Brief

The Dell Sales Application is an internal customer relationship management tool. This design initiative came about to replace a quoting tool that was originally built in the late 80s. The tool is used by Dell’s sales representatives who keep track of equipment orders for clients that range from enterprise, government, to small/medium business.

The entirety of Dell’s B2B sales are managed through DSA, so the stakes were high to design this tool well.

My challenge as a designer was to tackle the complete redesign of a tool that users have been using for over 20years. Despite the users attachment to the tool, it was costing Dell too much in infrastructure support.

My responsibilities included developing prototypes in code, shadowing sales reps all day to understand their work flow, and t-shirt size design scope during grooming sessions.

The biggest hurdle I ran into was not even the UI, but the concept of a tool that forced users to use a mouse. Our users were working with black-screen monitors and neon green text, counting the number of times they hit the tab key. These users not only knew the tool inside out, but they had the navigation ingrained into their muscle memory.

“People don’t stay at a company for 20years because they like change.”

It was an educational experience getting to work hand in hand with developers, establishing rapport with the users of the tool, and most of all gaining first hand mentorship from taxonomists and HCI professionals.