Usability testing to improve an employee & project management platform for education based non-profit
Rapid usability testing to evaluate and suggest improvements for an employee management platform developed to track volunteer contribution and manage projects.
Project Type: Professional project as full time UX Researcher
Timeline: 1 week (November 2024)
Team: Sole UX Researcher collaborating with a design team and project & product mangers
Methods & Tools: Secondary Research, Stakeholder Interviews, Remote usability testing, Task Analysis
Software: Figjam, Figma, Zoom
Role & Contribution: As the sole UX Researcher, I developed and executed a . research plan to generate recommnedations within a tight deadline.
BACKGROUND & CONTEXT
The KeelWorks foundation is a US based non-profit organization focused on empowering economically disadvantaged individuals gain new competencies by providing employment resources through learning programs delivered via Learning Management System. It is a mid-sized enterprise, with approximately 500 employees working remotely across the globe. KeelWorks is currently developing an in-built platform tailored to the needs of the organization to track volunteer and employee contribution and to manage resources effectively.
WHAT WAS TESTED?
The volunteer dashboard of the employee management software.
THE APPROACH
Qualitative task-based usability interview
THE APPROACH
Facing a tight one-week deadline and no budget for research tools or user incentives, I conducted a qualitative usability study, supported by quantitative metrics like user satisfaction and error rates to deliver actionable insights that helped the team prioritize key changes before development.
RESEARCH GOAL & QUESTIONS
Find out the effectiveness of key volunteer dashboard features and design in helping volunteers accomplish key tasks of:
Tracking contribution:
Does the homepage provide a comprehensive overview of information volunteers need at a glance?
How efficiently can volunteers log hours on the timesheet?
Is all the information (about list of current projects, log history of hours and tasks contributed per project) provided on the volunteer dashboard easy to make note of and view?
How intuitive and easy is it for users to make changes to previously logged details.
Managing tasks:
How effective and efficient is the notification feature in providing users with details of pending tasks and overview of approved timesheet requests.
METHODOLOGY
I began my process with stakeholder meetings and understanding requirements and timeframes from design leads and the project manager. Next, I developed a research plan focused on activities that were both feasible within a short timeframe and effective in gathering insights most valuable to the design team. I recruited participants across different teams in the organization to understand differences in user behaviors and reduce bias in findings. The process of recruitment was time consuming, as volunteers reside in various timezones and co-ordinating timings turned out to be difficult. I aimed to recruit a minimum of 5 participants to uncover major usability problems.
Recruited volunteers across various Keelworks departments including IT, Operations, HR and QA.
Moderated task-based remote usability testing and user interviews
30-45
5
Minute sessions
Participants
INSIGHTS & RECOMMENDATIONS
i summarized the process, insights and recommendations to stakeholders in a quick report.
