Company
Penta Technologies
Role
UX Design & Practice Lead
Timeline
Apr 2021 – Apr 2022
Team
[Add team]
A complex construction payroll product was scoped as a back-end calculation engine with no user interface at all.
UI and design system from zero
- Personas and journey maps for 2 primary roles
- MVP workflows for time entry and check processing
- First design system for the product
The problem
The Cloud Payroll team was building a product for the complicated workflows of construction accounting. It was originally planned as a back-end calculation system with no user interface, even though payroll clerks and managers would rely on it every pay period.
Research
Empathy interviews with the target users produced primary personas for the Payroll Clerk and Payroll Manager. Their workflows and journey maps showed the same pain points from two angles: no automated validation, multiple systems needed to check time entries, and tight deadlines with high record volume.
Design
- Validation rules addressed the biggest pain point directly: hour-type and range checks for time entries, gross and net range checks for paychecks, and a dedicated place to capture exceptions.
- Mid-fidelity prototypes suited this content-heavy system and were tested before moving to high fidelity.
- Prototypes and a development sandbox were used in usability evaluations with existing customers.
- Covered MVP workflows: time entry, check processing, compensation tables, employee onboarding, pay groups and PTO tracking.
- I created the product’s design system to keep it consistent and scalable.
