Lab team week notes 6th -10th July
How we’re testing
Testing starts on Wednesday 15th! The prototype will be going into action and we expect it to come out the other end either ready for the bin or with a whole new look.
As mentioned in last week’s notes we’re looking to find out whether using exploratory questions in an advice session leads to advisers feeling confident that they’ve covered the bases with a client.
More specifically:
- Does using them mean advisers feel fully confident they’ve asked clients all the right questions in topics that are new or less familiar to them?
- Does using them help advisers feel fully confident giving advice on/ explaining a topic that are new or less familiar?
- Do those advisers rely less on contacting supervisors to make sure they’ve asked all the questions?
- Do advisers report that the questions are quick and simple to use during the advice session?
Knowing the answer to these will help us judge value, and inform our decision about whether this should become a tool and how much effort should go into it!
We’re going to find those answers by faking it; we’ll test a prototype with a combination of experienced and inexperienced advisers who can simulate the advice experience, based on relevant scenarios.
We’re taking the fake it approach because testing with live clients would require us to spend a lot of time developing a prototype that could work in any advice situation. This = lots of weeks of development even for a low-fi prototype, and lots of room for usability errors — which would spoil the test!
Reflection: working out how you’re going to test something is hard work but fun! You feel closer to the end goal, and it’s a really creative process. You have a clear end goal — answer these questions — but there are lots of obstacles to dance around to make sure you don’t bias the results or run an experiment that requires more effort than building the end product.
What we’re testing
So the prototype is still under construction even though it’ll be used for testing this week. Although its low-fi and the content is simply questions we still want to create the easiest experience for the user (advisers). We have two ideas on the table and we’re currently working through which to go with:
As we envision them both as online prototypes both start with a link to our employment checker. This is an internal tool that helps our advisers get an understanding of what an individual’s employment status likely is. As this can be confusing especially the difference between worker and employee.
The main difference is whether prototype A is more useful because it just has a list of all the questions that we feel are essential. Or is Prototype B better where the questions are in sections so that an adviser could potentially skip the non-relevant questions.
To understand which prototype might work best, we’re going to talk with the quality team. They review the advice that advisers give, and often they’re looking at how fully they’ve explored the client’s issue. In some cases, it’s important to ask a client every question. It might seem unnecessary but could uncover further information about the client that’s important for their case. So we want to know if there’s a risk that either prototype might lead to advisers skipping over questions that are important to ask.
Check back in next time to get an update on how the testing step goes.