I chose to partner with Nomensa because we needed a company that would provide guidance and expertise on key areas such as accessibility and usability - key if we were to create a Coaching Management System that everyone could and would want to use.
Nomensa quickly got to grips with understanding our strategic aims and we liked their logical and User focused approach to turn this vision into reality. Now we have an application that Users want to use and one that supports our Users needs and the way they like to work.
- Trayton Vance, Managing Director, mye-coach Ltd.
Objective
To develop a world class coaching management system that supports the relationship between a coach and a coachee through the provision of streamlined tools and processes.
Additional objectives included:
- Providing a secure online coaching management system that keeps any personal data safe;
- Designing a technologically future-proofed system so that upgrades and future developments are managed seamlessly and easily;
- Providing an intuitive user interface to the system that significantly reduces the complexity of the tasks and is both engaging and highly learnable;
- Ensuring the system could be used by everybody regardless of device or disability – compliance with UK disability legislation;
- Providing a flexible ‘white label’ design that can be easily tailored to support other organisations’ corporate identities.
Traditionally, the coach-coachee relationship has been a paper based activity and mye-coach was launched to provide a superior alternative management mechanism for supporting what could easily be considered a ‘black art’.
Prior to developing mye-coach it was imperative to understand the potential market and customer needs. In testing the market and the viability of the product many aspects were explored thoroughly to understand the expectations and aspiration of both the ‘coach’ and the ‘coachee’.
- Simon Norris, Managing Director, NomensaTrayton Vance came to us and asked us to explore the potential for developing a highly secure, intuitive coaching management system following the Nomensa 'humanising technology' approach.
Process
Nomensa applied a user-centred design process to design and build all web applications and this typically follows common stages:
Description of user-centred design process diagram
The value of a user-centred approach is that the focus is placed on the needs of the ‘coach’ and ‘coachee’ rather than the technology. Once User needs are understood a superior system can be developed that provides a better fit between the User and the system.
Stakeholder and User Research
Business stakeholders and coaches participated in research session driven by Nomensa usability experts. The Users’ requirements were prioritised and mapped to functionality. This phase helped to provide the design, system structure and functionality requirements that were critical in forming the foundations for a successful system.
Functional Specification
This provided detailed illustrations in a step–by-step fashion of the information requirements for every task within the system. Working as a blue print for success the Functional Specification also included details for the different permissions that would be necessary to validate different user types (for example, coach, coachee and administrator). The functional specification also detailed user support and how people could reach help, ensure that any user could quickly and easily get the best from the system.
The mye-coach system has proven a core asset in supporting our peoples development needs and the innovative approach we take to coach them.
- Julian Tutty, Global Head of Performance, Learning & Development, Allen & Overy
Information Architecture and Wireframes
Once user requirements were understood and the functionality and workflow had been detailed, the information is then used to create an engaging and intuitive interface. Research results fed directly into a set of information architecture diagrams, showing the interactivity at each level of the system. Wireframes also demonstrated page layouts and both these visual aids presented the opportunity for further refinements to optimise the user journeys, ease of use and therefore ensure the overall user experience of the system was perfect before development commenced.
System Development
Applying our detailed understanding of the user-centred design lifecycle Nomensa’s pioneering technology team built the highly adaptable, scalable mye-coach system with a modular structure. This allows total flexibility and ensures the system can be completely customised for every client accordingly to their system and brand requirements.
Producing a mye-coach application for a client is a straight forward and easy process. A client requests an installation of mye-coach specifying their functionality and brand requirements and a system is created (replicated) that matches their requirements.
Every client replication follows a rigorous quality assurance programme to ensure the system has been thoroughly checked and ready for client use before hand-over. Support is provided after handover to ensure clients get the very best from the system.
Extensive Usability Testing
Nomensa usability experts tested the system during the numerous stages of development with ‘real’ users to ensure an intuitive and engaging user experience was provided. Usability Testing provides insights that improved the system even more and ensured a rewarding experience was provided regardless of a persons’ level of technology knowledge or disability.
Benefits of mye-coach Coaching Management System
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The world’s first accessible on-demand 24/7/365 coaching management system; - An intuitive and easy to use user interface;
- Highly customisable;
- Supports a spectrum of different coaching styles and approaches;
- Highly secure with robust data management procedures;
- Extensive user support covering all aspects of the system;
- Ongoing system development ‘road map’ ensuring new functionality and features are constantly being designed into the systems based on customer feedback and insights;
- A free trial version is available to get a hands-on experience of the system first-hand.
To see our Coaching Management System on screen, just as we had imagined it and working in line with our clients needs is credit to the unique approach and depth of knowledge provided by Nomensa.
- Trayton Vance, Managing Director, mye-coach Ltd.
