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booc Event Management System

Overview

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booc is an online event management service that's used to plan, organize, and run meetings, conferences, seminars, and other events. This feature-rich web application helps to meet the needs of event managers and participants.

The Business

booc GmbH, the development company from Germany, has created an event management web application for booc and their worldwide clients. The list of clients is impressive and this list indicates how high product standards, requirements, and expectations are.

The first version was launched in 2003 and was quickly appreciated by customers. The functionality and overall project scale were constantly increasing through the product life cycle, so development for the new version started in 2006. The existing user interface was losing its ability to effectively work with information that was constantly increasing together with a number of features. It was especially critical for key clients to have an effective tool, so booc GmbH turned to UI Modeling Company for the prototype of a new user interface. Changes had to first be presented to key clients.

The Solution

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First, UI Modeling Company analyzed project specifications and the existing user interface itself. This allowed us to define personas that describe key users of the system. After all the initial steps, we built navigational maps and page flows that covered all of booc's existing functionality. This analysis gave us the knowledge of what is good and what is not in the current UI, what features should be kept as is and what should be redesigned.

We needed a plan for what should be done to the user interface. We couldn't do the UI design from scratch — users had gotten accustomed to the existing application, and booc had a quite good interface. UI Modeling Company reviewed and updated navigational maps and page flows to make the system more effective and easy to use, but familiar and recognizable too.

We kept the same principles in mind when the key phase of the process started: the creation of user interface layout or wireframes. Since we already had current design, a lot of pages weren't designed from scratch — most of them were updated to simplify and speed up processes, some were kept as is, and some were removed as redundant. From small updates, like highlighting important information on the page, to more complex changes, like simplifying and decreasing the number of steps in a wizard, those enhancements affected overall effectiveness of the user interface. And, of course, it helped new functionality fit into the overall buildup of the system.

After UI Modeling Company finished the wireframe design, the HTML prototype was created. The rest of the process was more about writing than design; use cases were created and the whole pack of documents was delivered to booc GmbH.

The Result

The prototype has helped booc GmbH demonstrate a new user interface to key clients, and after a short series of changes, the new UI was approved and a set of related documents was delivered to the development team. These documents helped them start implementation with a clear and well-defined vision of what should be done — so there was no need for them to try to write code while still defining user interface (something programmers are often forced to do when they aren't given a clear plan in advance.

As for booc's clients and their employees, they got the prototype that allowed them to learn how to work with new version of booc, even before the code was written. And users weren't faced with a totally new application — they got a tool they were familiar with, but at the same time was more effective and more pleasant.

The ROI

Since implementing user interface redesign and adding new features to their application, booc GmbH has increased its conversion rate — more potential clients have become real customers. And, of course, the company has seen to the satisfaction of their key clients and gotten assurances that they will use the new application.

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