Jira
Connor Steffens UX design and Research
Executive summary
Jira is a project management software mainly used by software developers, product owners, and project managers. It helps software development teams track and manage projects.
We started by doing a cognitive walkthrough to judge the software’s usability. Then we had a contextual inquiry with a current developer that uses Jira. He had lots to say about Jira and not too much was positive. The main problem with Jira is that it is so customizable that issues arise. That is why I prototype some solutions to help simplify Jira for software developers.
Goals
The primary goal of this project is to enhance the usability of Jira for software developers. The secondary goal was to optimize efficiency for project managers and product owners. And recommend solutions to any bugs we found along the way.
Methods
cognitive walkthrough
contextual inquiry interview
Figma interactive prototyping
Cognitive Walkthrough
A cognitive walkthrough is the process of performing different tasks for a website to determine its usability.
Jira is a well-established company, so we didn’t find many errors during the walkthrough. But we did find some potential pain points relating to button mapping.
contextual inquiry
In a team of three, we interviewed a current IOS developer who has been using Jira for the better part of ten years. The roles during the interview were moderator, note taker, and tech lead.
We had him run us through his day-to-day tasks when using Jira asking further questions along the way. He gave us a lot of insight about using Jira, mainly his disdain for the platform.
Anonymous software developer-“A good day using Jira is when I don’t use it at all”
Click below to see the full Cognitive walkthrough
Findings
A key finding about Jira was that it was extremely customizable. Which was its best and worst aspect. This made it difficult for users to use Jira between multiple projects because of the different settings.
Also, there is LOTS of information on the home page with redundant buttons and clutter from old issues (tasks). In the interview, we found out that the developer rarely uses many of the functions on the home screen.
We also wrote some user stories to inspire and recommend changes to the software.
Example user story: As a software developer, I want to get rid of irrelevant information on the home page of Jira so that I can save time not sorting through information.
Prototyping
The interactive prototype was built in Figma, highlighting key pages to show what the recommended changes to Jira would look like.
Recommended changes
Add a button that would change the view for developers so they only see need-to-know information on the screen. Thus enhancing its overall usability.
Create a pop-up window that will remind you of old, unresolved issues. This will help both project managers and developers to make sure they aren’t forgetting any issues while cleaning up their Jira.
Add the ability to save past project settings as templates to use for future projects. This will save time for project managers and make new projects usable and intuitive for software developers.
Below is the linked Figma file and a walkthrough video if you're interested!
next steps and LEARNing
The next step would be to get feedback from the client and see if they have any recommendations for changes. Then implement them into the interactive prototype.
This project was great for furthering my Figma skills using things like components, text styles, color styles, and pop-up models.
With Jira being a very established company, it pushed me to come up with new and creative solutions.