“Ease of use may be invisible, but its absence sure isn’t.”
~IBM Design
The Problem to Solve
The Standards of Conduct (SOC) is an annual certification that all employees and board members must complete. The vendor for the system (Ceridian) was no longer supporting the product, and we needed to ensure a replacement was in place.
Challenges
The new system had a release date that could not change.
The development of the system would primarily be outsourced to a consulting firm as the in-house development teams did not have availability.
Employees completing the standards of conduct were often confused by the language and unsure how to answer questions.
Approach
My role was to collaborate with the Stakeholders, Product Manager and Business Analyst to determine the MVP for the new Standards of Conduct (SOC) Survey, and ultimately deliver visual designs that could be developed by an outsourced development firm. Since the delivery date was of high importance, I created a UX Plan that indicated the UX deliverables with an estimated timeframe. Research practices (an SUS Survey) were put in place for continued learning about the overall usability of the system.
Research
To benchmark the usability of the SOC application , a baseline SUS survey was conducted with users before any design changes were changed or implemented. As users completed the SOC Certification they were sent a link to the SUS Survey created in Qualtrics. In person interviews were also conducted with the Product Manager, Admins of the System, Leaders, and Employees, all of which were different levels of users of the system. Research with Admins and Leaders were to be used for future phases of the product.
Goal Based Personas
I synthesized the information learned through interviews to identify the user’s behaviors and needs based on roles/goals of the system. This identified that two of the roles had similar goals and were consolidated.
Sketching
Another UX Designer and I both facilitated a sketching session. The beginning of the sketching session was dedicated to reviewing the business goals and users, and user’s needs of the system based on my research.
Wireframes
Wireframes were created in UXPin. After adding interactions, the wireframes would turn into the first prototype to be tested by users.
Usability Testing
I created and facilitated a moderated usability test with users of the system to gain feedback on what was working well and where we could improve. The tests were performed on the prototypes, and then again with the developed application.
Visual Designs
Visual Design were created in Photoshop and were based on the tested prototype/wireframes. I assisted another UX Designer on the visual designs that would be shared with the consulting firm developing the application.
Future Considerations
The SUS Survey was continued as users completed their yearly Standards of Conduct certification. The development team displayed a page at the completion of the certification that linked to the Qualtrics SUS Survey. Completed surveys showed a positive usability shift with the new SOC application.
“Our old Standards of Conduct was not user friendly, so from the very beginning of this project, the user experience was a focal point for us. We were grateful to work with our amazing User Experience team to design the look and feel of the app, develop a prototype, conduct user experience tests and surveys, and make adjustments based on user feedback.”
~Product Manager