Seeing truly is believing: Lesson 1
How well do you really know your users?
As user experience professionals, we can safely say we all share at least one thing in common — we all care about our users and how the products we build impact their lives. Every day we think about our users’ motivations, their real-world challenges, and solutions that we hope will make their lives easier. Most of us like to think we know more about the people who use our products better than anyone. But, when it comes down it, how well do you really know your users? How much time have you spent in their shoes to see what is really going on when they interact with your products?
I’ve spent a great deal of time conducting user research, usability testing and focus groups in an effort to get closer to users and their experience with my company’s products. But it wasn’t until I spent some quality time with them in their every-day environment that I was able to see the full picture.
Learning made simple
About 5 years ago, when I first joined VMware, I was the Lead UX designer for a product called Teacher Tools. Teacher Tools allows teachers to facilitate mobile learning by managing student devices, apps, and files through a simple interface. They can add digital resources to their lesson plans and easily share them with students in the class.
Teacher Tools is comprised of two basic components. One is an iPad application for teachers, called Teach app. They can use it to view all the classes they teach, add apps, websites, and files. To make sure students are following the lesson plan, Teach app gives teachers the ability to share an application or a website with students and lock them in that view.
The other component is an iPad application for students, called Student app. Students can view apps, websites, and files via the app. To make it fun, students can also choose themes to customize the app background. Pretty simple and straightforward, right?
Let’s get real
When I was tasked with improving the UX for Teacher Tools, I did what any self-respecting UX designer would do. First, I wrapped my mind around the end-to-end workflow that a typical user would experience. Then, I sat down at my quiet desk and built wireframes that mapped back to the workflow. At that time, I had just graduated from the University of Michigan, and couldn’t wait to put everything I learned into practice.
After developing some initial designs and incorporating feedback from my team, it was time for usability testing. My fellow designer Wesley Wang and I visited an elementary school in Atlanta, Georgia to meet with teachers and hopefully gather some actionable data that we could use to positively impact the product.
After meeting with 5 teachers in the school library, we felt the sessions went pretty well. The teachers were engaged, candid and very open about their overall experiences. We discovered some minor usability issues, but in general, all the teachers finished the tasks that we asked them to complete with ease. At the end of the day, I felt great. We tested the product with real users and collected candid feedback that we could implement right away. Now, I knew exactly what our users’ real-world experience with Teacher Tools was like. Seeing is believing, right?
The real real
Fast forward 3 months. Two elementary schools in South Carolina gave me the opportunity to see firsthand how their teachers and students were using Teacher Tools in their classrooms. How exciting, I thought, a chance to see my product in action in a real classroom! I could barely fall asleep the night before. Lying in bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about my visit to the classroom and all the different ways teachers and their students would be interacting with Teacher Tools. Perhaps I’d get to see teachers using Teach app to push a homework assignment to the kids. Or, maybe I’d see curious students using Student app to quietly ask questions about the subject at hand.
Back to school
I stepped foot into the classroom and was immediately transported through time back to my days in elementary school. More than 20 kids frenetically ran around the room, laughing, screaming and constantly pelting the teacher with random questions. Compared to my quiet, serene office, the energy level here was off the charts. With the kids in constant motion, I was barely able to snap a photo. I was overwhelmed, to say the least.
Then, the iPads came out and the kids became even more excited. There was no order or a chance for the teacher to give direction as the students quickly grabbed their devices and began downloading games, showing classmates how to play them and chattering about their high scores. Wow! This is not what I expected.
I looked over at the poor teacher. “Jon, sit down,” she wailed. “Mike, can you please stop messing with Lisa’s hair?” she pleaded. “Kids, it’s time to pay attention …” It then dawned on me that the easy, streamlined Teach app workflow that I built around what I thought were teachers’ real-world challenges would be no match for this. Now what?
Seeing truly is believing: Lesson 2
Want to find out what else I learned from my visit to the classroom and the true impact it had on the Teacher Tools experience? Don’t miss my next post where I’ll dive deeper into how well we really know our users and what we can do about it.
“Seeing truly is believing” is based on my talk at VMware SHAPE Design Conference, Palo Alto, CA, April 2019
Special thanks to Annie Philip, EUC UX Design Manager, and Adam Slater, EUC Senior UX Content Strategist.
Liked this post? You may also like my other post: 3 Missteps UX Designers Should Avoid
