Notifications

In-app and email notifications are regularly sent from IBM Partner Portal concerning important topics related to the IBM Partner Plus program, including updates about contracting, activity within the portal, and other relevant information.

Starting point

Notifications are typically sent through both email and in-app, providing users with important updates, though there are not many options available for customizing their preferred methods of receiving these messages. The types of notifications that users receive vary depending on their specific user role.

Team

1 Lead Designer (myself)
1 UX Researcher
1 Product Owner
1 Architect
1 Squad

In-app notifications before redesign.

Communication preferences before redesign.

Issues

Crowded inboxes for admin users.

Partner administrator roles receive the greatest number of communications regarding their account. This is multiplied for admins responsible for several partner accounts.

Simple in-app experience.

In-app UI does not provide options to organize, sort, or delete notifications.

Limited communication preferences.

There is only one communication preference resulting in users having very limited control over how they receive all other categories of communication.

Research

I collaborated with a UX researcher to carry out a competitive analysis of various notification and communication preference user interfaces. We examined key features and usability aspects across several platforms to identify best practices and potential areas for improvement.

Notification mapping

By persona

I mapped every unique notification that exists in the system to different roles with the aim of visualizing the volume of communications that are being sent to each user. I found that some partners can become quite overwhelmed by the volume of notifications that are be sent to them.

By category

Then, I mapped those same notifications to proposed default methods (in-app, email, both) while introducing new categories to the UI — actions, updates, and requests. Actions are tasks that require the partner to take action by a certain deadline. Updates include status updates, changes to their program tier, user management, and other information. Requests include employees requesting to associate themselves with their company within the portal.

User journey flow

These journey flows showcase several entry points a user can take to arrive at in-app notifications or communication preferences.

MVP design

In-app notifications

The redesign added Actions and Updates to the experience, while Requests were integrated into another area of the portal. Actions show a countdown to their due date in both the preview and expanded panel. Users can now move notifications to a Saved folder for reference later, or a Deleted folder. Notifications in the Saved folder stay until removed by the user, while those in the Deleted folder are cleared after 30 days.

Communication preferences

The updated preferences page allows users to choose how they want to receive notifications and opt-out of non-essential communications.

Preference section

Several preference categories were introduced, each featuring collapsible sections for easier navigation. These preferences varied based on user roles.

Notification enhancements

Options to mark a notification as unread, move to Saved, or Delete a notification were introduced to all notifications.

Action notifications included a countdown tag to remind partners to address time-sensitive tasks. Highlighting these notifications was essential, as not completing them could lead to being downgraded to a lower program tier, contract termination, or other consequences.

Global notification drawer

I also made enhancements to the global notification drawer to mirror the updates made to the in-app notifications UI.


Next project

Partner Relationship Revalidation