Instrument software:
Planning and conducting a research study with stakeholders
Context
This research project has been assigned to me by the senior UX designer and researcher from the Usability and Design Center at Agilent Technologies.
As a researcher, my main task was to assist in the process of developing a new operation system for a newly developed medical instrument.
My work focused on building a usability test, conducting the test, and most importantly, including the engineers and scientists in the process as they are the key stakeholders in the project.
Agilent Technologies - Involving stakeholders in the research study
Project Overview
Product
Agilent Technologies, Inc. is a global company that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for laboratories.
This research study was conducted to assist in the design of a new operating system for the latest laboratory instrument.
Task
Planning collectively with the project’s stakeholders to align the team on the project goals. Conducting workshops to have all stakeholders contribute to the research experiment by developing research questions, hypotheses, and usability tasks.
Collect observational findings to identify issues in the software’s UX.
Key results
This research experiment helped the key stakeholders understand how people interact with the instrument’s software, giving them insight into how to adjust the hardware.
The research findings also helped the usability team to identify and remove issues in UX.
Role
My role as a UX researcher in this study included the tasks of (1) communicating with stakeholders; (2) designing a usability test; (3) inviting participants; (4) and moderating the usability test.
Methods & tools
▪ Using Teams for remote moderated usability sessions.
▪ Building a remote usability test in UserZoom Go.
▪ Communicating with stakeholders and arranging usability test sessions with participants through Outlook.
Agilent Technologies - Involving stakeholders in the research study
Stage One
Setting up a study guide with stakeholders
Involving stakeholders in the process of planning a usability test study is extremely important. As a researcher, I benefited from this collaboration by understanding what I needed to learn about the medical device prior to building the usability test and what was important for the stakeholders to learn from the research experiment.
Having stakeholders involved in the study was also important for the usability team. Such participation would give engineers a better understanding of how and when people experience difficulties with the product which could promote empathy for the user and the development of more actionable insights.
The head UX designer and I performed workshops to encourage all stakeholders to participate in the study planning and execution, and most importantly align on the research goals and expectations.
Through video calls, we collectively prioritized the test tasks, set the project timelines, and settled on the test prototype.
Agilent Technologies - Involving stakeholders in the research study
Stage Two
Pilot test and tasks iterations
After building the usability test in UserZoom Go(including the test script, follow-up questions, the test tasks, and the task scenario), I performed a remote pilot test which helped me to adjust the wording in several tasks, manage the number of tasks in the assigned timeframe, and adjust the way of presenting the goal of study so it would not be leading the participant’s expectations.
The wording issues were then resolved through a collaborative workshop with the project’s stakeholders during a meeting session.
It was important to the whole team to have detailed and precise wording in the test tasks because each task was linked to a stakeholder question, and the correct technical wording (involving a precise scientific action) had to be aligned with the vocabulary of the lab technicians who would ultimately use the instrument.
Agilent Technologies - Involving stakeholders in the research study
Stage Three
Conducting a usability testing with stakeholders as observers
As a test moderator, my focus was on the participants and their performance. My actions were set on conducting the test effectively within time constraints, closely observing the participants’ progress, answering their questions, and informing them to move forward whenever they were too frustrated with completing the task.
In the background as observers of the test, the head UX designer/researcher was also participating as a notetaker. Additionally, we would have a stakeholder joining the test and participating as an observer. Each stakeholder had a note-taking template (designed by me in MS Word) that would allow them to quickly write down any outstanding observations, concerns, or comments from the test.
The qualitative remote usability test study was built and conducted in a two-week timeframe with five participants recruited from an in-house volunteer list. This experiment was the first iterative test of the new software’s UX/UI.
Agilent Technologies - Involving stakeholders in the research study
Research Results
Due to NDA, I am not allowed to share the results from this research study.
In conclusion, the preliminary findings led to quick changes in the UI and initiated the next iterative stage of building the new software.
Learnings
▪ Having stakeholders from cross-functional teams participating in the building of a research plan is essential for the success of a study. It increases the acceptance of the research findings and allows the stakeholders to observe the participant's frustrations, thought processes, and actions, making it easier for them to believe and understand the participant’s struggles.
▪ Making the user research process more transparent will allow the stakeholders to be more invested in the process. Such an approach can be achieved with coherent, actionable, and concise project updates, paired with visuals and direct quotes from participants.
▪ Being present during the testing of an early prototype may be perceived by stakeholders as a low priority. The researcher must emphasize the importance of this early-stage test observation as it can bring valuable findings and insights that may require fast and drastic changes to the design.