When I started at Kingland, their core data management and compliance platform was slated for a redesign. The front-end software could no longer be upgraded and was difficult to customize. Before starting on new designs, I knew we needed to evaluate the application’s usability and pain points. I conducted a quick, cheap usability baseline that helped direct our redesign efforts.
Duration: 2 weeks
Methods: In-person moderated usability testing, thematic analysis
Tools: Webex, Trello
Context
Our compliance platform is customized for different clients’ needs, but some core functionality is kept the same, including hierarchy data management, search, and workflow. Before I started, the platform had never been tested for usability, and I didn’t have access to any end users.
I was the only UX designer on a waterfall team comprised of several overseas developers, an architect, a project manager, and a business analyst. I was responsible for spearheading UX research, strategy, and ideation, as well as delivering mockups, prototypes, and high-fidelity requirements. I worked closely with the business analyst to conduct testing, then shared results with the rest of the team.
Process
Time was limited, so I decided on low-cost, in-person testing with company interns who use a similar, but different application. Research shows that testing an application with ~5 people provides a good balance between cost and insights, so we conducted 4 usability tests across the high-touch parts of the application. (We had planned for 6 but had two no-shows.)
I wrote a series of tasks for the interns to complete within the application. The tasks were open-ended and didn’t reference any specific feature, to avoid biasing results.
“You are a data administrator and you are responsible for compiling a list of banks. Find all banks headquartered in Boston and determine how many there are.”
During testing, I facilitated while a teammate observed and took notes. We also recorded the sessions for later review.
Later, we compiled our notes. I used Trello to create an affinity diagram and coded the data by area of the application. This gave us a wealth of insights about participants’ behavior and attitudes during the test.
Findings
Our testing showed some serious weak points in the application’s design. Participants had trouble understanding what the app was for because the main dashboard was blank by default. They also had difficulty completing key tasks like searching, updating data, saving and submitting their work for review. Work frequently disappeared, frustrating the participants.
We also found that other areas of the application worked fine as-is, including the layout of the record page and the log-in process. And some features, like drag-and-drop, were hard to find but extremely helpful once discovered.
Impact
After analyzing the data, I presented my findings to the team. I showed clips of the participants struggling with difficult features, along with charts showing success rates for each task. Sharing this data helped build buy-in for changing the design of key areas. Our architect in particular empathized with the video clips, and advocated for usability throughout the redesign.
The findings from our baseline test informed the rest of the redesign, and our team was able to improve usability in every area we tested. A few examples:
- Submitting work for review, the highest-priority task, went from 0/4 completions in the original application to 3/3 in the redesign.
- Average time spent on a key editing task decreased from >5 minutes to <2 minutes.
- Negative feedback decreased from 74% of feedback in the original application to 22% in the redesign.
Baselining our application’s usability was a great first step in the redesign project. It was a very low-cost investment that helped us target areas to improve, while keeping designs that already worked well.