DocuMine Feature Highlights
This page is dedicated to the smaller problems and the solutions designed within DocuMine. Not each of these require a full blown case study, but they deserve showcasing nonetheless.
Command Bar
DocuMine has a high a high success rate for generating answers, but it’s not flawless.
During testing we watched users rerun a single question. When asked why they responded;
“Oh, I forgot to add it” ”It didn’t come up with anything last time, so I wanted to redo the question”
These replies showed us there was a clear need for a way to allow users to write questions on the fly.
We took the time to look back on our previous work of 
Using this as the beginning, we refined the concept of a simple single-query search bar into Command Bar…
A simple keyboard shortcut, will launch users into a one-line prompt field to ask on the spot questions. Using the already familiar Answer Cards from DocuMine, their answers can be pasted anywhere they need. Command Bar serves as a way to fill entire worksheets, rework prompts and expand on already existing answers.
Response
In our second round of testing we showcased Command Bar. When in the hands of users, they immediately began working with it in various manners. The most common scenario was filling in the gaps of a DocuMine run that hadn’t returned the answers they were after.
We watched users then proceed into their own workbooks to fetch answers and paste them directly into current working files (a huge validation).
Future
There are of course major hurdles to overcome. Similar to the Document Assist days; limitations to WPF, rate-limiting and context switching all hinder Command Bar being a fully fledged product just now. We’re actively working on solving a lot of these problems and expanding capabilities.
The future of Command Bar entails bringing access to our Knowledge Base, multi-doc questioning and potentially launching into other features such as Form Extraction or Document Matching.
Focus Mode
Early on we knew we wanted to keep as close to Excel as we could. Users set their questions within Excel and the results are generated as a worksheet.
However, when faced with a matrix of answers (which can easily run into the hundreds) it can be incredibly overwhelming. Pair this with an issue of shifting focus between Excel and DocuMine, it means users were getting distracted and slowing down in the review process (not entirely a bad thing)
So how might we enable to review faster?
Give them the option of a clutter free environment. The biggest hurdle for myself was understanding how to convert a matrix into a systematic order of questions and details. There were multiple iterations before settling on the question of ‘context’ over ‘comparison’. This means allowing users to have context within a single document opposed to comparing answers across documents.
//sketches
Focus Mode is a separate window that users can open their results in and systematically review from. An expanded version of every answer, backed with snips and actionable through hotkeys allow reviewers to move through their answers at speed without missing key information.
Response
During our in-person testing sessions, we never demoed Focus Mode and allowed users to naturally discover it.
13 of 25 users found it without being prompted and when asked at the end of the session; 20 responded they preferred to work within Focus Mode.
Requests came in to add more accessibility features (immersive readers and speech functions) as well as a way to review the entire matrix in a similar format.
Future
After positive results of testing, we knew that Focus Mode has a lot more potential. For us, this entails understanding what are the most crucial aspects missing currently.
For now that simply lies within switching questions vs documents as the order for review.
There is a large catalogue of requests ever growing towards Focus Mode. Working in React allows us to update this remotely without worry towards another release.
ℹ️ As DocuMine expands as a product and we move towards release, I will be updating this page to include other features. Thanks for reading till now, check back in later!