Outside the Lab and Inside Their Minds

Outside the Lab and
Inside Their Minds:
5 Case Studies of Strategic
UX Research
Amy Buckner Chowdhry
AnswerLab CEO & Co-Founder
February 7, 2013
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The world’s leading brands
partner with AnswerLab
AnswerLab: The User
Experience Research Leader
• Founded: 2004, San Francisco
• Opened New York Office in 2012
• Trusted by global market leaders
• Recommended by
•
Fastest growing research firm 4
years in a row
• Recognized in Fortune Magazine
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Your Presenter
Amy Buckner Chowdhry
CEO & Co-Founder, AnswerLab
•
Drives AnswerLab to fulfill its vision and strategic plan, cultivates the talent
pool, and oversees financial operations
•
First CEO from the user experience research industry to be named by
Ernst & Young as one of 10 “Entrepreneurial Winning Women.”
•
Before co-founding AnswerLab, Amy served as Director of Professional
Services at Vividence (now Keynote).
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Presentation Topics
1
Getting in
Customers’
Minds
2
3
Why It
Matters
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5 Insights
4
Getting in
Customers’ Minds
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Would You Bake A Cake On A Whim?
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Would You Pack For Vacation Without
Knowing Your Destination?
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Would You Build A House Without
Examining The Foundation?
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Option 1
Would You Build A Map App Without
Good Source Data?
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Option 1
Beware Of Skipping
Foundational Steps
In Product
Development
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The Evolution Of UX Research
Validate
Refine
Understand
Live Product
Prototypes
Pre-product
Right
Way?
Right
Product?
2000
2005
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2011
11
Move Beyond Usability To Understanding
Opportunity
Gaps
Environment
Holistic
Research
Interaction Modes &
Use Cases
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Understanding of
Audience
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What
external factors
influence her?
What is she
trying to
accomplish
in her job?
Where is
the
customer?
Build the
Right Thing
Understand
How does
the customer
feel about the
brand?
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Is our
product solving
the right
problems?
Where are
the gaps between
product capabilities
and customer
activities?
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Why It Matters…
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Employers Build This
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Customers Want This
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Inadequate Understanding Of Privacy
The Buzz about . . .
Needs Results In Product Failure
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5 UX Insights
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Insight 1:
Context is King
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The Mobile Wallet Olympics*
Who will end up on the medal stand?
SPEED is required to win!
*Image from Mobile Wallet Media (http://www.mobilewalletmedia.com/7_Ss_Week_5-Speed-12012.html)
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PayPal & AnswerLab Use Innovative
Research Methods To Drive Digital Wallet
• Create mock retail store and conduct mobile “shop-alongs”
• Innovation games to design the ideal shopping assistant
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Key Research Findings For Digital Wallet
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Consumers highly receptive to
an app offering location-based
deals
•
Point of sale is when mobile
app desired
•
Consumer comfort with
barcode scanners
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Social pressures matter –
concerns about perceptions of
line cutting and tipping for
prepayment
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PayPal Studies Customers In Context
To Launch Wallet App In London
•
Pay on smartphone
using barcode
•
Alerts for
promotions
•
Works with or
without signal
Click for video example
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Insight 2:
Solve the
Right Problems
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Top US Bank Needs To Measure Potential
Adoption Of Online Payment
• Would new & improved
user experience promote
adoption?
• Lab setting won’t work to
measure potential
adoption
• We used quantitative
prototype research to
compare existing site to
future site
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Key Finding: New UX Won’t Promote Adoption
Among Offline Customers Because Barrier Was Not
Usability
Active
Users
Live Site
Went
Inactive
Outcome
Never
Used
Would
Adopt
Active
Users
600
Customers
Future Site
Some
Would Adopt
Still Not
Interested
Went
Inactive
Never
Used
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Insight 3:
Things Are Not
Always What They
Seem
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Online Service Seeks to Improve
Conversion From Free Trial, Reduce Churn
• To understand new users’ experience in natural environment, we
conducted a diary study and in-depth interviews
• To understand factors affecting churn, we did online focus groups
among former, new, & loyal subscribers
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Key Finding: Subscription Model Didn’t
Align With Usage Patterns; Usability/
Features Not Primary Issue
Existing
Subscription Plan
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Insight 4:
It’s About More
Than the Product
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Ethnography Helps Software Client
Evaluate Why Move from Desktop To SaaS
Makes Users Unhappy
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Key Finding: Customer Experience
About More Than Product Usage
• Compensation system
encourages bad data in
software
• In-office workflow impacts poor
product experience
• Poor workflow also built into
software resulting in continued
reliance of offline methods of
data processing
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Insight 5:
Get Beyond
Usability to Delight
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Program Of Research To Understand
End-To-End Customer Experience Of
F100 Logistics Company
• Test various platforms including desktop applications, mobile apps,
and observe in-store experiences
• Online surveys to profile potential
customers, determine pain points
with existing services, understand
new opportunities
• Lab-based, in-person interviews to
understand the “why” behind
delights/pain points and get
reactions to prototypes
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Research Uncovers Customer
Expectations for Digital And In-Store
Experiences
• Mobile research reveals customer
concerns about waiting in line,
even if they could use mobile tools
in advance
• We recommended a kiosk
approach so mobile customers
could scan the QR code on their
phone themselves and bypass the
queue
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Leverage Research Techniques Beyond
Usability For Deeper Customer
Understanding
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How Do You Get Deeper Customer
Understanding?
 Conduct research EARLY in the development cycle;
ground-breaking customer insights have little impact if
they are discovered late in the development game
 Leverage exploratory methods; e.g., diary studies,
ethnographies, to learn about customers’ behaviors in
their environments and get to the bottom of the context
of their usage
 Encourage colleagues to be keen observers of
customers’ experiences. Have them join you in ridealongs or shop-alongs and encourage them to stay
engaged during customer interviews
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Questions?
For follow-up questions about AnswerLab user
experience research services, contact:
[email protected]
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