Ascent Global Logistics Internal Service Desk

As a newly appointed UX Researcher at Ascent Global Logistics, my first major undertaking was to evaluate the performance of the organization's internal Service Desk platform and gauge user satisfaction with its current state. Despite a pre-existing awareness of the widespread discontent amongst users, my challenge was to meticulously identify the specific areas of dissatisfaction, while also devising strategies for enhancing the platform's performance. Findings from this research led to redesigns that increased employee self-service usage by 30%, significantly reducing the volume of incoming calls and emails to the support desk.

Project Overview

Goals

Understand how the current internal Service Desk software and request processes are performing.
Understand the barriers encountered by users.
Pinpoint main factors of dissatisfaction and weak points in user flow.
Gain insight on how to improve the platform and to improve efficiency.

Responsibilities

Hold regular meetings with stakeholders
Write and revise interview scripts and surveys
Conduct one on one user interviews
Administer company wide survey
Compile all research data into a final report
Collaborate with design team to suggest an action plan

Discovery

Stakeholders

Early on, I met with key stakeholders—including the CTO, directors, and service desk managers—to understand how the Service Desk operates and where they saw its strengths and pain points.

Service Desk Strengths

Chat feature was seen as reliable and effective.
Level 1 tickets were resolved quickly (within 3 hours).
Call-in support had near-instant response times.

Service Desk Opportunities

Request forms were confusing and not user-friendly.
Confirmation pages lacked clarity on next steps after submitting a ticket.
Knowledge base was limited and written in unclear language.

Personal Exploration

To immerse myself in the experience, I tested every request channel—email, phone, portal, and chat—and reviewed support call recordings.

Upon analyzing my findings, I hypothesized that users could be encountering the following pain points:

lack of visibility into the status of their tickets
uncertainty regarding the timeframe for issue resolution
request forms being complex and vague
limited and vague knowledge base articles within the user portal.

Planning

Timeline

The project was scoped for 8 weeks, with key milestones each week:

Week 1: Discovery
Weeks 2–3: Draft survey & interview script
Week 4: Launch survey & recruit interview participants
Weeks 5–6: Conduct user interviews
Week 7: Analyze and organize data
Week 8: Collaborate with design to develop and present action plan

Stakeholder Collaboration

Stakeholders were actively engaged and instrumental in meeting weekly goals. I led weekly check-ins to share progress, get feedback, and align on survey and interview materials. One-on-one discussions helped shape decisions throughout the project.

Creating the Survey

To complement qualitative data, I designed a survey to gather broader, quantitative insights into user satisfaction and behavior.

Survey goals:

Gauge satisfaction with communication and resolution times
Evaluate contact channel effectiveness (email, phone, portal, chat)
Assess the portal’s usability, UI, and content
Understand user needs and typical service desk journeys

Writing the Interview Script

Interviews were structured to dig deeper into survey responses and explore usability pain points. I divided sessions into three parts: overall experience, clarifying survey answers, and task-based usability.

Interview goals:

Understand users’ overall experience and frequent tasks
Identify pain points and negative interactions
Clarify survey responses with context
Observe usability of the request/incident submission process

Conducting the Research

The Survey

Recruitment
As a new hire navigating Ascent’s security-sensitive environment, I worked with stakeholders to develop a low-friction recruitment strategy. We agreed that the best approach was to have the CTO send a company-wide email announcing the survey and interview opportunity. I wrote the email to clearly explain the survey’s purpose, include a Microsoft Forms link, and promote a gift card raffle as an incentive.

Platform & Challenges
Given that most employee systems were integrated with Office 365, Microsoft Forms was chosen to ensure we could track responses by user. However, I discovered that the Excel export from Forms was not accurately matching the in-app data. After flagging this to stakeholders, I created a separate Excel file to manually input and track data with daily updates throughout the survey period.

The Interview

Recruitment & Selection
At the end of the survey, participants were asked if they'd be open to a 1:1 interview. From 35 volunteers, I selected 15 to ensure diversity across department, age, gender, and tech experience. Calendly was used to streamline scheduling. Fourteen interviews were completed, with one person opting out.

Platform
All interviews were conducted over Microsoft Teams to align with company tools and provide a smooth user experience.

Challenges
During the sessions, participants were asked to access the Service Desk portal to observe their interaction. Four users, who had never previously accessed the portal, couldn’t log in due to credential issues. I quickly flagged this to the Service Desk Manager and secured immediate access for impacted users post-interview, ensuring future participants had proper access in advance.

Conclusion

Survey Key Findings

Survey Insights

52% of users preferred calling the Service Desk due to faster resolution times; only 5% used chat, 23% email, and 20% the portal.
Over half were dissatisfied with the portal’s design, layout, and forms, citing confusion and unhelpful content.
60% were satisfied with resolution times, but escalated tickets saw significant delays.
Most users appreciated the empathy and effort of Service Desk agents, even when issues weren’t fully resolved.

Interview Key Findings

Users lacked awareness of available resources and the Service Desk's capabilities.
A major frustration was the lack of ticket status updates and visibility into who was handling their case.
Portal navigation and form usability were common pain points.
Resolution delays—tickets staying open for weeks or months—were a consistent complaint.
Only 2 of 14 participants reported negative agent interactions; the rest praised the agents’ dedication.

Action Plan

1. Improve Education & Awareness

Clarify what the Service Desk can help with and how to access those services.

2. Enhance Communication

Keep users informed at every step of the ticket process—who’s handling it, expected timelines, and status updates—even if there’s no change.

3. Redesign the Portal

Focus the landing page on key actions (e.g., submit a request, check status, find answers).
Use plain, consistent language and remove distractions.
Prioritize user-friendly design and navigation.

4. Address Complex Request Delays

Reevaluate workflows for escalated issues.
Identify bottlenecks and improve hand-off times between teams.

After presenting these findings, I partnered with the product design team to brainstorm solutions—keeping in mind that the Service Desk was operated by a third-party vendor, limiting the scope of direct changes. We focused on internally actionable improvements that included:

Rebranding to "Support Desk" to improve perception.
Consistent language across all touchpoints, using terms users identify with.
Revamping communication emails with engaging content, visual consistency, and possible gamification.
Using email tools to track engagement and optimize messaging.

Our shared goal was simple: make support easier to access, understand, and trust.

Impact

The research uncovered critical usability issues and communication gaps that were directly addressed in the redesign of the internal IT support portal. By focusing on clearer navigation, simplified request forms, and improved language and layout, the new design empowered users to resolve issues on their own more confidently.

As a result of these changes, employee self-service usage increased by 30%, significantly reducing the volume of incoming calls and emails to the support desk. The findings also informed long-term improvements in education, communication strategy, and stakeholder alignment across IT support operations.