For board members, keeping track of their responsibilities often means switching between several apps. Apart from lowered productivity, working across many programs often raises questions about security. If you add remote work into the mix, the pile of board members’ challenges grows with non-digitised processes and online meetings. Enter Omana’a — a secure and reliable tool for effective collaboration and task management. Code & Pepper accompanied the team at the very beginning of its product journey, in the design and specification phase.
About Omana’a
Omana’a is a complex task management and team collaboration platform for board members in Arabic markets. The platform aims to help members serving at several different committees as well as those who combine their board activity with other professional endeavors. Omana’a brings busy supervisory board members an all-in-one stop to organise all their duties. As remote work has become a staple in many organisations, the platform facilitates online meetings including votings, surveys, and signing documents. It also offers space to collaborate on board matters in between meetings. Board members can easily stay on top of their tasks and meetings without switching between different programs and platforms.
Challenges
The main challenge of this project consisted in the complexity of the product combined with a limited timeframe. With every step of product discovery, the scope of Omana’a would expand. Effective project management and prioritisation was crucial to deliver clear UX design/UI design and specifications.
At this stage our team had to tackle:
- a large amount of functionalities within the product, which required careful planning;
- the need for various integrations with external vendors that the functionalities prompted;
- high level of granularity that the specifications had to reflect efficiently.
Solutions for Omana’a
The team tasked with product design for Omana’a included a project manager, product owner, UX/UI designer, software engineer, and two software developers. Through workshops with the client we learned more about their product vision. We would then transform those findings into concrete outcomes:
- designs of features which the client had flagged as crucial,
- a list of roles and permissions,
- comparisons of potential tools for integration, based on extensive research,
- a work-breakdown structure for development of the Minimum Viable Product and post-MVP releases.
Our main contact on the Omana’a team appreciated that we offered different solutions and ideas throughout the collaboration. Adhering to the time constraints, we gathered and analysed a considerable amount of information to design a product aligned with the client’s vision. Ultimately, the results of our work laid solid foundations for development.
Consistent UI and elegant design
Dashboard
The dashboard has a few variations. Depending on the role and permissions of the user, it presents different areas of interest. This might include differing quick action shortcuts, pending tasks section, or workspace updates. In all cases, the dashboard provides an overview of essential information for each user. At a glance the user can easily see upcoming events, to-do items, and recent activity within workspaces. The design conveys a lot of information in an understandable manner, avoiding confusing clutter. It also matches the colour palette set by the logo of Omana’a. The overall result is an intuitive, distraction-free platform with a refined look.
Workspaces
The Workspaces page is especially helpful to users with seats in various boards. The page gives a straightforward summary of active workspaces. It also allows users to access a workspace-specific view of meetings, documents or tasks. The design here is building on the Dashboard which the user is already familiar with. The page is easy to navigate and neatly serves the user key information.
Calendar and online meetings
Online meetings are one of the most important elements of the platform. On the Calendar page users can sort through all their events by workspaces or meeting types. It’s also another area for them to see in a nutshell what type of activities the upcoming events will involve.
Video conferences combine features that enable users to easily run previously non-digital or fragmented processes. But they also aim to drive the efficiency of various board meetings. When creating a meeting, permitted users can set up a detailed agenda with tasks, surveys, and attachments. Through the use of consistent icons and profile pictures it’s clear what activity will take place and who’s scheduled to present each item. During the meeting the agenda can be viewed so that participants follow it more easily.
Apart from a standard chat function, video conferences also enable users to vote in real time. The design for this feature helps users quickly see quorum requirements and the results of voting. Another functionality allows for taking minutes of the meeting. Though the video conference interface offers many useful features, it is organised and easy to navigate. The design complements its goals to facilitate online board meetings and related activities.
Tasks, documents, and surveys
To increase productivity, the different types of tasks have dedicated pages. For example, users can zero in on their to-do items on the Tasks page. The tasks are organised by type and can be sorted by various filters such as deadlines. Users can readily prioritise the most urgent items. They can also process tasks in bulk: tackling surveys, granting e-signatures or approving documents. The sleek, clean design helps users focus.
The Documents section highlights documents that need to be signed by the user. It’s also where users with relevant permissions can track document history and access archived materials. Similarly to previous pages, documents can be filtered for simpler navigation.
Finally, users can concentrate on casting votes and completing questionnaires. The dedicated page keeps current polls front and centre. Easy access adds to another feature: resolving less complex matters by in-app voting that streamlines collaboration.
Ensuring security through roles and permissions
The platform combines many aspects of the work done within committees. The people using Omana’a will involve people serving different functions in the organisation, such as management of various levels, secretaries, and external consultants. We worked with Omana’a to prepare a comprehensive list of roles and permissions based on workflows supplied by the client. The plan outlines actions permitted for various user types. These settings are further nuanced by secrecy levels. A secrecy level is also assigned to documents so that sensitive data is appropriately accessed.
Researching and recommending optimal integrations
Our team researched leading tools and services for video calls and e-signatures that could be integrated with Omana’a. We defined all potential service providers whose solutions would match the platform’s required functionalities. Our research resulted in comparisons of features, authentication methods, integration complexity, and pricing plans. This granted the client a full picture of available solutions and served as a strong basis for our recommendations.
Transparency and preparations for development
We worked with Omana’a through a series of workshops to learn more about their product vision and domain knowledge. To us, transparency is a key aspect of cooperation. Every week we would share a summary of outcomes achieved in the most recent iteration. These outlines made it clear who was in charge of certain topics and what was planned for the following week.
Our team also created a high-level backlog for the development of an Omana’a MVP and its post-MVP releases. Within the backlog we broke work packages for each feature as a clear roadmap for the development stage.
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