Salesforce Platform User Experience Designer

Good design rests on what you learn about people. You choose research methods that fit the question and the time available, run them, and record what you find in a form that others can use.

• Interviews and contextual inquiry
• Surveys and analytics
• Card sorting and other structure tests
• Choosing a method for the question
• Tools for planning and recording research
• Sharing findings with a team

You build A research plan with method, participants and questions for one platform project.

Salesforce is used by very different people. You learn the common platform personas, such as sellers, service agents, administrators and managers, and the tasks and pressures each one brings to the screen.

• Common Salesforce personas
• What each persona is trying to get done
• Building a persona from evidence
• Using personas to settle design debates
• Keeping personas up to date

You build Two evidence-based personas for one platform solution, with their main tasks.

Most projects start with something that already exists. You audit current screens and flows, run heuristic reviews, observe how people work around problems, and turn what you see into requirements.

• Auditing an existing org’s screens
• Heuristic evaluation
• Task analysis and observation
• Finding workarounds and pain points
• Turning findings into requirements
• Prioritizing what to fix first

You build An audit of one existing flow with its pain points and resulting requirements.

Visual and structural choices shape how a screen feels. You choose the UX method that suits a situation, apply hierarchy and consistency, and see how branding and styling change the experience for the user.

• Choosing a UX method for a situation
• Information and visual hierarchy
• Consistency and patterns
• How branding affects experience
• Styling choices and their effects
• Reading a screen as a new user would

You build A redesign of one cluttered screen, with the reason for each change.

A design that excludes people has failed. You apply accessibility principles for vision, hearing, motor and cognitive needs, check color, keyboard and screen-reader use, and design for the widest range of people.

• Accessibility principles and WCAG in outline
• Color, contrast and text size
• Keyboard use and focus order
• Screen readers and meaningful labels
• Inclusive design beyond compliance
• Checking a design for accessibility

You build An accessibility review of one page, with fixes ranked by who is affected.

Human-centered design is a habit, not a phase. You build it into a customer engagement by involving users early, testing assumptions, and explaining to sponsors why inclusive design is part of good work.

• The human-centered design cycle
• Involving users throughout a project
• Co-design with end users
• Making the case for inclusive design
• Handling pressure to skip research

You build A human-centered plan for one customer engagement, with user touchpoints in each phase.

Many platform users work on a phone. You design for small screens, touch and interruptions, decide what belongs on mobile and what does not, and avoid shrinking a desktop layout into a smaller window.

• How mobile use differs from desktop
• Touch targets and reach
• What belongs on mobile
• Mobile record pages and actions
• Working with poor connectivity and interruptions

You build A mobile layout for one persona’s most common tasks.

Core objects set how people see records. You use record pages, compact layouts and related information to present what matters first, and shape each page around the persona’s task rather than the data model.

• How core objects frame the experience
• Record pages and what goes first
• Compact layouts and highlights
• Related information and tabs
• Path and guidance for stages
• Showing different content to different users

You build A record page for one object, designed around a persona’s task.

Small configurations save big effort. You speed up multi-step work with screen flows and actions, guide new users with in-app help, and set branding and navigation that make the platform feel like part of the company.

• Quick actions and global actions
• Screen flows for multi-step work
• In-app guidance for onboarding
• Navigation and app design
• Themes and branding
• Reducing clicks on frequent tasks

You build A guided flow with in-app help for a common multi-step task.

The Lightning Design System keeps custom work in step with the platform. You learn its tokens, patterns and components, match the look and feel of Lightning Experience out of the box, and use it to build custom components.

• What the design system is for
• Design tokens and styling hooks
• Components, blueprints and utility classes
• Matching Lightning Experience without custom code
• Building a custom component with the system
• When to build and when to configure

You build A custom component that matches Lightning Experience, built with the design system.

A design is a hypothesis until users try it. You plan a usability test, choose techniques that fit the stage and the budget, run sessions, and evaluate and manage design changes that follow.

• Planning a usability test
• Moderated and unmoderated testing
• Writing tasks and scenarios
• Recording and analyzing results
• Evaluating and prioritizing changes
• Managing design changes through release

You build A usability test plan, with results and a ranked list of changes.

Take one workflow from research to tested design. You study the users and the current screens, design declaratively with the design system, check accessibility and mobile use, and test with real people.

• Researching users and the current workflow
• Designing with declarative features
• Applying the design system and accessibility checks
• Testing with end users
• Presenting the redesign and its evidence

You build A redesigned workflow with research, designs, test results and a change plan.