Usability Testing / Predix Design System
Usability Research, Participant Recruitment, Usability Testing / GE Digital
One of my main projects during my semester at GE Digital was performing usability tests on several of the newly designed components for the Predix Design System. I worked closely with one other coworker on all parts of the user testing process, from the initial creation of research guidelines to a final presentation of our results.
P R O C E S S
01 / Research Plan
This project began with my coworker and I creating a research guidelines document. We defined the goals of the study, the stakeholders, what components we wanted to test, what issues we thought might arise, and what kinds of users we needed to recruit. We chose to test 4 components that the design team had been getting specific feedback on, and spoke with designers and researchers to understand their individual use cases.
02 / Moderator's Guide
The moderator's guide was our script for the usability sessions. We wrote 6 scenarios based on real use cases for each of these components. These scenarios would test the users' understanding of how to use each component, without leading them too easily into the correct interaction.
After writing the moderator's guide, we ran a pilot session with a fellow UX designer. This pilot session helped us clarify some wording.
03 / Participant Recruitment
I posted to our company's Yammer site seeking participants for the study. I received over 20 responses to this post, and contacted the most relevant users with more information about the study. My coworker and I also reached out to about 10 users that had participated in previous studies at GE and fit our desired persona. Our goal was to test 6-8 users in a week of testing; we ended up recruiting 8 users through this process.
04 / Usability Sessions
During each of our 8 usability sessions, my coworker and I alternated between the roles of moderator and notetaker. While moderating, I would introduce the participant to the study, explain and encourage them to participate in think-aloud protocol, and ask relevant follow up questions after completion of all the tasks. While notetaking, I took notes on issues the users encountered, any comments they made about expectations, and rated their completion rate on a scale. Seven of the 8 sessions were remote, so I also learned how to manage these sessions over Skype.
05 / Final Report
My coworker and I synthesized all the issues and comments from our 8 participants into a final usability report. We presented the completion rates of each task, described the expected behaviors vs. actual behaviors, and recommended some changes and considerations for each of the components. We presented this to our team of designers and developers, as well as the larger design team at GE. Our report has been added to the archive of usability studies that any employee can access for further information.