, streamlining ACM assistants to deploy content easier, and creating a Help & FAQ page for program managers to reference.
IDEATION
Transforming Ideas into Designs
After understanding what frustrations I needed to tackle, I began to sketch out wireframes to envision how the new ideas can be integrated into one screen.
Audio Library
Implemented: Navigation menu, decluttered data table, bottom placement for audio play feature, and playlist filtering
Audio Assistant
Implemented: Popup modal became a page, and steps are clearly divided into its own section.
EXPLORATIONS
So many iterations!
I spent many weeks in the mid fidelity phase, exploring different layouts and improving designs based on client feedback.
DESIGN SYSTEM
Consistency across tools
Amplio has many internal tools, however, all of these tools follow a different design system that doesn’t connect back to Amplio. Therefore, we created a design system from scratch to maintain consistency and branding for Amplio across all tools.
Base icons were pulled from MaterialUI’s component kit, and I customized a unique Talking Book device icon specially for Amplio’s applications.
FINAL DELIVERY
At last, program managers can...
Move around the Audio Content Manager with ease! There were three major flows that I completed.
Access the Audio Library ⊹ ࣪ ˖
A collection of all imported audio contents with detailed information and playable audio. Users can listen to an audio, filter through audio contents, or customize table columns in this library.
Deploy through Assistants ⊹ ࣪ ˖
Step by step explanations that teaches the user how to import content, add it onto existing deployments and playlists, assign content to system prompts, and optionally add custom greetings.
Manage all Deployments ⊹ ࣪ ˖
Active, upcoming, and archived deployments are all accessible in the Deployment Table. Users can see how long the deployment will be in session or revive previous deployments.
TAKEAWAYS
Never Give Up!
This has been an incredibly rewarding journey, and I have learned so much from the other designers, design lead, and our team mentor about designing with business and technical constraints.
Try other Approaches
Despite gathering valuable feedback from our four user interviews, most of users’ problems stemmed from trouble communicating with higher-ups rather than direct issues with the tools. To fully critique the original design, the team conducted 24 heuristic evaluations on the apps that proved to be very helpful.
Design System FIRST
Even in high fidelities, there were three different icon libraries being in use and incoherent designs, wasting hours at the end of the project to replace all the icons to one library and correcting tiny details. This could have been avoided if we established a design system at the beginning!
I am so excited to see the impact that our designs will make in increasing access to education for vulnerable communities around the world!
✿ yl3644@cornell.edu ✿
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