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// PAID EVENTS FEATURE //

Government Event Payment Collection Feature Design

ROLE

Senior Product Designer

COMPANY

Kalkomey Enterprises, Inc

TIMELINE

Jul 2023 - Jul 2024

TEAM

11 members – 2 Senior Product Designers, 2 UX Designers, 1 Product Manager, 2 Engineers, 4 Stakeholders

PLATFORM

SaaS Web Application

DOMAIN

Government / State Agency Park Management

RESPONSIBILITIES

UX Research, Needs Assessment, Stakeholder Collaboration, Flow & Architecture, Configuration Logic, Design System, Accessibility, Interaction Design, Visual Design, UX Writing, Development Support, Budget & Hiring

Project Objectives

Problem

Kalkomey Enterprises operated two versions of its Event Manager product: a legacy platform and a newer iteration. Agency partners, responsible for managing state program events, required a more efficient system. The newer platform, however, lacked essential features and suffered from usability issues. A critical missing component was the ability to collect payments during event registration—a feature present in the legacy system.

Goals

  • Consolidate the legacy and new platforms into a unified system.

  • Introduce a payment collection feature during event registration.

  • Enhance overall usability and accessibility.

  • Establish a scalable design system for future enhancements.

Discovery & Research

Internal & Stakeholder Interviews

I spoke to teams in engineering, product, customer experience, agency relations, and executive management, reviewed past work, recorded demos, and looked at current efforts to:

  • Set a project baseline

  • Check assumptions

  • Avoid past mistakes

  • Align with business goals

  • Encourage collaboration

Interview with agency relations director and manager.

Interview with agency relations director and manager.

Product Mapping & Audit

Mapped out existing flows and architecture, and assessed both platforms to identify feature gaps and usability issues, to:

  • Build foundational understanding of the product

  • Prepare for user interviews and SME demos

  • Spot immediate heuristic infractions

  • Create resources for the product team

  • Train UX team in architecture and flow mapping

Architecture diagram of existing new admin system.

Architecture diagram of existing new admin system.

Flow diagram of existing new admin system.
Sample of UX audit.

Flow diagram of existing new admin system.

Sample of UX audit.

Agency Partner Interviews

Worked closely with agency stakeholders to conduct one-hour interviews with 10 agents from 7 states and 1 province, ensuring equal representation across both platforms. Interviews followed a script, were recorded via Zoom, and were transcribed using Otter. I then analyzed the results and used the details to build personas for the product team.

The questions discussed in each interview.

The questions discussed in each interview.

One of three personas created from the interviews.

One of three personas created from the interviews.

Needs Analysis

I pulled the main points from each interview, organized them based on reoccurring themes, and analyzed details around the specific wants and needs that were discussed. This work helped to define consolidation strategies and prioritize improvements to the existing experience.

Sample from the theme analysis.

Sample from the theme analysis.

Sample of the needs analysis.

Sample of the needs analysis.

Design Process & Execution

Consolidation Strategy

With a change in priorities and resourcing mid-way through the project, my efforts had to shift from the broader product strategy to building the payment feature. So, I championed hiring a contractor to continue the work while the team focused on the more crucial efforts for the business. That way we could still proactively make informed decisions based on future product considerations while simultaneously designing the payment feature. 

Visual used to discuss product structure.
Sample from contractor's report.

Visual used to discuss product structure.

Sample from contractor's report.

Design System Stabilization & Accessibility

A full redesign was not possible, and there was no official design system or time to create one. So, my goal was to set the foundation for a design system to thrive in the future by focusing on solidifying the existing platform through gradual improvements that enhanced usability and accessibility by:​

  • Standardizing and documenting the heuristically strongest patterns and components

  • Repurposing and establishing past design system work

  • Collaborating with engineering to ensure components were standardized based on functionality and implementation, and that changes were economical to the project timeline and essence of the code.

Stickersheet created for engineering.
Guide outlining accessible colour changes.

Guide outlining accessible colour changes.

Stickersheet created for engineering.

Collaborative Screen Design

Due to sensitive agency partner relationships, iterative usability testing wasn't possible. So, I held regular weekly design review sessions with key stakeholders and engineering to go over concepts and designs, and to collectively make decisions on design and functionality. Screens were built using "screenshot mashing" or straight to high fidelity using established design system components. To push the product and prioritize user needs with project constraints, I would present a combination of the most essential changes coupled with design alternatives that went beyond the essential changes for the team to discuss.

Screenshot from one of the review sessions.

Screenshot from one of the review sessions.

Sample of a revision the team wanted to keep.

Sample of a revision the team wanted to keep.

Annotated Handoff

The team faced severe resourcing constraints mid-way through the project. As a result, the feature had to be built with a certain level of autonomy. To support this, the final design file was heavily annotated with interaction design details, labeled with existing versus new design elements, and colour coded for easy digestibility. 

Example of annotations in the final Figma file.

Example of annotations in the final Figma file.

End Summary

As the product design leader, I:​

💪

Unified Cross-
Functional Teams

Worked across product, engineering, and customer success to ensure alignment with agency and user needs.

🔥

Facilitated
Strategic Design

Facilitated weekly critiques and decision-making checkpoints with PMs and stakeholders.​

​🌈

Mentored
for Growth

Guided other designers on component consistency, accessibility heuristics, and logic handling.​

🚀

Enabled
Confident Launches

Supported QA and dev through launch with detailed documentation and async design reviews.​

Impact & Outcomes

  • Successfully launched an updated Event Manager product with integrated payment collection during event registration.

  • Improved user satisfaction through enhanced usability and streamlined processes.

  • Established a robust foundation for ongoing product development and scalability.

Reflection

This project underscored the importance of integrating legacy functionalities into new platforms to meet user expectations. By focusing on user-centric design and cross-functional collaboration, we delivered a solution that not only addressed immediate needs but also positioned the product for future growth.

Final Designs

More detailed walkthroughs available upon request.

Preview of the admin screens.

Preview of the storefront screens.

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