STAKEHOLDER INVOLVEMENT Seminar Alten | 3 maart 2016 | Hester Bruikman

UX and its consequence

Coffee is a universal example of user experience and its consequences.

Ease of use

Call customer support

If a product, such as a coffee machine, is not easy to use, we call customer support.

Ease of use

Lower satisfaction

https://www.b2binternational.com/publications/customer-satisfaction-survey/

Or we keep our mouth shut and move on dissatisfied. Like after this plastic lid made me spill coffee before going into a meeting.

Usefulness

Non-use

If a product doesn’t seem useful to us, like decaffeinated espresso, we might not use it at all.

Leaving

Pleasure

And if we try a product and don’t like it, like coffee from the machine in our office, we might decide to leave.

Risk

Meaning

If we don’t understand the meaning of notifications, like warnings on a coffee cup, we might be happy now, but at risk for the future.

I’m a UX researcher, I study what makes a product easy to use, useful, pleasurable and meaningful for different people in a given context.

The value of impactful changes

We’ve learned in the past that UX research makes a difference; If we implement the results.

Solution:

“You do not need to create an account to make purchases on

our site. Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make

your future purchases even faster, you can create an account

during checkout.”

Jared Spool, 2009

Usability finding:

“I’m Not Here To Be In a Relationship”

https://articles.uie.com/three_hund_million_button/?utm_source=visitorcentric

Amazon gained $300,000,000/year and satisfied customers.

Randolph G. Bias and Deborah J. Mayhew. 2005. Cost-Justifying Usability: An Update for the Internet Age. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA.

Their #1 tip:

“Start the UI design before you build the product. An early

focus on user experience meant that McAfee included users

at a very early stage in product development.”

McAfee reduced customer support calls and thereby customer care costs by 90%.

Randolph G. Bias and Deborah J. Mayhew. 2005. Cost-Justifying Usability: An Update for the Internet Age. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA.

Change:

“As a result of usability testing and other techniques, the

user interface for the feature was adjusted. In the next

release, support calls ‘dropped dramatically’; Microsoft

recognized ‘significant cost savings’ ”

Microsoft no longer needs 45 min to explain its print merge feature.

Usability finding:

“I’m being tested” & “It’s just that you

guys are here, otherwise I would have

stopped after 5 minutes”

Change:

Refrained from using ‘Test’ and a ‘test-result’ interaction flow.

ING saved unnecessary development costs and the risk of people not using a service with significant business value.

What happened:

The company released a product with know issues.

Rabobank likely had customers leave the brand.

Are we convinced about the need for impactful changes?

Steve Krug asked researchers: Out of a response rate of 146 researchers, 131 indicated that it had happend to them that after a usability test or expert review, the client/stakeholder/team agreed to an important change, but the change never got made.Steve Krug

Usability guru

http://www.slideshare.net/SteveKrug/upa-lightbulb?qid=28e5daae-c9e0-4426-a627-131b06e99c8a&v=&b=&from_search=5

Until we have to implement themYes, unless we have to implement them.

Why are we not implementing them?

http://www.slideshare.net/SteveKrug/upa-lightbulb?qid=28e5daae-c9e0-4426-a627-131b06e99c8a&v=&b=&from_search=5

1. Capacity

2. Politics

1. Project teams lack the resources, 2. We’re not convinced enough.

Here’s what we can do about this:

Problem Solution Interaction Final

✓ Planning - Recruitment - Script - Prototype - Execute - Analyse - Follow-up

Include testing into the projectplanning You are here

By integrating research into the projectplan we manage expectations of changes to come.

Keep a shared list of research questions

✓ Planning - Recruitment - Script - Prototype - Execute - Analyse - Follow-up

Research questions can come from anyone in the project team. By combining them we can get the most out of research sessions.

✓ Planning ✓ Recruitment ✓ Script ✓ Prototype - Execute - Analyse - Follow-upPrepare together

http://itsourresear.ch/

By preparing together we prevent the ‘not invented here’ syndrome, and improve the quality of research.

Take part in the execution

http://itsourresear.ch/

✓ Planning ✓ Recruitment ✓ Script ✓ Prototype ✓ Execute - Analyse - Follow-up

http://itsourresear.ch/

Observation: Rainbow diagram

Observation: Went well/did not go well

Moderation: collaborative interviewing

If we conduct the study together, the results become more accurate, and we are more likely to agree on them.

Good things come to those who wait

✓ Planning ✓ Recruitment ✓ Script ✓ Prototype ✓ Execute ✓ Analyse - Follow-up

Analysis is a researcher’s job, but the project team can contribute by giving this exercise the required time.

Bring issues to life!

✓ Planning ✓ Recruitment ✓ Script ✓ Prototype ✓ Execute ✓ Analyse ✓ Follow-up

http://itsourresear.ch/

The outcome is a lot more usable: if it’s not a plain report. Use videos, posters, and stories.

Prioritize in terms of time

✓ Planning ✓ Recruitment ✓ Script ✓ Prototype ✓ Execute ✓ Analyse ✓ Follow-up

The outcome is a lot more usable: if we prioritize on a timeline (now, next sprint, next quarter) rather than only on severity level (low, medium, high).

Schedule a testing debrief before a (sprint) planning meeting

✓ Planning ✓ Recruitment ✓ Script ✓ Prototype ✓ Execute ✓ Analyse ✓ Follow-up

The outcome is a lot more usable: if we bring that timeline into the sprintplanning. Usability issues should make it onto the product backlog.

Keep monitoring reported issues

✓ Planning ✓ Recruitment ✓ Script ✓ Prototype ✓ Execute ✓ Analyse ✓ Follow-up

http://itsourresear.ch/

We can’t fix everything at once, but we can monitor the necessity.

Think small

✓ Planning ✓ Recruitment ✓ Script ✓ Prototype ✓ Execute ✓ Analyse ✓ Follow-up

http://itsourresear.ch/

And some things we can fix at once, if we consider small solutions as learning opportunities.

“If a study has run, without no one around to hear about it, did it still happen?” Tomer Sharon | It’s our research

Thank you.

Please share your stories and feedback: hester@hesterbruikman.com