What I did...
Duration
Enhancing existing workflow for an application
Usability Testing,
Workflow Mapping,
Feature Prioritisation
About
Team
LIDAR Viewer
NOTE: The exact details of this work are confidential and therefore I have limited the description to high level details and the methods I used
App to Visualize & Pre-Process Point Clouds
UX Research
TLDR: I worked on carrying out the core UX Research to enhance the current workflow of an application and reduce the usability bugs by 65%
Here's the summary of the high-level research and design processes we employed for the application
Introduction
What does the app do?
A point cloud is a set of data points in space that can be used to represent a 3D shape or object. The Lidar Viewer app is one such tool that could be used to visualize, perform analysis, and pre-process the point cloud data.
Why was the work needed?
Data Mining through the internal resources helped us learn that the current workflow demanded certain enhancements, and hence, a Usability Study was conducted to learn customer’s pain points and enhance their workflow.
1. Understanding the User
Before I went ahead with planning the study, it was important to know who the actual users of our application were and how they used the application.
Desk research was performed to map users' roles and goals & understand their workflow. Through internal data mining, I found that there were two main user groups for the app:
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Computer Vision Researcher
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Visualization Engineer
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2. Current Workflow
As a first step to preparing the tasks for the usability study, I decided to define the general workflow and focus on those parts which had the maximum pain-points.
3. Usability Testing
Hypothesis
Based on the current workflow, I framed our hypothesis centering around the editing workflow, which the team concluded that it had maximum pain points.
To make the test cover a wider ground and reduce the need for further studies, I also added certain tasks around import and export workflow.
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These are just some sample hypotheses. The complete list has been omitted to maintain confidentiality
Participants
Screener questions were sent out to participants who were recruited through LinkedIn/Community Forums/UX sign-ups.
Shortlisting of participants was done to maintain a good mix of newcomers and expert users. From the desk research, I had also concluded that the use case of our customers varied from region to region, therefore, I also tried to include people from various demographics and thus factor in all the opinions.
8
Participants
5-3
3
New-Casual
Users
Regions
Metrics
Participants were asked to talk out loud while we took notes during the session.
Alongside this, I also used internal tools to track the time taken for each task and record the number of assists/documentation helps.
Finally, each task was followed by a post-task survey which captured confidence/ease-of-use/frustration rating from the participant
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4. Analyzing the Results
Power BI was used as a tool to compare the quantitative readings from all participants.
Miro board was used to record the qualitative data points. Further, I conducted a brainstorming session with the development team to prioritise features which required immediate attention
Finally, user quotes were used as a means to impart empathy in the minds of the stakeholders
I do not understand why these(export and discard) are greyed out and I do not understand this behaviour
This does not make any sense
(Click on cancel before clicking anywhere else)
Key Usability Concerns
These are just some high-level insights. The complete list has been omitted to maintain confidentiality
Looking back at the results, users were having issues in two sections:
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Edit Modal Tab
2. Export Workflow
5. Competitive Analysis
Through some of the new users of our app, I also learnt about the competitive tools they had been using for their day-to-day tasks. We performed a competitive analysis with those apps.
This helped us develop our business strategy and, at the same time, benchmark the functionality to identify the market gap.
Key Takeaways:
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Edit tab is visible upfront for Meshlab, Cloud Compare and Trimble Realworks
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Faro Scene allows user to select other edit options even though one is selected
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Users have select editing operations from a cascading menu
These are just some high-level insights. The complete list has been omitted to maintain confidentiality
6. Designing the Solution
After bucketing the pain points, I, along with my designer engaged the cross-functional team to participate in design discussions.
Competitive Tools were demonstrated to them, along with the presentation of the pain points we discovered
Through a two-day workshop, we came up with low-fidelity pen and paper designs which were later formalized by designing in Figma.
The participants worked individually on solutions, post which they were all discussed in brainstorming sessions.
Low Fidelity Sketches
These are just some sample and concept designs. The complete set of screens have been omitted for confidentiality
High Fidelity Designs
These are just some sample and concept designs. The complete set of screens have been omitted for confidentiality
7. Stakeholder Review
After finishing the Figma Prototype of the new design, it was important to get the designs verified by the different stakeholders to get a buy-in and move ahead with them as a group. A meeting was organised and hosted by me and the designer.
Development Team: To ensure that the designed solution is technically viable
Application Engineers: To ensure that the solution would match users' needs
UX Department: To ensure that the application meets the organization's design standards
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Feedback Received (Highlights)
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"Great to see that you did usability testing and were able to make updates based on user's pain points"
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"Nice investigation, analysis, and proposed design changes"
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"I like the contextual move up/down buttons within each operation."
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"VISUALIZE section seems cluttered as of now. Maybe dropdowns for first two rows would work."
8. Validating the Solution
After addressing the feedback for the design, I decided to undergo another usability study to ensure that our designs helped resolve most of the usability issues.
New participants were recruited for the study while ensuring that the rest of the demographics remain the same
Although the team did identify some new bugs, most of the ones we initially captured were resolved and thus we achieved an overall 65% reduction in the number of the usability bugs
5
Participants
3-2
3
New-Casual
Users
Regions
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