In February, Enel X released a pre-production of their Optima application. It is an application that allows users to view the analytics for their installed solar energy batteries. The tool was still in pre-production so had potential to be improved.
Our primary objective was to gain a comprehensive understanding of our users' current usage patterns of Optima and identify areas for improvement in our forthcoming iteration. To accomplish this, I conducted a strategic scoping of the design and design workshop methodologies to gain valuable insights from multiple perspectives, including those of the users, designers, and developers.
3 Months (Feb - Apr 2023)
UX Researcher
Design Sprint Workshop Organizer & Facilitator
Design Project Scoping & Strategy
We conducted a task-based usability test to gain insight on the ease of the application and uncover our users' pain points, needs, and wants.
Our five participants included internal and external users that currently use Optima. We ensured they varied in age and came from different sectors in the company.
Determined our goal, hypothesis, and objectives
Provided participants with few requirements and files and asked them to complete a task
Prepared pre-questions, task, and follow-up questions
Documented key insights on Dovetail and a Rainbow Sheet for research analysis
After reading through all the user interview notes, I annotated and tagged them into themes (objectives, observations, pain points, and ideas) to help with analysis. I later summarized it all in a "Summary Insight" card where I documented key takeaways.
The rainbow sheet is a spreadsheet document where we recorded behavioral patterns of our participants. Each participant is assigned a color, and a label (P1 toP5). Every time a participant completed a step in our task, we would fill the cell in.
Once completed, our team scanned the sheet to identify the most common behaviors among our participants. Here we identified notable problem areas and patterns that made the task easy or difficult.
Our UX team and product manager created a matrix map to identify the most important problems. We wanted to come to a consensus of what can satisfy our user needs and business criteria.
Identified the key takeaways we want to consider in our next iteration
Mapped out charts based on effort and impact
Discussed and negotiated with product manager placement of each takeaway
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We wanted to compare, discuss, and determine the final prioritization for the next iteration. The feasibility and desirability scorecard helped us document in a quantitative way each prioritization.
Created a desirability and feasibility column
Individually scored each prioritization
Compared the total scores of each prioritization
In order to get everyone in our team involved, I held a cross-functional design thinking workshop. The goal was to spark creativity and ideate solutions that our UX team did not think of. I also wanted it to be a space where everyone could feel like their voice was being heard and taken into our consideration.
Introduced the main objective of the workshop and the problem that we are trying to solve
Presented our user persona and user flow, to allow the participants to know what type of user this product is for
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Introduced what design thinking is and the benefits of our discussion, to allow everyone to be on the same page
Gave everyone a chance to share their thoughts and ask questions
Hosting cross-functional workshops can be intimidating... but it doesn't have to be!
When starting off a workshop, I always make sure to lead with a strong introduction, be as interactive as possible, and keep the energy flowing! I try to incorporate icebreakers to warm up everyone's creative side of their brain and immediately set the ground rules / give clear instructions. I know that everyone's got a busy schedule, so I try to make use of all the time I'm able to get from them all!
We wanted to plot all of our prioritizations on a roadmap that would act as our "single source of truth" for our application's next iteration. The roadmap would help the rest of our UX team, researchers, developers, and stakeholders align around the next priorities.
Identified the priorities
Plot the priorities based on timeline and category (must haves, quick wins, and filler work)
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While I reviewed each methodology, I viewed any patterns or new nuances. The bulk of my review was spent on Dovetail for research analysis, where I imported the video files, tagged the transcript for notable conversations, and summarized the tags and recurring themes. Once the information was synthesized, our UX team sent off the roadmap and prioritizations to our tech lead, who later communicated it to the development team.During these three months, I held constant communication with the lead UX/UI designer, product manager, and tech lead. In each of our meetings, I would update them on my research as well as take notes of notable ideas to reference in my research.
Seamlessly entered the second iteration of design
Gained insight from users that they have an improved user experience
There were times in our user interviews that participants would derail from the topic. I learned how to be ready for these situations and adapt to whatever makes the participant feel the most comfortable.
I learned to conduct different methodologies during research, and how each one can help address parts of our questions. Additionally, to think outside of the box about how to combine methodologies to strengthen reasoning.
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