Onsite User Research
Onsite user research
Viewpoint ‘Collaborate’ User Conference - Portland, OR.
Role: Senior UX Designer
Responsibilities: design ops, research, presentation
Stakeholders: Product Team, UX Design Director
“Design with people not for them.”
Viewpoint, now with Trimble, was a 50+ year old business with a robust user base in the construction project management arena. The yearly conference included nearly 2000 user participants descending on the Oregon Convention Center for 3 days of education, networking + product reveals.
The UX team tapped into this opportunity to build out a mature research arm that included a 50’ x 50’ research booth complete with recording units, automated sign in + a general air of intentional, user centered work (the team on the research side wore lab coats to communicate our research focus). I worked with my fellow lead to build out both the Design Ops side of the project (invitations, compensation, etc) as well in the booth researching numerous projects with the intent of gathering data points to support or refute hypotheses we held.
The 2019 Viewpoint User Conference featured over 2000 visitors and three days of classes, workshops and for those of us in the User Experience department over 130 moderated studies conducted with users. Specifically, my work covered designs around onboarding models via Pendo, a third party provider of user facing guides.
Design Ops
For months prior to the annual event the UX Team spends time planning not only our booth but coordinating the various research events as well.
This planning typically starts in summer in Asana and rolls continuously picking up speed towards the conference in late September (formerly October).
My role has evolved from spirited researcher to dedicated design ops support for the lead designer. Working closely with my colleague we have a system in place that covers managing the entire workflow - from studies being run on the UX and IX sides to the invites to attendees to results.
User research
Here is an example of tabulated results from a portion of my work with a task test in 2019. This was my fourth year at the conference and I have refined this test each year currently running it in line with Human Factors International standards.
The takeaway from this test was that users interacted with the app more efficiently once they had completed a brief three step onboarding program. This was my hypothesis going into the test and as it was validated we moved forward to iterate the design and implement the process into the product.
If this hypothesis were disproven rather than validated i would have moved to evaluate the direction the data pointed towards + iterate around that to have it re-tested at a later date.
Workshop leadership
Additionally in 2019, my colleague and I were asked by the VP of Support to collaborate with them to facilitate a workshop around their offerings as they evaluated a potential shift in services.
Leveraging our LUMA training we hosted three sessions around specific Support features to determine customer priority. My colleague did a fantastic job with the design of the workshop I was simply able to work with her material to run a successful single workshop while she covered the other two.
As you can see here the workshop was a Buy-a-Feature Activity that lasted for an hour and removed customer barriers to communication while providing an open arena for feedback. Overall, my session was a success as it allowed users to openly share their priorities and mental model for Support but also allowed the Support VP to hear firsthand what Viewpoint customers wanted from her group.
