Aries Systems Corporation

In a digital world, consumers are accustomed to instant gratification, accessible displays, intuitive user journeys, and immersive experiences as they interact with the various technologies and platforms in their lives. Prioritizing user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, responsive design, and user support is imperative to achieving this level of customer satisfaction. In the scholarly publishing industry, the end-user expectations are no different, but may face its own unique set of challenges. Publishing management systems such as Aries’ Editorial Manager® (EM) and ProduXion Manager® (PM) are robust and flexible, but workflows may be complex and vary between journals based on custom configuration settings and business policies. This can be confusing or overwhelming on the surface, especially for infrequent and new users, and can lead to reduced engagement and an increased amount of incoming support queries for the editorial staff to manage.

As Aries continues to make progress on our ongoing UI/UX redesign initiative for EM and PM to modernize and simplify the user journey, we also want to focus on enhancing the user support experience. To explore how we can partner with journals to be more proactive in assisting our end users directly within the system, we consulted with our user community during the Discovery Roundtables session at the 2024 Editorial Manager User Group (EMUG) meeting this past summer. An interactive workshop designed to help inform our market research and product strategy, the EMUG 2024 Discovery Roundtables session divided attendees into focus groups dedicated to four key topics led by the Aries team. This digest serves as the second installment in a four-part blog series on insights gained during the workshop.

In-product support not only reduces support costs and efforts, but can also resolve user concerns and questions immediately – and sometimes, even prevent them from occurring. In collaboration with attendees at EMUG, we theorized how to introduce and maximize integrated support mechanisms within the system to reduce burdens for journal staff, ease user workflow, and boost retention. Leveraging the Rapid Ideation technique, members of the Aries team solicited ideas in lightning-round discussions, grouped like comments into themes, and brainstormed potential solutions with our user community. To support the discussion, our teams asked attendees to consider the following:

• Where do you or your users commonly get stuck in the system, and why?
• What are your most frequently asked questions or common support queries from your users?
• What kind of help or resources are available to users directly? Are any embedded in the application interface itself? Where are they placed and why?
• What kind of resource embedded in the application would be most useful for these cases?
• Do publishers have support teams and resources readily available to respond to queries promptly/in real-time?
• What kind of content, or resources would you include in tutorials? What does a helpful tutorial look like to you?
• Are publishers measuring their support resources or support team effectiveness, and setting objectives of reducing common queries where users are struggling?

EMUG attendees flagged several pain points in the system where enhanced support can be placed. Authors tend to struggle with formatting, file upload, co-Author verification, and tracking the status of their paper. Reviewers often fail to complete reviews as desired, miss key fields on the submission form, or have difficulty viewing and extending deadlines. Both personas find registration, login, role switching, profile updates, and folders on the Main Menu to be confusing and cumbersome. New Editors may get stuck on more complex workflows such as Schedule Groups, proxy mode, and Reviewer Invitation. There can also be a lack of awareness of new functionality or changes in workflow configuration. Groups also expressed concerns that end users often disregard written in-product instructions and skip straight to the workflow, which causes hiccups for users and frustration for Editors. Red-text error messages may not be noticeable enough for users to see, or the error message is too vague to be helpful, causing the user to bypass the error without resolution or abandon the workflow. Additionally, customers assume that many users do not think (or know) to check the EMHelp portal for support, and instead contact the journal/find resources outside the system for assistance.

With these challenges in mind, groups worked together to classify this feedback into like themes. A review of the categories determined an increased need to focus on new/infrequent user perspectives, prioritize help/support placement and visibility in the system, and develop more opportunities for the system to “intervene” when clarity, corrections, or context is needed. Aries staff then shifted to the solution brainstorming phase of the workshop and facilitated conversation against these overarching themes.

Beyond targeting the above “challenge areas” of the system for UI/UX enhancements, other efforts can be explored to cater to new and infrequent users of the system. This includes optional guided tours that overlay over the system interface, which Aries would supply as a default and journals can customize to their unique workflows. Additionally, adding an information tooltip/icon next to manuscript/decision status terms that provide more context would help support Author and Reviewer visibility and understanding. It was also suggested that status estimates or meters be added to workflows or status grids. For example, including a “50% steps completed in submission workflow” meter on screen or a “Please allow 2 weeks for processing” estimate next to the “With Editor” status term. Making resources more prominent on the EM journal Home page was also requested to inform newer users before they begin interacting with the system. Clients expressed interest in Aries’ plans to integrate Pendo for in-product tooltips and surveys.

Along that vein, the discussion dived into strategizing visibility and placement of help/support in the system. Making instructional text larger and enriched with other content such as linked documents and embedded tutorial videos was suggested by groups. Also, having the ability to embed video tutorials (produced by Aries or the publisher) in letters via a merge field was raised. Attendees then recommended embedding a widget or tooltip to key pages in the system that connects directly to correlating EMHelp articles on that specific page/workflow for that specific role. Customers would also appreciate the opportunity to place customizable tooltips or clickable information icons anywhere in the system (such as next to specific fields) to better guide confused users looking for more context.

Besides tooltips, guided tours, and tutorial videos, customers explored ways in which pop-up messages can be leveraged for in-application support. Ideas from groups included pop-up notifications and reminders of outstanding tasks, unread messages, and new functionality released by Aries/enabled by the journal. Another possibility raised in the workshop was supplementing the current red-text-with-asterisk error messages with clearer “in your face” pop-ups that include more information on what went wrong and what to do next. Some groups expanded on that idea by requesting more instances in which the system would intervene when errors arise to prevent issues – maybe even with AI technology – such as not allowing the user to bypass necessary workflow steps, detecting inconsistencies and recommending corrections, and recognizing when and where users are stalled and prompting the next correct action/resources to help. Lastly, better in-app communication was discussed by groups. While a live-chat box was initially suggested, it was quickly discarded as an unrealistic solution due to the burden it would place on journals to manage the incoming queries in real-time. More tactfully, enhancing discussion forum functionality was recommended – from making the feature more visible to transforming it into an instant-message service where notifications would ping at the top of every screen and messages can be viewed/ exchanged in a side window that can overlay/collapse on any page.

“As a member of the Documentation team, it is essential to understand how our customers use Editorial Manager so that we can create Help content that is tailored to their needs”, said Scott DeLugan, Aries Documentation Specialist. “As a result of the Roundtables discussions, we gained a wealth of knowledge that shed insight on how we can optimize the in-application user experience for our clients through integrated support technologies, accessible resources, and refined Help documentation.”

“Gaining insights into how our users interact with our solutions is the best part of our user group meetings – and there is always a unique workflow perspective that is new to us!” stated Aries Business Program Manager Betsy Hopkins. “With the feedback exchanged, we revealed common trouble areas and emphasized the value of supporting users right at the source. The customer input from the workshop helps Aries not only expand in-product support opportunities within the system, but also make them more intuitive and targeted for all users.”

Check out our high-level recap of the recent user group meeting and catch upcoming posts in the four-part 2024 Discovery Digest blog series in the weeks to come!