Redesigning the Acumen Platform for Minisoft Inc.
Minisoft Inc.'s Acumen is a robust business intelligence (BI) solution designed for enterprises, offering real-time analytics, reporting, and data integration. Despite its powerful capabilities, the Acumen platform had not been updated in nearly 20 years, with the design stuck in the early 2000s. The dated interface, clunky navigation, and overall lack of modern user experience (UX) features hindered users from easily recognizing or interacting with the platform’s core functionalities.
Project Scope
The Acumen platform redesign had a clear twofold focus:
- Visual Refresh: Modernize the platform with a fresh, professional aesthetic that reflects current design standards.
- UI/UX Strategy Overhaul: Revamp the user experience to make Acumen more intuitive and user-friendly, especially for timekeepers and decision-makers who need to review statuses and approve forecasts.
Challenges of the Existing Platform
The previous version of Acumen had several issues that negatively impacted the user experience:
- Outdated Aesthetics: The platform felt like a relic from the 1990s, with minimal visual appeal and a lack of modern design principles. The UI was bare bones, offering little visual guidance or hierarchy to support user interaction.
- Unclear Application Goals: The main objective of the platform—helping users manage and forecast client data—was not immediately apparent. This lack of clarity caused users to feel uncertain about how to use the application effectively.
- Poor Navigation: Users found it difficult to navigate the platform. Key tasks, such as reviewing statuses and approving forecasts, were buried under layers of poorly organized menus and content.
- Low Usability: Overall, the interface was difficult to use, with many pain points around the workflow and a lack of guidance or instruction for new users. It lacked onboarding support or contextual help features that are standard in modern applications.
Redesign Approach
The previous version of Acumen had several issues that negatively impacted the user experience:
1.UI Visual Overhaul
The first step was to completely modernize the look and feel of the Acumen platform:
- Clean, Modern Interface: I implemented a clean, minimalist design with a professional color palette that better represented Acumen’s role as an enterprise-level BI tool.
- Consistent Visual Hierarchy: New typographic styles, iconography, and color coding were introduced to make important actions stand out and guide the user’s eye through the workflow.
- Whitespace and Layout: Effective use of whitespace and a grid-based layout helped declutter the interface and improved readability, making the platform feel more spacious and approachable.
2. Improved Navigation and Task Recognition
The next priority was to address the poor navigation and make the platform’s goals clear:
- Simplified Menu Structure: The menu was restructured to ensure that key tasks like reviewing statuses and approving forecasts were prominently featured and easy to find. I implemented a side navigation panel with clear, well-labeled categories for quick access.
- Dashboard Redesign: I redesigned the Acumen dashboard to focus on the core tasks that users perform most often. The dashboard now featured real-time data widgets, alerts for pending approvals, and shortcuts to essential tools.
- Task-Oriented Design: The layout was built around the user’s workflow, so actions such as approving forecasts or reviewing statuses became front and center. This made it easier for users to understand the platform’s main goal and focus on completing key tasks.
3. Enhanced User Experience and Guidance
Given the complexity of Acumen, improving the UX required thoughtful changes to the user flow and incorporating guiding features:
- User Onboarding: I designed an onboarding sequence that walked new users through the platform’s core functionalities, helping them get started quickly and reduce confusion.
- Interactive Tooltips: Contextual tooltips were added to help users navigate through complex features and understand Acumen’s more advanced capabilities without overwhelming them with information upfront.
- Streamlined Workflows: The workflow for key actions such as status reviews and forecast approvals was simplified. I reduced the number of steps required to complete these tasks, making the process more intuitive.
Summary
By combining modern UI design with a user-centered UX strategy, the Acumen platform was transformed into a more accessible, user-friendly, and visually appealing tool that met the needs of today’s enterprise users.
