VIREC
(US Department of Veteran's Affairs Information Resource Center)
A University of Michigan School of Information Design Clinic project to test and evaluate a new platform to ensure the business requirements were fulfilled while researching new features that could be incorporated into the platform for future iterations.
August 2020 - December 2020
tl;dr
Got a lot going on? Here's a quick breakdown:
Project type: UMSI Design Clinic, User Research, Prototype evaluation
Goal: The goal of this project was to evaluate a new prototype of a next-generation knowledge sharing platform, uncover pain points and recommend any changes and features for future versions.
Skills & tools : Analyzing user requirements, generating user tasks and consolidating test flows, conducting interviews, shadowing users
My role: On Team of 4, I was a focus group facilitator + researcher
Note: An NDA associated with this project so details were not permitted to be shared
02
Overview
The client was the US Department of Veteran's Affairs Information Resource Center: VIReC
Based on previously established business requirements, the team at VIReC wanted us to evaluate how their existing prototype fulfilled their requirements based on user feedback.
03
Timeline
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We devised a plan to create task flows based on requirements, shadow users actually using the prototype, and conduct interviews to get comprehensive feedback from the users.
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We then analyzed our information by creating an affinity wall and presented our findings on what worked well, what needed improvement, and what new features should be looked into going forward.
POINT
PIVOT
The Issue:
Due to security issues and firewalls our team was unable to get access to the prototype to get a clear understanding
How it was Handled
We relied on screen shares, recorded videos, and product walkthroughs to understand the product
04
Task Lists
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We first consolidated tasks lists and devised action task items
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Task lists were based on previously established personas based on the types of user activity on the prototype
9 consecutive tasks
2 types of tasks
Tasks derived from most common actions completed by personas
POINT
PIVOT
The Issue:
The requirement list and project files given to us were outdated
How it was Handled
We carefully screened the requirements and prioritized them based on business requirements provided by the client. The task list was generated from the most important requirements.
05
Shadowing
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Interview consisted of an individual 30 minute shadowing session and a 30 minute combined interview session
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Interviewers acted as silent observers as participants went through the flows
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Interviewees were separated into breakout rooms, performed task flows, & answered post-completion questions
One on one sessions, with one interviewer and one participant in each breakout room
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Separated into breakout rooms
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Provided task flows through a form
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Answered post-completion questions
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Interviewers acted as silent observers
POINT
PIVOT
The Issue:
Due to COVID, all four team members were suddenly working from different time zones all over the world
How it was Handled:
We moved the majority of our work to be asynchronous and had checkpoints to ensure the work was being done. Sleep was also sacrificed along the way.
06
Interviews
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The interviewers and interviewees gathered for a 30 minute joint interview session
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Received feedback on usability of both general task flows as well as specific tasks
13 participants
Data Analyst
Statisticians
Researchers
07
Affinity wall
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From our interviews we extracted important quotations and clustered them according to similar concepts and ideas
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We organized them into a hierarchy of broader concepts and issues that we uncovered through our interview findings
Organized interview notes
Highlighted key findings
Group Analysis
08
Key findings
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Key features included searching, tagging, voting, notification, and aesthetics
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There were mixed views on many features depending on previous experience and preferences
Search
Extremely useful features that could benefit from extended and more advanced functionality
Voting
Mixed views on the voting system. Labels such as "best answer" or "verified answer" could help maintain quality
Aesthetics
The platform is an improvement over the existing platform but should be more content focused with less white space
Tagging
It would be helpful if the tagging feature could come with instructions for those unfamiliar with the feature
Notifications
Extremely useful feature that users will need but needs added personalization to customize notifications
09
Lessons learned
Gained experience conducting client interviews and shadowing users navigating tasks
Learned how to conduct user research within the limitations of a virtual environment
Gained confidence in learning about user research methodologies and conducting usability testing
