MeliB-Design - Optimizing Navigation with an Admin Panel

Background information

WorldLabs is an innovation platform which allows the user to create their own profile, page, group, opportunity and event.

Problem statement

When the company just started, we decided to have two views: admin and public. It worked well in the beginning when there were less features.

More features have been added as the time goes by. We started to have issues. Users found it confusing when there are so many different buttons on the page. They could not tell the difference between admin view and public view.

My role

I first looked into user behavior and communicated with the sales team in order to find out more first hand information.

Based on the primary and secondary research, I found out users are concerned about what will public see on their profile. Especially for universities and organisations, they are concerned about what their members will see on their page.

Therefore, I suggested having an admin panel just for the admin(s). It would make it very clear that public will not see it. It will also make the profile page look less messy by grouping the admin buttons together.

Objective

There are different entities(profile/page/group/opportunity/event) which provide different features. The admin panel has to work well across those entities.

Wireframe draft 1

I decided it put the admin panel on the top right underneath the profile because it will make it easier for the user to switch profile/page and assess to the admin panel. They only need to move the mouse point slightly under the profile drop down.

Wireframe draft 2

There are more than 5 buttons in the admin panel. This could cause potential issues because the panel could blockout some of the background header image.

After further development, I have decided to make the panel expandable. The 'edit' has to be big and first thing users will see when they land on the page.

Mobile

Mobile version has a slightly different design. Mobile screen is a lot smaller than desktop screen. It is important to think about the user experience.

The panel is smaller and also expands from the right side to left side. The admin panel is big enough and very noticeable.