Accountants need to edit their files. A lot. A document’s lifecycle moves through preparation, review, and iteration until a final draft is approved and shared with clients. Users were unable to move through their document’s lifecycle in Canopy and were leaving to be able to complete their workflows.
We were losing users and failing to close deals.
PROBLEM
Canopy’s file editing process wasn’t so much of a process as it was a painful workaround for a missing feature. Users could upload and preview their documents, but they couldn’t edit any of the contents or reorganize pages. They couldn’t merge documents together or rotate specific pages. Users were forced to download the document they wanted to edit, open it in another editing software, save it, reupload it into Canopy in the right spot, and then delete the old version.
The process was painful for one file, let alone the hundreds of files our users had to edit. As a result, many of our users were hesitant to even upload their files into Canopy and it was a nonstarter for larger firms. As a result, we were failing to close deals and engagement in files was stagnating.
Our vision for this project was to help Canopy become an end-to-end workspace- not just a storage box for our user’s files.
Research
There was no shortage of user requests indicating that the ability to open and edit files from Canopy was necessary for them to complete their workflow. Through user interviews and surveys, it became clear that there were massive pain points in Canopy’s limited file editing capabilities.
Time-consuming to download, reupload, and delete previous versions
Hard to tell what files were being worked on and by who.
Along with these pain points came another unexpected insight from our user interviews.
Our users wanted to keep using the programs that they were using.
Accountants practically live in Excel. It’s a powerful tool for making spreadsheets, calculating complicated numbers and formulas, and something they’re extremely accustomed to using. Due to technical and budget constraints, we knew we couldn’t feasibly build an in-app editing feature that could compete with Excel, Adobe Acrobat, and Word.
Armed with that knowledge, I decided to form a solution around allowing our users to open a file from the web application in their preferred editing software and save their updated version back to Canopy.
OPPORTUNITY
Aside from being one of the top feature requests from our users, it also provided tremendous business value. We saw file editing as a way to increase engagement with Canopy’s files feature, improve the number of files uploaded to Canopy, and satisfy market demand.
As we began to shape the scope of this feature, it became clear that we could become a platform that empowered our users to execute the workflows necessary for their jobs, all while keeping them in the softwares our users had become accustomed to using. We prioritized a few key features based on value and feasibility that would make our product dynamic and sticky.
Opening files in our users’ preferred software from Canopy files.
Syncing changes back to the specific file location.
Locking files that were being worked on by other users.
EXPLORATION AND IDEATION
Initially, I explored a check-in and check-out process. Users would be able to “check out” a file to edit it and check it back in to save their changes.
However, after talking to users and testing out the designs, we found a few problems with the process.
It required users to remember to check files back in after they were done working on them. This increased the cognitive load necessary to successfully use our product.
It required a lot of jumping around. Users had to check the file out from the web app, work on a file in their editing software, save, close, and jump into the desktop application to check it back in.
From the feedback we acquired, it was pretty clear that the design wasn’t working. The flow was too disjointed for our users to understand quickly, which was the last thing we wanted to do to them during the busiest season of their year.
One of Canopy’s design principles is “We bear the burden” design. Meaning that just because a process is technically complex does not mean it needs to be complex for our users.
“We bear the burden design”
In other words, we bear the burden of the complexity in exchange for a seamless and easy experience.
As I began to think about it, a checkout process, in general, did not exemplify the principle.
It’s too prone to user error and forgetfulness. We were placing the burden of responsibility on our users to figure out how to get their file synced back up to Canopy.
With that in mind, I brainstormed a new flow that would trim the fat and help our users accomplish their work faster and more easily.
With the help of my development team, we designed a pusher that would allow our app to detect when a file opened from the web was saved and closed in the editing software, allowing us to automatically save a new version of the file back to its original location in Canopy.
Once a file was opened by a user, it would lock to prevent users from saving over each other and potentially losing work.
This significantly cut down the cognitive load required from our users, so they could get back to working on other documents.
Final Thoughts and Next Steps
Since its release, Canopy’s file editing tool has helped our users edit over 9,000 files and counting and we’ve heard some really positive feedback from our customer support and sales teams.
This was a really fun and challenging project for me to work on as it provides real value to our users and involved a ton of research. Throughout this project, I learned some important takeaways.
How to adapt to changing requirements
Timelines, resourcing issues, and technical constraints meant that the scope of this project was ever-changing. I learned the importance of staying flexible and making the right compromises without sacrificing the design vision and user needs.
When design and development work together, it’s a beautiful thing
I want to stress how important and incredible my development team was throughout this entire project. It wasn’t easy, but their willingness to work with me on the best solution for our users was unwavering and I’ll always be grateful for the hours they put in to make my designs come to life.
And last but not least, always fight for good UX
There were certainly times on this project where I was asked to make a compromise that would make the experience suffer. But even with the strict technical constraints, I had to fight for what I believed was essential to making the experience great.