Rethinking the Report Center Experience
From a buried list of 200+ reports to a personal workspace with folders, live previews, saved setups, and scheduling. Built for the way professional services firms actually work.
Team
Product Manager, Engineering, Stakeholders
Role
Product Designer (Only designer on the project)
Platform
BQE CORE Web App
My Work
Design concepts, prototypes, usability testing, final UI
01 - Overview
200+ reports, and most people couldn't find the one they needed.
BQE Core is used by architecture, engineering, and professional services firms. The Reports page was one of the oldest parts of the product. It was one long list of report names grouped into categories. You couldn't see what a report contained until you opened it, and there was no easy way to save your setup for next time.
The redesign added the Report Center, a home for your reports with folders, saved setups, template previews, and scheduling. The old list stayed available for anyone who preferred it.
List of loosely categorized reports tucked into accordion grouping.
02 - The Problem
A report catalog that expected you to already know what you were looking for.
People run reports all the time for billing, projects, staff time, and finances. But finding the right report, setting it up, and finding it again the next week took real effort. In customer interviews, people described this as slow and frustrating, especially newer users.
Before: Standard Report List
14 groups, sorted alphabetically. No descriptions, no previews, no saved setups.
Before: Expanded Groups
Opening a group showed report names with cut-off descriptions. Memorize, Schedule, and Favorite were hidden in a hover menu.
03 - Research
Customer interviews showed where people got stuck.
The PM led customer interviews with people in different roles, including architects, billing managers, and project managers. I sat in on the sessions to see how people found, set up, and re-ran their reports.
The same problems came up again and again:
04 - User Flows
Before and after: running a weekly report.
Running a saved report used to take about 8 to 11 steps, with some backtracking. In the new design it takes about 3 steps, or about 5 for a brand-new report.
05 - Exploring Directions
Three directions, tested with users before final design.
Working along with the Project Manager, I designed three different layouts to answer one question: how should 200+ standard templates sit next to a person's own saved reports? I tested them in moderated sessions with users.
Card gallery landing page (Not chosen for now)
All templates shown as cards with tag filters across the top. This was favorited by a good number of users but the majority had a neutral response over the simple list view. We decided to hold off on this for a future enhancement of an alternate view to be able to release this feature at a reasonable time.
Unified two-tab approach (Chosen)
My Reports and All Templates as two tabs, with folders on the left. It kept personal reports separate from the standard library.
Split-pane explorer (Saved for a different step in the flow)
Users liked the live preview, but the full layout was too big to build in this release. I moved the preview into the template picker instead.
06 - The Solution
The redesigned Report Center.
It launched in phases as an opt-in "New Experience," with a button to switch back to Classic View. People could move over when they were ready.
Home View and Folders
Saved reports are grouped into folders. You can see each report's template, owner, last update, and who has access, and run it with one click.
Report In Action
Configure, Clone, Schedule, Export, Email, and Remove sit in a visible menu instead of a hidden hover menu.
After Saving A Report
A saved report shows up in its folder right away, so it's easy to find next week.
Choosing a Template
Tags on the left filter the list. Clicking a template shows a sample preview, so you know what you'll get before setting it up.
Basic Setup
Name, folder, filters, display options, and who can view the report, all on one page.
Advanced Filters
AND/OR rules and field filters without leaving the page.
07 - Design Decisions
Key Design Desicions
I designed the full solution with the PM. Two of these ideas came from my own exploration and testing: the template preview and the use-case tags.
Live Template Preview (My Recommendation)
Show a sample of the report before someone sets it up. The idea came from the split-pane concept that users liked in testing.
Folders
Give saved reports a place to live so they’re easy to find again.
Scheduling in the Open
Move scheduling out of the hidden hover menu and into the main actions.
Saved Reports that Stay Set Up
A configured report keeps its name, filters, and settings, so nobody rebuilds each week.
Use Case Tags (My Recommendation)
Let people filter templates by what they're trying to do instead of by old category names.
Opt-In with Classic View
Let people try the new experience and switch back if they needed to.
08 - Video Walkthrough
Product video walkthrough.
A two-minute look at the full flow: finding a template, previewing it, setting it up and saving, and scheduling delivery.
09 - Outcomes
How I’d measured whether it worked
The redesign launched as an opt-in experience. I don’t have the exact post lauch data to share, so here’s what I would track to judge whether it worked or not:
How many people switched to the new experience, and how many stayed.
How long it takes to run a saved report.
The number or report related support tickets.
How many report people schedule.