UCD Spotlight: Wisdom from Anselm Academic

This week, and every so often, we will showcase a concrete example of user-centered design in practice. Each showcase will shed light on an area, a division,  a project team or a person and their practice of user-centered design.

As I mentioned in last week's blog, Anselm Academic (a company aimed at the college market but housed in the same building as Saint Mary's Press) just finished usability testing on a College Study Bible.  The last two blogs highlighted what Anselm did in the usability test.

This week, we shine the spotlight on the Anselm staff so they can share their learnings with the rest of us.  

We asked the team, "What wisdom did you glean from this experience of usability testing?"

Kristi (Design Coordinator, Anselm Academic): 

"The thing that struck me most about this experience was how integral each step is and how each one builds on the previous. So, it is important to complete each step thoughtfully, before moving on to the next. When each step is completed well, the next step falls into place much more easily."

"One thing I would recommend to other teams engaged in this process is- to take time and care when phrasing the tasks in the script to make sure they are not leading in any way, but to also make sure that they will get at the nugget of information you are searching for…allow time to “test the test,” revise if necessary and then re-test. "

   PJ (Director of Marketing, Anselm Academic)

"The thing that struck me most about this experience was- the affirmation of some of our suppositions about the product juxtaposed against the “absolute AHA moments” in recognizing something we thought would be used by the customer wasn’t used at all."

"Something that surprised me from this was the reality that what professors say they do or believe about delivering concepts in the college classroom didn’t usually match their actions when teaching students."

"Something I realized from this process is the importance of incorporating usability testing into the flow of our product development.  There’s an old adage that says you’ll usually fail in life if you are too self-centered.   I have learned it is essential that we gather user-centered feedback along with our own ideas to create successful, marketable products that are engaging and accessible for the customers we serve."

Penny  (Administrator, Anselm Academic)

"I was surprised to see how useful UCD testing really is--even though we have experts and professionals developing these products--until you see your end user actually work with it, you don’t realize the final impact of the usability of the product.  Interesting!”

Brad (Director of Sales & Acquisitions, Co-Director of Anselm Academic)

"The thing that struck me most about this experience was how important the classroom observation was. We learned that what a teacher says they do in the classroom is not what they actually do. This was great insight into the type of product we might look to develop. " 

   

"Something I realized from this process is how marketing is also enriched through the usability process.  By doing usability testing on a key competitor product, we were able to see how to pitch our own product."

 Maura (Managing Editor, Anselm Academic)

"The thing that struck me most about this experience was how much a motivated team can accomplish in a short period of time! Anselm’s recent experience also reconfirmed my sense of the value of site visits and usability testing for understanding our customers."

    Jerry (Editorial Director; Co-Director, Anselm Academic)

"Something I realized from this process is how big a difference the “little things” make in usability—the precise wording for a label on a map; the exact location of a table in a book; the confusion that can result if the smallest detail is neglected."

"The thing that struck me most about this experience was the unique value of watching and listening to the person who actually uses a text. There’s nothing like it."  

Anselm, Dears and Meels, Oh My!

There are the deer that are hunted and the meals that are eaten. 

But there is another kind of DEAR and another type of MEEL that relates to the world of our customers and usability.
 
Anselm Academic encountered both of these usability versions of DEARS and MEELS as they conducted their recent usability testing of the College Study Bible

In usability, DEAR is the acronym for:

• DISCOVERY: where we discover the unique tasks our customers carry out
• EVALUATION: where we test those tasks to see how easily they can be done
• ANALYSIS: where we analyze what happened
• REPORT: where we report the findings

How this played out in a real project:

Anselm did site visits to DISCOVER what their customer’s tasks were.  Then they EVALUATED those tasks through a usability test.  They then ANALYZED what happened in the usability test and REPORTED out the summary findings. Finally, based on all of this, the team then recommended specific changes that should be made to make the Bible easier for users to navigate.

In the usability test, team Anselm was testing, marking, analyzing and reporting a number of different aspects of the customer’s use of the product. They were looking at the MEELS of the product:

• Memorability:  Can users remember where things are located in the product
• Errors: Do users make mistakes when using the product because it’s not functioning the way they expect or need it to?
• Efficiency: Can users carry out their tasks quickly?
• Learnability: Was it easy for the users to figure out how to use the product, how to follow the structure/organization that is set up in the product?
• Satisfaction: Were users satisfied in their use of the product?

In concrete terms, Anselm was testing to see if users could REMEMBER where things were located in the Bible based on the design, navigation and organization helps that were currently provided in the Bible. They wanted to see how many ERRORS users made and what design, navigation, organization helps could be provided to decrease errors. Anselm was testing to see how EFFICIENTLY users could carry out tasks and navigate around the Bible. The team wanted to understand how easily users could LEARN how to use the Bible and the navigation and organization helps available. Finally, the team wanted to understand how satisfied the users were with their experience of the Bible.

If you haven't heard about Anselm's recent experience and learnings, I encourage you to check in with PJ, Kristi, Brad, Jerry, Maura or Penny and ask them about their experience. There is much we could learn from their recent immersion in this process.

Congrats Team Anselm!

Tread, Traction and User Experience

Yesterday evening, I took my car in to have my tires inspected. The person who looked at  my tires said, “You probably have a month or two of ware left on the tires”.  In Heather time, this translates into, “Change them now, because it will be off your radar in one or two months”.

So, what do tires have to do with user experience?  More than you think.  Tires have treads and treads are pretty amazing when you think about it. It's all about traction, right?

World English Library defines traction as the adhesive friction between a wheel and a surface, as between a driving wheel of a motor vehicle and the road.

The purpose of the treads (in laymen’s terms of course) is to give the car traction on the road. Similarily, the knowledge we have about our customers is like that tread on the tire, i.e. it gives us traction, and keeps our (project) wheels gripping the road and going in the direction we need to be going. 

Make sure that you and your project team are checking the tread on your project tires.  Does your team have the customer knowledge & insight necessary to have exceptional traction on the road ahead?  If so, you are on the way to delivering delightful simplicity to your customer. 

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This article is part of a series:

User Experience Tips and Tricks Tied to Topics You Wouldn't Expect

Are Usability and Company Profits Linked?

Yesterday, Anselm Academic, the college division of Saint Mary’s Press, conducted a usability test. In preparing for the test, the team had to do a lot of prep work.  They conducted site visits, observed college classrooms, talked to instructors and students, conducted a task analysis, created a test plan and script, and next they will be analyzing their tests and making a final report of their learnings.

Preparing for and conducting a usability test is hard work.  And it is time consuming work. It is work that can lead one to wonder, “How is usability linked to sales? Will this affect the bottom line?  Does usability work help to generate revenue?  Is it tied to increases in sales? If so, how?”  

Earlier on in this blog’s life, I shared the video on the ROI of usability. 

I’d like to share another video with you now from a company using Morae, the same software we use for usability testing here at Saint Mary’s Press.  The title of the video is The Guthrie Group Helps Improve Process and Profits With Morae.

To give you a little background:  “Morae is a leading usability software that removes the guesswork from your decisions and helps you make products people love. [It allows you to] record user interactions, efficiently analyze results, and instantly share your findings with anyone, anywhere.” –Techsmith (creators of Morae)

To date, Saint Mary’s Press has focused its efforts of usability and therefore its use of Morae within the realm of product development, i.e. on measuring and then improving the unique interactions inherent in a customer’s use of a particular product.  

The video I'm going to share with you highlights how a company uses usability testing and Morae for a purpose distinct from ours, and that is to improve the transactional process. Despite the distinct use of Morae, the principle and the link between usability and sales is clear.

Listen to what Zach Guthrie, president of The Guthrie Group, has to say about improving process and profits with Morae: http://www.techsmith.com/morae-casestudy-tgg.html