Setup: Contractor at Volvo Group, 3 months, 2019
Summary: During 3 months, I supported the project team for scoping, research, ideation, and concept development of a tool used by software testers at Volvo for verification of developed software.
Details omitted! As the project is confidential, the page only includes a high-level description of the research and its findings
Methods
In this assignment, I performed both generative and evaluative research. 6 in- depth interviews to generate design ideas and 3 usability testings to evaluate the legacy system. I also conducted preference testing of the prototypes of the tool which I created using Balsamiq and Adobe Illustrator.
- - conducted 6 in-depth interviews and observations
- - performed 3 usability testings
- - conducted preference testings
- - synthesized data into 8 actionable insights
- - created 30+ user stories and UX requirements
- - created two main personas
- - facilitated design studios
Outcome
My data analysis resulted in 8 insights (4 design challenges and 4 design principles).
I created a repository of user stories, UX requirements, and two main personas which I handed off to the development team.
I handed off the insights and the prototypes of the tool to the UX designer for further enhancement.
Reflection
One main challenge in this research work was the limited number of users of the tool which meant I did not have many sources of data gathering.
Additionally, these limited users were also very busy making is difficult to book them for research sessions.
Also, the GUI was a planned ot be smart (dynamic).
Ensuring a good UX for smart (dynamic) GUIs is a challenging task.
In particular, in scenarios where an underlying schema (in this case, the communication protocol) introduces limitations as to what elements and in what structure shall be presented to the user.
Therefore, in such cases a tight collaboration between the technical stakeholders and user researcher is necessary more than ever to ensure that user needs are taken into account in design to the extent possible.
Note
In all of the included user research assignments, I was the sole researcher and responsible for the whole process: design, recruiting, data gathering, data analysis (tagging/coding and pattern/thematic analysis), creating an insight repository, and discussing the findings with the stakeholders in a series of workshops (e.g. to prioritize the insights or plan for taking actions based on the research recommendations). In addition, all of the interviews (often 1-2 hour) and workshops (often 2-3 hour) were audio/video recorded and transcribed for data analysis and generating evidence-based insights and recommendations. The research assignments were conducted in close collaboration with the stakeholders and in an Agile setting (iteratively) for fast delivery and feedback.