Empowering Researchers: A Deep Dive into Resway's Online Portal for Tracking Research Progress
Founded in 2020 by researchers, Resway is a platform designed to streamline research collaboration and management. Overcoming initial challenges in user experience, change management, and planning, Resway now features individual and organization research tracking, and a comprehensive information hub. Successfully meeting stakeholder expectations, the platform serves over 50 users from diverse backgrounds. Future plans include AI-driven proposal writing, interactive tutorials, and enhanced mobile responsiveness.
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Founded by a group of dedicated researchers, Resway emerged as the solution to the challenges of research collaboration. With founders and stakeholders deeply entrenched in the research community, they had a clear vision of their needs. They sought to create a unified platform where researchers, doctors, and students could collaborate, oversee, and track their research projects seamlessly.
Resway is an ongoing project that began in 2020. After launch of its MVP, the project is currently in its maintenance and enhancement’s phase.
Project Technology:
backend and Web-Portal : PHP-Laravel
Project Duration:
2020-Ongoing
2020-Ongoing
Project Goals: Project Goals: An easy to use research tracking portal that provides researchers a platform to collbrate with one another and track their research progress, resources in one place.
Project Scope:
The main features of the App are as below.
- Collaborative Workspaces: Real-time collaboration on research projects.
- Progress Tracking: Tools to track research progress with milestones and deadlines.
- Research Analytics: Graphs and reports for data analysis.
- Customizable Dashboards: Personalized dashboards for users.
- Role-Based Access Control: Secure access for authorized users only.
- Tool Integrations: Compatible with other research tools.
- Comprehensive Reporting: Detailed reports on research progress and team performance.
Every project comes with its own set of challenges, and large-scale projects are no exception. While the intensity and impact of these challenges may vary, completely eliminating them is often not feasible. Below are some of the major challenges we encountered during Resway’s project cycle.
1. Poor User Journey
One of the most significant challenges was the complicated user journey initially developed for the platform. Although the workflows themselves were technically sound, the process of updating a single research project was unnecessarily complex. Users often forgot where specific steps were performed because the required actions were scattered across different modules and screens. A product’s usability is paramount, and a convoluted user experience can be a major deterrent.
2. Change Management
Managing change effectively was another critical challenge. With numerous stakeholders providing feedback and inputs for Resway, the final product failed to satisfy all major stakeholders. This led to a cycle where certain features were implemented, only to be changed again based on new feedback. Consequently, time was inefficiently spent on revisiting the same features, detracting from more valuable enhancements and improvements.
3. Lack of Planning
Proper planning is the cornerstone of any successful project. Unfortunately, Resway suffered from gaps in the planning phase. With heavy stakeholder engagement, much of the user journey mapping fell to the product development team. Despite conducting extensive research to map out workflows, certain gaps were overlooked. These gaps were not identified by either the product team or the stakeholders until the product was put into use, revealing critical oversights that hindered the user experience.
Solutions Implemented to Overcome Roadblocks:
1. Enhanced User Experience:
The complexity of the user flows and actions had become a significant challenge for Resway. Stakeholders, the internal team, and users struggled to understand the system’s workflows. To address this, multiple steps were taken:
- Created a comprehensive user manual for stakeholders to provide a better understanding of the system’s workings, complemented by demo sessions.
- Produced tutorial videos covering all major flows and actions to assist users in navigating the platform seamlessly.
- Enhanced the UX for key processes such as adding a proposal, tracking, and management. Actions were consolidated into a single module, eliminating the need to navigate back and forth among different modules for ease of use.
2. Improved Change Management:
To address the issue of constant changes and rework, a more structured approach was adopted:
- Appointed a single point of contact from the stakeholders to consolidate feedback from their team before conveying it forward. This allowed for quicker resolution of pending changes on existing features and enabled the team to focus on other enhancements and advanced features.
3. Extensive Planning:
While initial project planning was extensive, adhering to agile methodology required constant reevaluation and refinement. To fill the gaps and enhance planning, the following steps were taken:
- Developed detailed user stories for each user role to clearly define requirements and expectations.
- Mapped out comprehensive flow diagrams to visualize and streamline processes.
- Fostered closer collaboration between the product team and stakeholders to ensure alignment and address gaps effectively.
By implementing these solutions, Resway was able to overcome significant roadblocks, enhancing the usability and functionality of the platform while ensuring effective change management and continuous planning.
Individual & Organization Research Tracking
Resway provides users with the flexibility to manage both individual and organization research projects. This feature allows users to work independently or collaborate with other authors and supervisors within an organization. Users can choose the research mode that best fits their needs, ensuring a versatile experience for different types of projects.
Information Hub
Resway serves as a comprehensive information hub for all research-related activities. Users can consolidate all necessary information about their research projects in one place. Key features of this hub include:
1. Article Management:
- Upload articles, save article links, and share them with other users.
- Annotate articles directly within the platform for easy reference and collaboration.
2. Meeting and Brainstorming Management:
- Manage all meetings and brainstorming sessions with a sticky notes feature.
- Organize and track ideas, discussions, and action items efficiently.
By incorporating these unique features, Resway enhances the research experience, making it easy to manage projects, collaborate, and access all necessary information in a centralized location.
Timeline:
2020-Ongoing
Team Involved:
-Project Manager: Sidra Zubair
-Full Stack Developer: Mohsin
-QA: Arslan Sajid
The following results have been achieved in the course of our journey working with Resway.
- Developed a user-friendly platform for doctors, researchers, and students.
- Delivered a product that satisfied all stakeholders involved.
- Successfully onboarded stakeholders and their colleagues onto Resway for their research projects.
- Onboarded 50+ users from various academic and professional backgrounds.
The journey does not end here; both the stakeholders and we envision a brighter future for Resway. Looking ahead, we are focusing on the following advanced features:
- AI Integration for Proposal Writing: Enhance proposal writing with AI-driven tools for improved topic suggestions and content generation.
- Step-by-Step Guided Tutorials: Implement interactive tutorials throughout the platform to provide users with comprehensive guidance.
- Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure seamless usability across various mobile devices with a fully responsive design.
These enhancements aim to elevate Resway’s functionality and user experience, paving the way for even greater success.
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