Work/UX research · IFS LEC

Case study / UX research · IFS LEC

Unified time formatting for Lifecycle Experience

Customer feedback pointed to friction around time and date values across the Lifecycle Experience Center. I investigated whether it needed a product-level fix, proved the problem with behavioural data, found who it hurt most and why, and drove an MVP that cut the friction measurably after release.

RoleEnd-to-end UX research and design for the feature

ProductIFS Lifecycle Experience Center

MethodsVoC analysis, FullStory behavioural analytics, semi-structured interviews, usability testing

ToolsFullStory, Dovetail, Microsoft Teams, Figma

Unified Time Formatting Experience case study cover

↓45%Wait time reduction on steps with time and date values

↓84%Rage clicks and dead clicks on the same time and date components

7 of 8Usability test participants completed the tasks without any issue

16Voice-of-customer cases that started the investigation

01 / The problem

Small values, real operational friction.

The Lifecycle Experience Center (LEC) is used by global enterprise customers, partners and internal IFS operations to manage software lifecycle activities and daily admin workflows. Product management received feedback about friction with time and date values shown across the portal.

My task: investigate the problem and find out whether it needed a product-level solution.

Signal 01Escalated customer feedback

Product management flagged time and date formatting complaints from customers and assigned a UX investigation.

Signal 0216 VoC cases identified

Initial studies across the IFS community platform and feedback repositories surfaced 16 cases describing the same confusion.

Signal 03Operational impact

Most customers described difficulty planning and running daily operations because of inconsistent time and date information.

Research question

"Do IFS LEC users experience measurable cognitive friction when interacting with time and date values? And if so, who is most affected, and why?"

02 / Research approach

Behavioural analysis first, not surveys.

The friction was at interaction level, not attitudinal. Behavioural data could confirm whether the problem existed, and at what scale, before committing to qualitative research.

VoC analysisInitial investigation
FullStory analysisMeasure the current impact
Qualitative methodUser interviews
Qualitative analysisResearch artifacts to drive solutioning
Research synthesis and designStakeholder communication, proposed solution, brainstorming
MVP and iterative deliverablesOutline the MVP for the first iteration
Usability testDoes the refined MVP cover the user friction?
Post-delivery behavioural analysisImpact measurement

Why not a survey first

Survey limits at IFS. The pioneer customer group who usually answer surveys may be too narrow, and the sample would be too small to be statistically meaningful for an interaction-level problem.
Speed and evidence quality. FullStory could surface real interaction data faster and with higher confidence than a survey cycle, which mattered for justifying further research investment.
Specificity of the problem. The friction was interaction-level, so behaviour was the better first measure.

Methods used

Rage click and dead click analysis on time and date components in each screen of the journey
Move maps and mouse hover analysis on the same components
Funnel analysis and drop-off timing: average completion time of steps with time and date values compared with steps without them

03 / Behavioural analysis

The data confirmed it: users persisted, but struggled.

15%

of users entering the funnel spent 65% more time on time and date pages than on other pages.

27%

more median completion time, across all users, on steps with time and date values.

significant change in drop-off rate. Users kept going despite the friction.

90%+

of frequent strugglers recorded their most idle time on the time and date components, according to move maps.

User segment A · 15%

Struggle with time and date steps frequently and persistently.

User segment B · 85%

Struggle with time and date steps in less frequent, returning sessions.

FullStory funnel and move map analysis on time and date steps — FullStory: funnel completion times and move maps on time and date components

04 / User interviews

Then the why: eight conversations.

8 semi-structured interviews of 30 minutes each, via Microsoft Teams
5 users from segment A and 3 from segment B
Brief introductions, then core and follow-up questions, user-led so participants could go beyond what the behavioural data showed
Explored why they struggle with time and date values and what they would improve
Recorded with consent and stored in Dovetail for research synthesis

Interview and behavioural insights

01A hidden cognitive tax on every interaction

Users did invisible mental work before every time and date field. Undetectable through the UI alone, but confirmed by behavioural dwell time.

02No in-product time zone reference or converter

Users relied entirely on external tools or mental calculation. The product offered no contextual support.

03Partner users disproportionately affected

Multi-region partner users felt the friction most, a persona not previously distinguished in the product's design decisions.

04The product needs profile and organisation-level control

Time zone changes need preference settings stored at organisation or user profile level to support more flexible use cases.

05 / User personas

Two people, one invisible problem.

After the interviews I grouped the experiences into two personas. They became the foundation for the user narratives that framed the problem.

Persona 01 · Partner

Erica

Environment Studio admin · 34 · UK

"I work with customers around different corners of the world. I want to be a trustworthy IFS partner, providing them with expertise."

Works at a partner organisation as an Environment Studio expert, carrying the operational load of environment management (delivery scheduling, environment cloning, maintenance) for 8 customers in 4 regions.

Goals

Run non-production and production operations smoothly
Keep production environments up as much as possible
Notify customers fast in an emergency
Build trust as an environment expert

Needs

In-app time conversion for customers in different regions
Immediate notifications before critical operations start

Pain points

Values shown only in UTC don't help: her projects are outside the UK and in different regions
Customers don't tolerate scheduling errors, which can cost sales and reputation
External converters slow her down and cause session timeouts and rework

Persona 02 · Customer

Sam

Environment Studio admin · 36 · US

"I have a very critical responsibility for managing non-production and production deployments. A single mistake can have a significant impact on the business."

Owns environment operations at a customer organisation. Currently working remotely from abroad for a short time, on a standard 9 to 5 with occasional evening calls.

Goals

Run non-production and production operations smoothly
Keep production environments up as much as possible
Inform leadership fast in an emergency

Needs

Know which time zone a scheduled time refers to, without mental maths
Change the region used to display time and date values
Change the time region when submitting forms with time and date inputs

Pain points

UTC isn't his organisation's time zone, so every schedule needs a pause and a mental calculation
Mental maths on time-sensitive operations delays or misleads his work
Reporting schedules to others in a hurry risks passing on wrong times and damages his credibility

06 / Artifacts and storyboards

Making the problem impossible to ignore.

The research synthesis produced a set of artifacts to drive the solutioning stage and bring stakeholders along.

Qualitative research artifacts

Interview recordings with transcripts and summaries
Summarised affinity wall analysis
As-is user journey map with empathy mapping
Storyboard narratives
User persona mapping
To-be journey map for the proposed solution

Other stage 03 artifacts

Problem statement
Jobs-to-be-done statement
Wireframes of the proposed solution

Jobs-to-be-done statement and MVP outcomes

As-is user journey map with empathy mapping

Storyboard narratives

Storyboard: remote employee working from abroad — **Remote employee working abroad.** Narrative 01: he schedules a task, the system shows UTC, and he forgets to calculate the difference. Narrative 02: he converts every time in his head before checking any schedule, so daily operations take longer.

Storyboard: partner employee managing customers in different regions — **Partner employee managing customers in many regions.** She converts every request for each customer's region, one after another. Working at high velocity, she makes calculation errors that damage her reputation.

07 / Research to decision

The right direction, and a fix customers could have now.

Full solution

Organisation-level time zone admin settings plus user profile-level preferences. Agreed as the right direction, but it needed significant backend changes and more time through iterative development.

Refined MVP for the first iteration

A front-end-only time zone converter: users switch the time zone rendering per session through the UI, with no backend changes. Validated to solve the core cognitive burden for both segments.

Feasibility first

I sketched a conceptual wireframe to show how the solution would work in the application and checked feasibility with the technical team. The team agreed to ship an MVP as a quick fix rather than wait several releases for the full solution.

MVP pros

Easy to implement, with no backend infrastructure needed
Users can change the time region instantly on each screen

MVP cons

Users have to change the region each time they move to another screen, which can be annoying
If users forget to change the time zone, they might schedule with the default UTC region by mistake

08 / Design and test

Tested with users before hand-off.

Once the decision was agreed, I designed the MVP and ran usability tests on prototypes with users before developer hand-off.

MVP design: time zone switcher on a scheduling screen — MVP design: switching the time zone on a scheduling screen

7 of 8

completed the tasks without any issue.

1 of 8

completed the tasks with a question about whether the preference would be saved.

That persistence question validated the full solution roadmap: users expect their preference to be saved.

09 / Impact

Measured after release, not assumed.

65% → 20%

Excess wait time on steps with time and date values, compared with other steps.

↓84%

Rage clicks and dead clicks on the same time and date components after the improvement.

Research overview

This research built the business case for a product investment that had no prior advocate. I presented the findings to senior leadership and product management, and they directly shaped the Lifecycle Experience Center roadmap. The persistence finding from usability testing confirmed the full solution as the necessary next iteration.