Continually improving Data Studio

The Project

Aperture Data Studio is a comprehensive data management and data quality platform designed to help businesses manage, analyse, and improve the quality of their data. As the UX lead, I was responsible for ensuring a seamless and user-friendly experience, enabling both data professionals and business users to cleanse, standardise, enrich, and match data from various sources through an intuitive interface.

The Challenge

Data Studio is a complex platform with numerous elements to consider within the interface. The development process often meant that features needed to be trimmed or certain usability issues couldn't be immediately addressed due to prioritisation challenges. Additionally, the imbalance between the number of developers and designers led to certain screens and areas of the app lacking the necessary design attention. This resulted in a need for a system that could continuously identify and improve small usability issues without derailing the primary development roadmap.

UX Matters: A System for Continuous Improvement

To address this, I co-chaired the UX Matters programme, aimed at focusing on incremental usability enhancements and adding delightful polish to the product. We designed a process using DevOps and RICE scoring to ensure the highest-priority improvements were being addressed. Each development team was tasked with implementing a set number of improvements per quarter, ensuring that the user experience remained a central focus while development continued on other fronts.

The Outcome

This initiative resulted in approximately 20 usability improvements per quarter, leading to a noticeable increase in user satisfaction scores. By consistently addressing the top customer-reported issues and adding value through regular improvements, we enhanced the overall user experience and ensured that customer feedback was reflected in the platform’s evolution.

‍