CLIENT
Edvo
ROLE
Lead UX & Product Designer (Contract)
TIMELINE
16 Weeks
COLLABORATORS
OVERVIEW
Edvo is a software that organizes all your tabs, files, notes and ideas by project so you can see everything in one space and find things 3x faster. Users can add their tabs and files into Edvo spaces with one click using the Organizer. The Radial Toolbar allows for focus and ideas and the Nav Bar helps navigating between spaces and projects.
For their beta launch in June 2023, I helped design and launch their product, Chrome Extension and website.
UX DESIGN • PRODUCT DESIGN • INTERACTION DESIGN
Reducing information overload for tech users by creating connected digital spaces
People who use browsers, files and platforms for most of their work deal with the consequences of information overload everyday. This term refers to the overwhelming abundance of information available to them from various sources, such as social media, news articles, and collaborative platforms.
The consequences of information overload can manifest in several ways. A few that we identified are
-
It takes more time to locate specific information
-
It hampers creativity due to cognitive overload
-
It becomes harder to prioritize and complete tasks
USER NEED
Understanding why information overload is a productivity killer
Workers spend an average of 1.6 hr/day searching for information, which drops productivity by almost 40%.
CHALLENGE
Enabling users to transfer, organize and optimize their workflow in Edvo
APPROACH
Work with tabs and related items in a visual database called 'Spaces'
" We're redesigning our digital environment to select our best selves - digital spaces that empower thoughtfulness, creativity, and flow. "
Shireen Jaffer
(Co-Founder, Edvo)
One of the most adverse and stressful effects of information overload is the inability to locate information quickly and accurately. It's shocking to know that workers spend almost 20% of their time looking for information within platforms.
We designed a whole new way to do a global search and find things 3x faster - from spaces, tabs, images, documents, links or notes. This search bar also served as the 'Command Centre' for anything to do within the environment. You can look for information, add notes, changes settings or quickly share spaces - all using hotkeys on the keyboard.
3. COMMAND CENTRE
Empowering users with a powerful way to search and use information
Context switching is a huge invisible cost paid by users switching between multiple apps and platforms. It's estimated that it takes a user over 10 meetings to get back into a state of flow after switching between different contexts. We designed a Quick Access Nav Bar that would allow for switching workflows in just one click. The biggest advantage of having this command centre was enabling users to seamlessly switch between tabs and platforms without leaving the Edvo interface at any point.
In order for users to do their work effectively, the software should look clean and be distraction free. We needed an intuitive navigation that makes sense to the users context and reduce the steps it takes to get there.
We designed a brand new toolbar that expands on hover. Users can add notes, stickies, browsers, link other Edvo spaces or search. This also trained users to use hotkeys for quick tasks instead of clicking buttons.
4. STATE OF FLOW
Unlocking creativity for users in a distraction free UI environment
Each item in a space came with it's own set of tools to build deeper workflows and connections.
-
Focus modes
-
Connected subitems
-
Item Notes
-
Card Design
-
Share & Collaborate
Users navigating browsers, files, and platforms for work need effective strategies and tools to manage and streamline information, ensuring a more focused and productive workflow. Our strategy for achieving that was
-
Giving users a quick way to add existing tabs to Edvo 'Spaces'
-
Allowing users to categorize them contextually in a way that made sense to the user
So we created a browser extension called Edvo Annotator which can add any browser tab to Edvo by simply adding the page to any new space.
1. ALWAYS ACCESSIBLE
Giving users a quick way to bookmark their tabs in Edvo
It would also be important for users to add tabs to a new space without having to open Edvo. By allowing users to see their recent spaces, we made it faster for them to add things to multiple spaces seamlessly.
After adding tabs and pages into Edvo, users would need a way to organize their workflow in a way that makes sense to them and their work.
We designed the Organizer as the central tool to add and manage open tabs in multiple spaces at the same time. This gave users a way to organize their information into projects and see them side by side at any given point of time. Moreover, they can see the space behind them populate with the tabs that they add.
2. CONNECTED DATABASE
Guiding users to organize and visualize relevant information together
An Edvo space is nothing but a database collection of tabs, files, notes and ideas related to any project or workflow. Users interact with each space and with every item inside it - be it a tab or a document, image, note and more. Even more, users can interact with these pages in real time as it is embedded live into the space.
