UW-IT Service Workflow Design

Implemented a new system using Microsoft Power-automate and eliminated single-person workflow dependency

Summer Internship Project at UW-IT

UW IT Service Design banner

Contributions

Increased a service flow efficiency by 75%, implemented a new system using Microsoft Flow and eliminated single-person workflow dependency

Timeline

3 months

Jun 2022 - Sep 2023

Teammates

1× UX Designer

My Role

• Research

• UX

Background

Problem

The current PDF Remediation Service Flow is too arduous, manual and heavily dependent on one person:

Gaby, Accessibility Specialist. 

Deliverables

  1. Gained a detailed understanding of the current service flow to determine pain points, frustrations, and areas of improvement.

  2. Refined the current service flow with a focus on increasing organization, efficiency, and collaboration

Design Process

1. Identify Pain Points:

To understand the current process of the PDF remediation workflow, we created a workflow chart, specifying the different decisions and communication involved.

2. Define information needs

To create an simplified workflow (an MVP solution that’s practical and implementable), we started by outlining general flows to ideate

We documented the necessary information whenever something felt too abstract, since this stage was focused on defining the new flow rather than detailing solutions.

snapshot of the workflow chart involving multiple stsakeholders

Decisions and stakeholders involved in the current remediation workflow

Creating this workflow helped us understand where in the workflow there are multiple required decisions for one individual, and where progress is often halted. We reviewed this workflow with different stakeholders to revise the workflow and to determine current problems and frustrations.

Original Process and Issues

There are 4 stages in the service flow:

Requesting
UW Departments request for documents to remediated by the ATS team, which is managed by Gaby.

    • Disorganized: requests come in through four channels

    • Cluttered: All requests flood Gaby’s inbox

    • Gaby- dependent: Communication with clients fully relies on Gaby

Routing
Gaby sends requests to students and a third-party remediation service, depending on availability and difficulty of the requests.

    • Gaby-dependent: Fully dependent on Gaby

    • Manual Process: Gaby does all decision-making and manually routes documents

    • Disorganized: documents are placed in emails and other software

Quality Control
Gaby inspects all documents for errors, to ensure all documents meet the clients’ requests.

    • Gaby- dependent: Fully dependent on Gaby

Tracking
Gaby manually archives and tracks documents for internal reports.

    • Gaby-dependent: Fully dependent on Gaby

    • Disorganized: progress tracked across different platforms

snapshot of improved annotated workflow

Annotating all the necessary information for each decision/action helped solution development

3. Brainstorm solutions

Below are the possible solutions we identified to improve each stage of the workflow.


As UW-IT transitioned from Slack to Microsoft Teams for all communication, we started to explore Microsoft products and identified Planner and Power Automate as possible solutions.

Requesting

Problem Solution
Disorganization Use Power Automate to streamline client requests from one Microsoft Forms document into tickets in Microsoft Teams Planner.
Cluttered All requests, documents, and communication stored on one platform: Microsoft Teams Planner.
Gaby-dependent Create an automated reply sent to clients after they submit the Microsoft Form, streamlining communication and reducing back-and-forth emails.
screenshot of automated reply email template in powerautomate

Ticket System in Microsoft Planner to optimize organization

Routing

Problem Solution
Gaby-dependent As requests come in to Microsoft Teams Planner, students can self-assign client requests based on their own schedules. Enable a Shared NetID Email for students to handle client communication without using personal emails.
Manual Process Use Power Automate to have requests automatically come into Microsoft Teams Planner, with details of the request and the document in a ticket. Students can self-assign tickets without moving documents around.
Disorganized Documents are stored in only one place: Microsoft Teams Planner.
demo of putting colored labels on emails using a shared email

Shared NetID to handle client communication

Quality Control

Problem Solution
Gaby-dependent Utilize the Accessibility Report from Adobe Acrobat to have students handle quality control independently, and upload their reports to Microsoft Planner for storage.
screenshot of attaching documents under section attachments

Students can upload accessibility reports to a ticket on Microsoft Teams Planner

Tracking

Problem Solution
Gaby-dependent Instead of Gaby, students can upload completed documents to one folder ‘Files’ in Microsoft Teams. Use Power Automate to automatically update the Tracker.
Disorganized Storage of completed documents is in one folder on Microsoft Teams with dates in the header for efficient access.
screenshot of microsoft sharepoint list tracker

The new tracker automatically updates rows and numbers from form submissions, replacing manual input in the Google Sheet

4. Final Report


After brainstorming, we wrote up a proposal with several solutions and our design recommendations to present the solutions to Gaby.
Our recommended solution was to use the following Ticket System:

An automated workflow, using the Microsoft tools Planner, Sharepoint list, One Drive, and Forms.

microsoft planner view with multiple tickets in different buckets

Ticket System in Microsoft Planner to optimize organization

5. Implementation (Phase 1
To slowly transition from the old workflow to the proposed workflow, we decided to implement incremental changes.


In Phase 1, Gaby is using the workspace to assign tasks, but students are not yet contacting clients directly. We created an Instruction Guide to help Gaby and students understand the steps of the new phase.

screenshot of a section of instruction for gaby about how to use the team planner

Instruction Guide with instructions for each step of the workflow

User Testing


We used the Instruction Guide to determine the usability of the proposed workflow. We asked 3 students and Gaby to go through the workflow. Here are the iterations we made for phase 1 based on the test results:

Problem:

Students missed steps from the instruction guide

Solution:

Automated checklist in each ticket, created by a client submission

Problem:

Attachments in each ticket were confusing because the full document names weren't visible, requiring users to click and preview to identify them.

attachments name look the same because they are cut off at the end

Solution:

Automated link in each ticket that leads to page with corresponding details

file folder and tracker links under attacments

Problem:

Unclear how to assign multiple people to work on the same ticket

Solution:

Previous File Folder Solution allowed assigning people for each document without having to split the ticket

a list of documents assigned to multiple people with their name in assigned to column in microsoft sharepoint drive

Problem:

People found it difficult to navigate to another interface for tracking

Solution:

Automate a link to be created in each ticket that links to an automatically created unique file folder for the client request, where multiple files can be uploaded.

file folder and tracker link under attachments

Result

Since its launch in September, the Phase 1 workflow has been live and running smoothly. We've made a few adjustments and troubleshooting along the way, but the entire team is actively using it, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Tickets are coming in daily, and here’s a glimpse of our current planner layout.

Impact

81%

Ease of use

75%

Improved flow efficiency

“I like how visualized it looks! I’m excited to work directly with Clients”


- Student A

“This exceeds my expectations! It really makes my life easier. I can finally go on vacation stress-free!”

-Gaby

Reflections

  1. Scope kept changing


    Originally, I was asked to design the workflow for ServiceNow, but later told we weren't considering it anymore, and I had to come up with a short-term solution that would be easy for the team to adopt. It was frustrating at first because I didn't think I could design something effective without a powerful tool like ServiceNow. Then, two weeks later, my design manager said we might still use ServiceNow after all. The shifting scope messed with my workflow, but by trusting the design process, I ended up creating a simple solution that I’m proud of.

  2. Trust the process


    I spent a month detailing every aspect of the workflow chart and another two weeks creating new ones for ideation. The process was tedious and abstract, and I often questioned whether it was perfect or necessary. However, all of this groundwork proved invaluable when we reached the solution phase. All the little details and the familiarity I gained with the process actually made shaping the solution the easier part.