Insurance Member Portal

*Note: Specifics of work performed and research images are confidential, so I will offer a fictitious scenario comparable to the projects I worked on.

STAKEHOLDER’S DIRECTIVE

Evaluate Process-X* in our insurance member portal to determine:

  • Navigational ease

  • Findability

  • User comprehension

  • Desirability

  • Set benchmarks for future research

Tools: UserZoom (advanced certification), Invision, Sketch, Axure, Mural, GoTo Meeting, Microsoft Teams, and numerous Microsoft Suite applications.
Methods: usability testing (moderated & unmoderated), SUPR-Q, surveys, click testing/heat mapping, interviews, benchmarking, scoping, contextual inquiry, directed storytelling, and stakeholder meetings.
Deliverables: research plans, discussion guides, mixed methodology UserZoom tests, status reports, summaries of results, detailed research reports, presentations, and qualitatively/quantitatively supported recommendations.

PHASE ONE: BREADTH BEFORE DEPTH

Unmoderated usability testing allows me to collect massive amounts of data so critical design flaws are improved prior to moderated testing, which will have a diminished population size, but offer greater depth of insights. When cleaning up, you want to go for the large debris first before bringing in the shop vac to clean between the floorboards.

MIXED

Running itself online, unmoderated usability testing is a premade journey users take to test a prototype. It can transition from interaction with Process-X to survey questions and click tests which offer heat maps of where individuals believe they should click or find information on a static page. Engineering an unmoderated test that provides clear direction is a delicate art form different from moderated tests. You can't speak with the user in real time, so all content must elicit the target data and obtain engaged and informative responses.

FUEL TO FLAME

Outstanding communication is the coal that runs our UX locomotive, and there's no room to slow down. Summaries, reports, and meetings abound. Throughout this phase of rapid results and changes, all relevant parties must be apprised of where we are heading at all times (especially the design team). Design requires honest, kind, and assertive communication to enable meaningful change in the shortest amount of time. I like to add a dash of cheerleading enthusiasm too. An informed and energized employee is a beautifully efficient thing to behold.

AGILITY

Unmoderated testing in User Zoom provided me with video, audio, and survey scores of many users very rapidly. With designers at the ready, this rich trove of data drives expeditious revisions so that as many superior iterations can be churned out prior to moderated testing. UX design enhancements should include an iterative phase. Iteration provides multiple opportunities to hone in on what is intuitive for the user. One round of revisions isn't thorough enough to capture the myriad of improvements possible to optimize Process-X.

PHASE TWO: THE DEPTHS

What is a user thinking when they get visibly frustrated, and why? What if a user is silent for most of an unmoderated test, watches TV simultaneously (happened), or races through it? These reasons and more are why evaluating Process-X with a moderator can be essential. Moderated testing alleviates these obstacles and allows the moderator to dig deeper into what is going on in the user's thought process resulting in a more robust final product.

MODERATED

A live usability test with a moderator grabs the user's attention because of its social nature. In the presence of a moderator, we may explore greater depths in the user's mind. Moderated testing allows me to study the user's body language, facial expressions, and cursor behaviors for indicators that I should ask a follow-up question to probe deeper. These probes can be preplanned or instantaneously conceived, but both inspire elaboration on topics of importance as they arise. Consequentially, data acquired is more nuanced, relevant quotes increase, and answers are more thoughtful than those obtained in unmoderated tests.

WATCH ME

Stakeholders, the UX design team, and other relevant parties are all invited to watch the moderated tests live! Audiences viewing usability tests deem them surprising, helpful, and sometimes profound. Designers get the unique opportunity to view their work from the user's perspective, an enlightening and an occasionally frustrating experience (in a good way). Viewers can send me questions to ask the users on the fly, enriching interactions with the user beyond my sphere of knowledge. Finally, the value of UX is made evident to the stakeholders every time a pain point is encountered. UX Researchers are the hidden element that make designs sing, and it's thrilling to watch others soak in a reminder.

SUPR Q

A quantitative assessment for desirability, useability, and trustworthiness. Different individuals respond to different types of evidence before making changes, and numbers are a powerful tool. The user scores survey questions after each section of a usability test and at its conclusion. These scores are averaged among participants to determine a final percentage that tells us if Process-X is ready to go live. I've done good work when the SUPR Q supports my qualitative results so I can validate my recommendations with multiple methodologies.

PHASE THREE: THE RESULTS

Results give me the warm fuzzies; the culmination of all our vigorous work presented succinctly. Regardless of their implications, results offer us a unique look inside the user's mind, and the resulting design changes have invaluable business implications. If Process-X is an intuitive journey, individuals will tread that path again with satisfying confidence.

PROCESS & DELIVERY

A digital whiteboard is my canvas, the raw data my paints, and the resulting art is my synthesis of the information that depicts an honest representation of how others react to Process-X. The frame is constructed out of user quotes, impressions, statistics, and how they all relate to one another in rich, fine detail. The resulting art is delivered to all relevant parties in summaries, a thorough presentation, and a PowerPoint report finale.

STAKEHOLDER NEEDS

Navigational ease was assessed inherently in each usability test as we witnessed improvements through each design iteration of Process-X. Findability was determined utilizing heat mapping and time taken on tasks. User comprehension was evaluated through survey data and observation. Desirability was determined using SUPR Q. User comprehension was evaluated through survey data and observation. Research still recommends minor improvements, but all major and catastrophic issues no longer persist. We have set qualitative and quantitative benchmarks that may be leveraged in future research.

CONTENT

Deliverables in any format must convey the same essential message: what happened, why it's important, my recommendations, and how they're substantiated. Before I break down the entire journey into detail-driven consumable chunks, I present an overview of what Process-X is and broad-stroke findings; every chunk is then evaluated separately to identify pain points at each step the user takes along the journey. Each step is analyzed independently, with a synopsis of the entire journey's highlights and themes featured prior to brief conclusions.

CONCLUSIONS

I ran several overlapping assignments of this type with the company's two other UX Researchers in Lead and Secondary capacities. This beautiful juggling act of initiatives was completed before the year's end, setting up a new year of successful and fulfilling user journeys in the member portal.

Insurance can be complex enough to confound the greatest of minds. Utilizing UX Research, these complexities may be deconstructed into something consumable for users. Leveraging powerful insights and data can evolve designs to meet user's conscious and unconscious interactions with them. I take pride in improving the intuitive nature of an essential, though not always our favorite, need: insurance.