MyezH2O and Elkay

A portal to track status of bottle filling stations.

Elkay filtered ezH2O bottle filling stations reduce lead and other harmful contaminants, delivering clean water and sustainable design. It provides a rapid fill of drinking water to quench thirst and minimize plastic bottle waste in the environment.

MyezH2O is an online portal that allows users to track their bottle filling stations, view unit diagnostics and filter status, manage media and graphics content, and manage their accounts. The app is ideal for businesses that use bottle filling stations across large establishments such as gyms, schools, and airports to track the number of bottles saved as well as receive reminders when a filter needs to be changed to keep the water clean and filtered.

This is meant to be a solution to make environmentally friendly ways to stay hydrated easy to come by, saving environmental resources and money!

Tools Used:

Sketching Board, Photoshop, Figma

MyElkay

An order inquiry online tool for Elkay's reps.

MyElkay is an online portal for order inquiries for any of Elkay's reps. It is one of the first projects at Elkay with which I have introduced the UXPin collaboration and prototyping tool to the team. It allowed me to easily share and get incremental feedback on multiple layout iterations. It was a fun project as I got to collaborate with development teams more than with regular projects at Elkay.

The challenge was to design a step-by-step process to search orders and view them with the help of more robust search functionality and display of search results. Some of the main activities for the app's users to complete while using MyElkay were:

  • Look up the latest information on orders and download sales order acknowledgments.
  • Find and download invoices, past and present.
  • Manage users for individual and group accounts.

After the launch of the product, we handed out a survey in which 91% of users were pleased with the redesign and considered the tool extremely user-friendly.

Tools Used:

Sketching Board, Photoshop, UXPin

Implementation of User Centered Process

The UX process required a refresh to better incorporate direct engagement with end users, allowing the team to gather meaningful insights into their behaviors and the challenges they faced when interacting with Elkay’s web properties.

Implementing the new approach involved considerable experimentation to align the team with updated methodologies, including both qualitative and quantitative research, collaborative design workshops, the adoption of design systems, and a full prototyping workflow from low to high fidelity.

Ultimately, the revamped process was well received, strengthening both cross-functional collaboration and user involvement.




Brainstorming

Collaborating with marketing, customer service, product, development, and design teams at Elkay, I led structured brainstorming sessions that broke down silos and fostered shared ownership of the user experience. These cross-functional efforts not only informed UX decisions with diverse insights but also aligned teams around a unified vision, streamlining processes and accelerating delivery of user-centered enterprise solutions.



Elkay Landing Pages and Websites

Collaboration With Internal Stakeholders at Elkay Manufacturing









Responsibilities:

  • Management of UX/UI and visual design for Elkay's large-scale, data-driven plumbing and cabinetry web properties and employee portal IT homepage.

  • Management of sketching/ideation workshops.

  • Rapid prototyping and user testing of unstructured and structured content pieces.

  • Development of CSS3/HTML5 style guide for Elkay's web properties.

  • Front-end web development and responsive design best practices for unstructured content.

  • Collaboration with product managers, marketing, business analysts, and web development teams from communication efforts of business and functional requirements to design and execution of the final product.

  • Development and incorporation of more user-facing design process, meeting end users to conduct interviews and usability testing.

  • Planning and execution of design workshops including ecosystem mapping, persona creation, journey mapping, and empathy mapping.

  • Design system creation within UXPin collaboration and prototyping tool.

  • Quality assurance and keeping track of the success of core KPIs through Google Analytics.

  • A/B testing, regression testing, five-second testing, and card sorting.

Tools Used:

Sketching Board, Photoshop, Ilustrator, UXPin, Dreamweaver, CSS3/HTML5, IBM Websphere, Sharepoint, Whiteboard

Key Takeaways

“Klara was on my team for about five years, helping me lead digital initiatives at a 100 year old manufacturing company. As our first UI/UX designer, she shared her vision and shaped our UX process: from discovery and research; prototypes and style guides; to user testing and development. She's collaborative, creative, strategic and thoughtful with her approach, a wonderful colleague!” ~ Khristine Anderson

  • 91% of user found order management portal very user friendly.

  • Reduction of landing page bounce rate by 20%.

  • Implementation of a user centered design process.