One of my favorite books of all time is C.S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy. I read it for a paper in college but its storyline has stayed with me. I think the part of the story that has stayed with me is that Lewis--as the title suggests --was surprised by the joy.
Surprise is one of those emotions that always reminds me that I am human, that life is a mystery, and that no matter how much I try to understand something or might think I have a handle on it, there is always something more to discover and to understand.
I've just recently (as of 8 months ago) become a regular practitioner of user-centered design principles. I've probably used these principles now in the development of about 15 projects, but I am still surprised by discovery. I'm still surprised by the insight I glean through some of these simple processes; insights, which, are often those moments of "Why didn't we think of that?" or "Yikes! That seems like it would be common sense!"
But these moments have also reinforced for me the value of observing or shadowing customers, the importance of taking the time to sit with them as they walk through specific tasks so that I understand the process they are going through and the information they need in order to carry out each task.
Case Study: Giving Customers Access to the Online Learning Environment
I was sitting in my colleague, Candy's office one day in June as she and I continued our work connected with the creation of an administration site for our customer care & sales teams. This new site would be the interface that our teams would use to control customer access to our online learning environment.
Those of us working on the project had asked a number of the "users" about the tasks they would have to complete with the system we were creating for them. Now, we wanted to OBSERVE these customers in the process of trying to carry out those tasks. Our purpose, at this stage, was to identify any additional tasks that might be involved or other specific requirements that might be needed in the design of the system that hadn’t yet been identified.
So, I asked Candy to walk me through an actual order with one of her customers and we talked about what she was doing, what information she was using, and what else she was expecting to see.
What stunned me is that immediately it became apparent that, in order to carry out the tasks she would be completing in the system, the interface would need to accommodate two additional pieces of information, two pieces of information that hadn't yet been discovered in the previous 5 people we had walked through processes with. It turned out she needed further identifying information of the book based on how her customers ordered-because her customers were a little bit different than other customers we served.
The first piece of information we were missing was some sort of "E" designation for each particular product so that (when she printed the document and matched it with the invoice) it would clearly show her customers that they were in fact purchasing an electronic version.
Item Number 1141 became Item Number E1141
I was so elated by this discovery I said to her, "Isn't this amazing" with excitement comparable to a kid on Christmas morning. Because she knows me, she smiled and responded, "Yeah, Heather, that's----great".
The extraordinary lesson in this example was realizing AGAIN that having a customer explain a path and observing them walking the path often yields different results.
I remember a few months ago I was chatting with a friend who plans the music at our church. She was explaining that she thought she had worked out all the music for the mass (who would lead particular songs, what instruments would play etc.) until, in rehearsal, when she actually tried to forge a path through it--she realized there were still pieces she needed to address. I kid you not--she even used those words "forging a path through it.....”.
What surprised me about that conversation was that she and I have never spoken about the work I am currently doing. I have never used that terminology around her, but out of the blue, she used that language. All I could think was---unbelievable ----this applies to music as well.
But, the truth is, this type of experience--of recalling steps one way and then seeing the steps differently while carrying out the same process--happens everywhere, everyday. A great corporate example that I came across recently is from the company Argos. Argos sells "general merchandise for the home throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland" (http://www.argos.com/).
Listen as the design manager shares what they discovered when they enter into the discovery process with their customers.
Listen as the design manager shares what they discovered when they enter into the discovery process with their customers.
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