Publiq Platform UX Case Study

About publiq platform

A Fundamental Contributor in Driving a Mission Forward

Client: publiq platform
Industry: Advertising Services

publiq, commissioned by the Flemish government, is dedicated to lowering barriers to leisure participation. Their developer portal plays a pivotal role in achieving this mission in the following ways:

Overcoming the Information Barrier: Many people are unaware of the events and activities they can attend or participate in. The publiq developer portal empowers over 1,000 online and offline partner channels by providing them with seamless access to the extensive "UiTdatabank," which aggregates over 200,000 events annually. By distributing this information through APIs, they ensure that events reach a broader and more diverse audience, making it easier for people to discover and engage in leisure activities.
Addressing the Financial Barrier: For individuals living in poverty, the cost of tickets to concerts, theatre performances or sporting events can be prohibitive. The UiTPAS loyalty card, enabled through the UiTPAS API, allows these individuals to purchase tickets at just 20% of the regular price. The API also facilitates cultural organizations in registering ticket sales, generating financial reports, and managing the reduced tariff system.

‘By making our APIs more accessible and easier to adopt through the developer portal, we directly support the fulfillment of our mission. The portal is not just a technical resource; it is a strategic tool that amplifies our ability to reduce barriers to participation and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to engage in cultural and leisure activities.’ - Corneel Wille, Service Designer at publiq.

The Goal: Shaping a Self-Service Platform

The most urgent issue with the developer portal was finding a solution to bring together information from different platforms without rewriting everything. publiq's main goal was to improve their platform on the self-service side for users (focusing on a specific user persona, the first-time integrator). As they found Pronovix's focus on developer portals unique, they inquired about UX services.

Pain Points

Although publiq offers "only" four public APIs, first-time users often struggled to understand what each API does and how it can contribute to their organization's goals. It can be challenging to clearly communicate the purpose of each API to potential partners, guide them in making the right choice, and support them through the technical onboarding process.

As Corneel underlined, ‘we noticed that the flow and structure were clear and intuitive for recurring customers—those who had previously set up an integration. However, first-time integrators often found it difficult to navigate the wealth of information. They sometimes got lost within the application, unsure of where they were or what they were doing.’

Journey

Pronovix helped with the UX review which started with a discussion to identify the scope and the most important objectives for the publiq platform. That included discussing time and budget constraints, short-term goals, and the expected complexity of the solutions. Pronovix’s UX Team conducted an extensive research, mapped out the issues and the possible solutions, and presented them. Based on the suggestions, publiq’s team updated the platform.

Corneel highlighted that after the sessions, as a key outcome, they received a well-structured list of customer journey scenarios that Pronovix could later test. As he pointed out, ‘Pronovix helped us structure the information more clearly and, most importantly, improve navigation, making it easier for new users to find their way.’

‘The audit report was closely tied to these scenarios, making it not only easy to read but also highly transparent. The report itself was clear and, in most cases, actionable.’

The Outcome: Seamless User Experience

‘Pronovix was able to deliver a high-quality audit report on a short notice, taking our needs into account.’ - Corneel Wille, Service Designer at publiq.

Based on the UX team’s remarks, publiq implemented a better navigation, a language selector, improved the warning messages, the documentation, and the onboarding.

Navigation

Previously, navigation was only available at the footer which meant that visitors had to scroll down to the bottom if they wanted to go somewhere else on the developer portal. publiq now has header navigation: it highlights the four main menu items in a visible place.

On the left side, the screenshot shows how the developer portal looked like before the UX Service. On the right side, there is the homepage after the UX service. The second image’s time of screenshot: 10 December, 2024.

Navigation plays a crucial role as it can merge multiple platforms and cross-links. Other than that, clear site navigation equals a type of support (self-service) as users can work without experiencing friction and asking for human intervention. The updates contributed to better findability which was a crucial point for publiq’s user persona (aka the first time integrator).

After publiq received the feedback of Pronovix’s UX team, they also ensured that they had more entry points to switch between API portal (platform.publiq.be) and technical documentation (docs.publiq.be) environment.

Language Selector

The company’s target audience consists of Dutch speakers, but the developer portal is also available for a wider audience. Language selector has been implemented and it enables users to choose their preferred language whether it is Dutch or English.

The developer portal after the UX Service. Time of screenshot: 10 December, 2024.

Documentation

publiq also put emphasis on the use of consistent terminology and how they can guide users with visuals: when someone conducts a search in the documentation, the results have icons tagging the entries based on the type of docs they point to. On the right side, next to the title, users can see the document’s category.

Icons and text explanations on the developer portal. Time of screenshot: 10 December, 2024.

Improved Warning Messages

Originally the warning messages were not informative enough for the users. Now alerts and warnings are clearer and more informative, and they are distinguished by colors (red means error, while yellow equals warning).

API Name on the Integration Card

Before the review, the selected API for the integration was not displayed, which can cause confusion when developers work with multiple APIs. Based on Pronovix’s suggestions, publiq platform updated the cards.

New Onboarding Page

For new integrators, publiq platform introduced an onboarding page to guide them after the first login. This way, confusion can be avoided.

‘At the beginning of our collaboration with clients, we usually organize a UX workshop to define the main user groups and understand their motivations and typical behaviour to make sure we understand who we are designing for. After collecting this knowledge about the user base, we define the scope based on the goals of the organization. I was really happy when publiq started our kick-off meeting with an excellent brief with clear goals and objectives for the review. This comprehensive brief enabled me to suggest hands-on solutions (on short and long-term) for the complex challenges they face.’ - Nóra Farkas, UX Designer at Pronovix.

If you seek specialized assistance with your API strategy or with your developer portal, talk with us to learn more about the professional services we offer. We help you take your devportal and business to the next level.

Clear Navigation and Site Structure

About publiq platform

A Fundamental Contributor in Driving a Mission Forward