Product Lifecycle User Research

February 7th, 2011 by Donovan Watts

User research, when applied to an entire product lifecycle, has tremendous advantages. Stakeholders are afforded the opportunity to benchmark their existing product, learn from users as they interact with prototypes and early concept ideas, shape the product offering as a result, and apply those decisions to the redesign. And once the product has been redesigned, testing it again to validate the final design is icing on the cake.

Productlifecycle

It all starts with a Wants & Needs Analysis. What do your users want? What do your users need? This is an important question to ask when redesigning a product. For the rest of this post, I’ll assume you are redesigning a website but the benefits of user research over the course of an entire lifecycle applies to any product. There are various ways to discover what your users want and need, such as asking them to fill out a survey or provide feedback in a focus group setting.

Based on this information and any other business objectives, a site benchmark should be conducted. Before tearing down your site, it’s always a good idea to get a good feel for what users think of it right now. Can they find the information they are looking for? Does your site provide the kind of content that visitors want? The site benchmark often involves a quantitative study, whereby site visitors are intercepted by a popup window asking if they would like to participate in a study. The results, in conjunction with the previous round of a wants & needs analysis should give your team further direction for the redesign.

Armed with tons of information about what your users really want and need, the design team can finally get to work! We suggest starting with very low level design ideas such as wireframes or simple paper prototypes. Why? They are low-cost, easy and quick to develop, and when tested with even a small group of participants, can verify whether or not you are heading in the right direction. Wouldn’t you rather know now that your understanding of your user’s needs is correct, before you’ve invested lots of money and resources?

Now that you’ve tested some early stage wireframes, learned where to make changes, and adapted your design, it’s time to build out a site that is higher fidelity. This could include full color mockups, clickable comps, or even something more developed like an iRise simulation. Many times, our clients think they have to get a fully developed prototype out the door for testing at this stage but that’s just not the case. Remember, when you are conducting user research across an entire product lifecycle, there is no rush. Take your time and think in stages. It’s far easier to make some changes, even if incomplete, and test, than it is to commit all your resources to making something ‘perfect’ and then having to adjust because it’s not ‘perfect.’

What’s next? A soft-launch. This could be a beta invite, or even a site that goes live under the radar. The main point with this, the live customer feedback, stage is to get feedback on the final decision you’ve decided to run with. All the previous steps lead here. Did your design reflect on what your users want and need? You’ll find out during this phase. Once you’ve synthesized the feedback, it’s time to launch.

Launch

Congratulations! You’ve not only launched your new website, you’ve approached it methodologically, taking into account, at every step, your users wants and needs. After all, your site is really all about your users, isn’t it? Sure, you can just test your site pre-launch and skip all the stages we’ve discussed here. But that would be doing your users a disservice. By listening to them early and incorporating them into the redesign process often, your site is much more likely to satisfy and create happy users.

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Meeting the Online Information Needs for Healthcare/Pharma Audiences

February 7th, 2011 by Lisa Kumpula

As our business is user experience research, it is our job to ensure we fully understand end consumer wants and needs. Over the past few years, we have obtained insights from hundreds of consumers in the healthcare and pharma industries – from specialized healthcare providers (e.g. doctors, nurses) to patients with life-threatening illnesses and/or their caregivers. What we have learned is that the informational needs and expectations of these two audiences are vastly different. To ensure your site meets the varying criteria, it’s important to have your finger on the pulse of key audiences that visit your site.

What we have learned

Most healthcare providers are focused on finding a cure or the appropriate treatment option for their patients. This means their informational needs tend to be detailed and case-specific. As healthcare providers (HCPs) are busy and juggling a variety of tasks and patients, they also need to locate their information very quickly. To keep your healthcare audience engaged, it is critical to follow the following guidelines:

- Site language should offer an unbiased, scientific tone. HCPs appreciate a site that is written in their ‘speak’ and appreciate the effort put into understanding their medical specialty. An unbiased presentation of site information can also offer more credibility.

- Constantly update site content. HCPs are interested in the latest and greatest information relating to a complex disease, a new treatment option, or news (e.g. peer reviews, journals). If your site offers this information, ensure it’s the most up-to-date and relevant.

- Offer the ability to easily locate detailed, specific content. Most of the content HCPs are seeking is specifically related to their individual patient needs. In fact, oftentimes they are seeking answers on-the-fly with their patients in the same room. This means time is critical. As such, ensure that the content on the site is organized in an easy-to-understand manner for this audience (e.g. offer a robust search and sort options for easy ability to drill down to specific details).

In contrast, patients/caregivers are often struggling with another set of concerns. Not only do patients/caregivers want to learn about their ailment/condition, many are also seeking information about office locations, medications available and/or reimbursement options. To keep your patient/caregiver audience engaged, be sure your site offers the following items:

- Site language should be very simple and encouraging. Patients/Caregivers most appreciate a site that is not too inundated with complex medical terminology. Many patients/caregivers seeking information on medical conditions are not just dealing with medical issues – oftentimes they have emotional, social (i.e. family-related) and economical pressures as well. Keep this in mind when presenting information on your website, and create an encouraging and simplistic tone.

- Include simplistic graphics to illustrate complex conditions or treatment options. Offer overly simplistic insights into how a disease works, or how the treatment would work. Detailed graphics often help patients/caregivers to easily comprehend complex medical ideas or jargon.

- If appropriate for your site, ensure there is easy access to financial assistance and/or reimbursement options. It is not a secret – good health care is not cheap. Patients who are seriously or terminally ill do not have the strength or time to hunt and peck for this type of information. If it’s available, ensure it stands out and easy to locate.

In summary, given the differing needs (and mindsets) of these two key audiences, it’s critical for healthcare and pharma sites to allow their visitors to readily identify themselves as a Healthcare professional or a Patient/Caregiver as they enter a site, or at least be able to easily locate the audience-specific content they are seeking.

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10 Mobile Usability Testing Tips

February 3rd, 2011 by Donovan Watts

Years of mobile testing have led to a number of items that we, as user experience researchers, consider whenever we set out to conduct a test that takes place on a mobile device such as a personal phone or iPad.

In somewhat more typical test, participants will arrive at a lab and use a generic PC for the task at hand. With mobile testing, however, often the participants are asked to bring their own phone with them so that we can see how they interact with the subject using their own device. Of course, we’ve conducted plenty of studies using proprietary subjects, and in those circumstances, the participants use a ‘control’ device. Those tests are easier since you eliminate the issues that inevitably appear when participants are asked to bring in their own device.

With that in mind, and in no particular order, here are ten tips to consider when testing a website/app on a mobile device.

1. Have a backup plan – This includes a backup plan for participants, devices, and location. We’ve seen it all. The participant forgets to bring her phone. Or, he dropped his phone on the way to the study and the screen cracked. Maybe reception is bad for a certain carrier in the particular location that you are conducting sessions. All of these things can, and will, thwart your study. Trust me, I’ve seen them all happen. By assuming things will go wrong, and creating a backup plan, you can salvage almost any situation.

2. Test reception ahead of time – Before conducting the study, you should have an idea of which devices you want to test. Based on this information, do yourself a favor and sit in the room that you plan to have sessions, pull out your phone, and see what kind of reception you get. Now, get a hold of someone with a phone for each type you intend to test and repeat this process.

As a backup plan, make sure that a strong wifi network is accessible. Cell reception is notorious for dropping bars at the exact moment your session starts. Being able to quickly switch to wifi in order to carry on is important.

3. Do your homework – Some of our clients have an idea of which devices they would like to test but there are so many variations that sometimes it is difficult to be totally prepared. Doing your homework can help. For instance, one study we conducted focused on smartphones like iPhones and Android. However, our client wanted to test a few phones that fall somewhere between a smartphone and a feature phone. By working closely with our recruiter, we were able research certain models to see if the participant’s phone would be a good match.

Another good option for doing your homework is to use a virtual testing environment. Products like MITE (Mobile Internet Testing Environment) by Keynote (Disclaimer: Keynote is an AnswerLab client) provide you with an array of virtual devices which make it easy to pull up a website and see exactly how it will appear on that device.

4. Pilot test – At least a day before your first session, and hopefully sooner, conduct a pilot session. It’s best if you treat the pilot exactly like a real session so that you can find the problem areas before you actually bring in real people for testing. If you neglect all the other tips in the article, this is the one to keep. Conduct a pilot and you won’t regret it.

5. Record make/model – Even if our client doesn’t ask, we always record the make and model of the participant’s device. Either have your recruiter do it or take a moment at the beginning of each session to capture this information. It comes in handy, especially for design teams, when something unexpected happens during the test.

6. Bring phone/charger – Instruct your participants, in big, bold letters, to bring their phone and charger to the session. And then tell them again. And once more for good measure. Despite this, at least one of your participants will arrive without their phone. Or their phone will have 10% battery left. I guarantee this will happen during your mobile study.

7. Plan for screenshots – How are you going to capture screenshots for your report? On desktops, that’s simple. For mobile devices, it can be quite a challenge. iPhones, for instance, make it easy to grab screenshots. Androids, on the other hand, do not.

8. Ask questions about site/mobile site/apps in pre-interview – I’ll often include some line of questioning in the pre-interview to understand the participant’s comprehension of full website, mobile websites, and mobile apps. I have found that many participants struggle to articulate the difference between them. Though it may not be pertinent for your study, I think it is easy information to capture and gives my clients a better understanding of consumers.

9. Turn off ringer. Don’t answer texts, etc. – Just like they do at the movie theater, tell your participants that you require their undivided attention during the study. Have them turn off their ringer and encourage them to dismiss texts. Remember, mobile devices are extremely personal and people are used to reacting to any alert, in the moment.

10. Figure out how you are going to record the session and allow clients to observe. This can be a complicated and sometimes costly affair. Simple solutions are often best but every study requires it’s own solution. In another blog post, Image Capture Devices, we discuss some options that might help you sort out the best solution for your needs.

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In the Lab: Image Capture Devices

October 4th, 2010 by Donovan Watts

We conduct a lot of tests at AnswerLab. We test websites, mobile apps, paper prototypes, wireframes, software, and more. For some stimuli, such as a website, capturing the computer screen for observers to see and record is easy. For that we usually rely on Morae Recorder and some kind of streaming solution such as WebEx or GoToMeeting.

Certain stimuli such as paper prototypes and mobile interfaces require creative capture solutions. We’ve used the Noldus Mobile Device Camera, hired videographers, hacked iPhones to display on a computer screen, and used document scanners such as the WolfVision Desktop Visualizer to capture a session.

There are pros and cons to each solution of course. The Noldus requires just the right lighting, videographers are an added expense and require the participant to remain in a somewhat fixed position, and sometimes hacking an iPhone isn’t suitable for the study.

We’ve had good success with the WolfVision VZ-9plus³, especially for paper prototypes and mobile devices. With a large range, the participant has an easy time keeping the stimuli in view. Auto-focus is handy and the number of video in/out ports allows the session to take on a level of sophistication that is often difficult to plan and execute.

For instance, suppose your participant is interacting with a website on a computer in the lab. That computer is plugged into the WolfVision and the observers in the back room are intently watching what is happening as the user interacts with a website. Now, imagine that the designers also wanted to get some feedback on a few paper prototypes during the last ten minutes of the session. No problem, just lay the paper down on the WolfVision’s viewing area, press a button to send the image to the backroom, and your observers are instantly seeing the participant as she interacts with the paper prototype.

Switching from a digital to paper stimuli and sending the image to the backroom is not usually this easy, as any researcher knows.

As I mentioned, each solution has its advantages and disadvantages. The WolfVision has its place but one must pick the right tool for the job. At AnswerLab, we are fortunate to have a plethora of tools at our disposal and picking just the right one for the job is one of our specialties.

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Is the Android truly an open platform?

September 23rd, 2010 by Donovan Watts

From the start, Google’s Android operating system was touted as being ‘open.’ Standing in stark contrast to iOS, that mobile sanctuary behind Apple’s walled garden, Android held the promise of freedom, choice for the user, and a device that is totally open to the whims of the device owner. Well, the reality of Android’s open nature is becoming clearer and carrier exploitation seems to be settling in.

First of all, what does ‘open’ mean anyway? Open can mean different things to different people. From my perspective, an open OS carries with it some of the same aspects that I’ve come to expect from my desktop counterparts, the PC and Mac. On those machines, I can download any software I find on the internet and install it. Whether or not I ‘should’ install that software is my decision. As well, if I don’t like some of the software that came with my Mac, let’s say the default text editor, well, I can just delete it and replace it with something better. I’m ‘open’ to install and remove what I want on my machine, in other words.

The mobile device is a different animal. Apple, for instance, won’t allow me to install whatever app I want. The only way to do that is to jail-break the iPhone. I wrote about this topic in an earlier blog post, The flexibility of an Android compared to an iPhone. On the Android, I’m allowed to install apps from sources outside of the Android Market. To do so, I must enable ‘Allow installation of non-Market applications’ in my Android Settings. Once I’ve enabled that setting, apps that I find on non-Market sites such as Handango, FreeFunFiles, and Mobihand are mine for the downloading.

So, surely this means that my Droid 2 is open? While I can certainly install apps of my choosing, it’s the other half of the equation that reveals the Android platform’s closed nature.

On my Droid 2, Verizon decided to install a few applications. Known among many as crap-ware, Blockbuster and a game called NFS Shift have established permanent residence on my device. I cannot remove these applications. Verizon has locked down these apps. Fortunately, I installed an application called LauncherPro which allows me to ‘hide’ these apps so that I never have to see them. However, they still reside on my phone, taking up valuable space. This violates my 2nd rule of ‘open’, being able to remove an application from my machine or device.

In other news, there are a few topics regarding the ‘open’ nature of the Android OS that are percolating as well. I’m keeping an eye on their development and will report more here. In a ‘complaint and jury demand’ filed by Skyhook Wireless against Google, Skyhook alleges that Google, ‘is effectively creating a closed system with respect to location positioning.’ And Verizon’s decision to force the Bing search engine on Samsung Galaxy S owners is far from what I would consider ‘open.’

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