Data Document Builder

Data Reporting / Simpleview Data Engine

What

The Data Engine is Simpleview’s data reporting platform.

I was given the opportunity to do product design work with the team of five Product Managers and one Lead Developer, all of whom are based in the US. It was a live, fully functioning platform being used by clients when I arrived, so I had to work what was already there (which was mainly designed by the developers, one of whom is now the Product Manager).

The document builder allows users to arrange visualisations (charts, graphs, data tables) into a paged document format. We offer some page templates and basic content additions to give some layout options.

Why

We needed a way to let users create documents with engaging and meaningful content, using their own data and visualisations as an easy-to-use self-service feature.

Our platform is used by organisations to generate reports for different stakeholders within their organisations, such as Marketing, C-level members and Sales. Different teams have different needs so we wanted to make a product where the user could tailor the document to the person for whom the data had been collected.

We also needed to allow visual branding and style editing, so that the documents could be used in presentations, or sent out to people in different organisations.

How

I have been working with this team since 2021, having collaborative weekly video call meetings to go over the work done since the last meeting
When new features are needed, I discern the user journeys, make suggestions for how it could work, and create high fidelity mockups based on my ideas
We would then go over the mockups in the meetings, discuss feasibility and then refine the designs and ideas over each week
Over the years, we have been gradually adding new features to the builder, all of which need to be integrated seamlessly into the existing interface
My mockups have certainly encouraged lively debate! Even if my ideas aren't practical, it's so useful for people to see things in front of them to decide if it's going to work or not so I never feel that it's time wasted

Result

The document builder was a brand-new feature and it was my responsibility to develop the user journey and come up with ideas around what we could offer as tools.
I did extensive investigation into layout of content and data within the boundaries of a page
I developed the process of adding data content, and then editing it once in place
I finalised the templates that we were going to offer as page build starting points
Development of this feature is ongoing - I have just finished designing a free-form canvas version of the document builder feature

I am really proud of the work that I have done with this feature.

Design

A new document

Edit data from within the document