New File Format Rollout
Support the format change of MATLAB App Designer files.
Drive key UX decisions to mitigate any potential compatibility problems and ensure a smooth transition.
Background
Previous user engagements through UXRs or PMs have indicated some major pain points with the current binary file format of MATLAB App Designer. This includes:
-
Not able to use Git or other version control tools
-
Not very scalable when the file gets large
To resolve these pain points, a business decision is to switch App Designer files from the current binary format to a plain text format, This way, version control workflows could be supported, and the file could also be more scalable and performant.
​
This transition is similar to when Microsoft transitioned word .DOC to .DOCX. -- Not a lot of users understand why this change was needed or know what happened behind the hood. Regardless, they could adapt to this change, and their experience with using Word doc files was not largely affected.
Questions
Even though this is a software infrastructural change, and the majority of the users might not care what exactly the new format is, there are still a lot of user-facing decisions that need to be made.
​
Should the new file format have the same file extension as before?
The current App Designer file uses the MLAPP file extension. If we introduce a new file format that has a completely different underlying structure, should the file format be the same? If not, should we use two different extensions even though they both represent app files?
​
​
How do we introduce the new file format?
We want to inform the developer users of the change so they can make the correct decisions, but we don't want to overload the casual users with technical details​. We need to tell a clear and concise message and cater our design to support different types of users.
​​
​
Should there be any changes in user workflows between these two file formats? If so, which ones?
​​​Fundamentally, binary files and plain text files work differently. For instance, plain text files can be opened in any text editor, whereas binary files cannot. Therefore, we need to think about how these files behave when users are interacting with them, and how we best support these user behaviors. ​
​
​
How can we mitigate compatibility concerns between the two file formats?
During the transition, it's likely that users might have files in both file formats. ​In that case, we need to make sure that both formats are well-supported, and users can easily switch between one or another based on their needs, regardless of the MATLAB version that they are using.
Process
01.
User interview and categorization
02.
Solution brainstorm
03.
Benchmarking
04.
Workflow diagramming
05.
Painpoint re-prioritization
06.
Design iteration
07.
Usability testing
08.
Design finalization
09.
Implementation and further testing