Overview

As Lionbridge were rapidly establishing themselves as a qualified partner in AI training data services, through a 500,000+ strong pool of contributors and a powerful front-end data annotation platform, a key milestone in our product roadmap now extended to developing these proprietary tools into a SaaS product.

As one of the longest standing designers at Gengo—a subsidiary of Lionbridge and a key team in the company’s machine learning division—I worked alongside our product and engineering teams to development the admin-facing interface of the product.

Problem context

We approached redesigning a dashboard component for users to create and manage projects by first interviewing and observing our project managers, the first of the user groups that would ultimately comprise of customers as well as contributors.

The key problem that needed addressing was to redesign a flexible and ordered experience of creating, editing and tracking of projects. As a short-term solution to meet demands, our project managers were operating an engineering-led interim dashboard that, while functional, was cumbersome and lacking in UI/UX considerations.

Research & development

I worked closely alongside a product manager and a team of eight full-stack engineers to better appreciate the technical parameters of this project and to then define what was to be in/out of scope alongside discussions with ops team members, for our first and subsequent deployments.

Through conducting competitive reviews and understanding the limitations of the current dashboard, I spent some time exploring concepts that diverged from the existing designs as well ones that more closely resembled it, keeping in mind the following:

Identified priorities

• Differentiate three distinct stages of project creation;
• Enabling user control on a project level;
• Nullifying need for building design resources from scratch by utilising a design system

Refinement

After sharing, testing and fine-tuning designs with users and stakeholders, we arrived at an MVP project creation process that answered the initial call for flexibility and order. The new design comprehensively addresses missing heuristics of existing processes that were increasingly becoming a bottleneck to project managers.

The redesign also reflects dramatic branding changes to that of the LIOX Design System. My team piloted and documented the system in this project once we moved onto hi-fidelity designs, in close collaboration with our front-end engineering teams.

Outcome

Soon after completing the MVP designs and delivering them into dev hands, my time at the company came to a close as I made the decision to relocate back to Melbourne. However, I still see being a part of the machine learning team at Gengo, and contributing to the product marketing roadmap a great privilege and learning opportunity. Evolving services into providing a SaaS product within the company’s history was equally a huge milestone in diversifying outside of translation—a first in Gengo’s 10+ year history.

For all intents and purposes, my understanding is that the Gengo/Lionbridge team are very much focused on furthering this project’s potential into 2020.

Lionbridge

2019

Services

Product Design

Team

Product: Charly Walther, Mike Stewart
Product Design: Rainie Nguyen, Thang Nguyen, Rhea Tagami
Engineering: Jerimy Abner, Jean Klingler, Driek van Hees, Toshiyuki Ninomiya, Julien Crevits, Mark Jezreel Dagot, Perseus Laguador, Cere Blanco
Operations: Cedric Wagrez, Rebecca Bourke, Tino Salinas, Chikara Shimizu, Olga Kuchuk

Related projects

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Acknowledgement of Country

I live and work on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. I acknowledge elders past, present, and emerging, and recognise their abiding connection to this land, its waterways, and communities. Sovereignty was never ceded.

Attribution

Fun bits set in Ouroboros by Ariel Martin Pérez and Hélène Alix Mourrier, and Typefesse by Océane Juvin for Velvetyne Type Foundry.

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