Summary

Småland is IKEA’s in-house crèche facility in stores nationwide. Parents can leave their children with caretakers while they shop for as long as 90 minutes, free of charge. The new system would only be required as a desktop application. It would be operated by staff at the point of contact with the parents and carers and head office.

I led design and collaborated with a Product Manager, Business Analyst and a small team of developers and QA Main areas of responsibility: 

• translate wireframes into data visualisation
• user interface functionality
• iconography
• typography and conceptual design
• visual design specification

The challenge

IKEA needed a new application for their in-house crèche facility and approached Parenta where I was employed. Parenta was challenged with designing and building the solution. The organisation had significant experience in the early years sector. I was given the task to provide user focused visual design specification, user interface functionality, translate wireframes into data visualisation, iconography, typography and conceptual design.

The solution

Process

Working closely with a project manager, business analyst and a small team of developers. The client and product manager opted to deliver the project using the waterfall method. From receiving the business requirements and wireframes, I embraced and utilised UI best practices.

Reflection

I learned a lot about enterprise software and how an extensive style guide and visual specification is essential for developers to create a cohesive product. I learned how important it was to give attention at each stage of the design process, create industry standard and best practice solutions for dashboards, configuration pages, widgets, panels, tables, etc. to build up a new component library.

The client and product manager opted to deliver the project via the waterfall method.