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UX Research at Tech4good
Tech4good is a research lab based at University of California, Santa Cruz where undergraduate and graduate students work together to build products for social good.
I worked on several research projects that evaluated the lab’s current platforms to further enhance my holistic experience in Product Design.
After building the mobile interface, my team and I created a desktop version as well. Several quarters later, I was able to conduct post usability tests and heuristics on the desktop platform, Timely. Below is a short pathway of how we conducted our evaluations.
STEP ONE
Heuristic Evaluations
Using AEDP or Nielsen’s Heuristic Evaluation templates, we first conducted individual evaluations to find various pain points or user issues within Timely’s Desktop application.
Not only did we account for the number of violations, but we also wrote the issue and the importance of priority of solving such violations.
Example
B3: Match Between Systems and the Real World
Problem: In the creating meeting interface, the wording for “What is the earliest time and latest time” is vague in terms of what the product needs from the user.
Severity Rating: 4 (priority level)
Fix: Change wording to “What time frame can this meeting be in?” *Add Example* (ex: 9am - 5pm)
Second, we combined and discussed our findings in a group heuristic evaluation as an official report of the violations we had found.
STEP TWO
Conduct Usability Test
Based on the findings in the heuristics evaluations, we created tasks for users to do. This will help understand a user’s journey regarding each flow as well as address any of the violations we found individually.
What did the usability test consist of?
1
A script for the moderators of the test
2
Consent Form for the participant
3
A list of user tasks to be evaluated
4
Post-Test Assessment of Usability
STEP THREE
Final Presentation
After individual/group analysis and usability tests, we present our findings to our professor and the design team for Timely. This presentation consists of the most severe violations to emphasize priority. The design team will use these violations and implement solutions in the next round of iterations.
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