Designing for the expert user — your colleagues
For the last couple of years my primary focus in design has been on creating solutions and solving problems for the experts in our organization. I have, however, noticed that while there has been a slow but steady increase in the investment in designing for the expert, there is still limited conversation around how best to design for the expert in the organization. So, I thought I would share some of the lessons I have learned on my journey thus far.
Who are these experts users?
Before we jump into the detail, we first need to determine who am I referring to when I speak about “the expert” in our organization. I am not talking about us as designers — we are lucky enough to have entire companies who design and build the software (with great user experiences) that we use daily to do our jobs.
The expert user I am referring to are the colleagues in large multi-national corporations who work tirelessly every day to serve their customers directly (e.g. call center agents) or indirectly (for e.g. credit specialists). While our colleagues do have software that they use to do their jobs, they are often switching between multiple systems — a number of which have somewhat questionable user experiences.
While there is a huge increase in digitally-enabled customers and a drive for many organizations to shift their customers onto self-service capabilities in order to service their daily needs, there is already substantial investment in this area and it is still critical to invest in enabling front-line experts with the right tools and a great user experience in order to more effectively do their jobs.
So why is it so important to design great experiences for front-line colleagues in your organization?
4 reasons it is important to invest in designing great experiences for your experts
1. We aren’t going 100% self-service just yet
This is at least still the case for my organization where we operate in a country where the majority of South Africans still don’t use digital channels for their daily banking. What this means is that we can’t afford to not invest in our colleague-assisted channels and processes.
While customers are still relying on our colleagues for support and guidance, we have the opportunity to enable them with the tools to create a great customer experience and deepen the relationship with our customers. The key is for our colleagues’ tools to be an enabler (and not an inhibitor) to a great customer experience.
2. Great Employee Experience (EX) = Great Customer Experience (CX)
There is an undeniable link between EX and CX. Study after study shows that investing in employee experience directly impacts the experience of customers.
A great example of this is the concept of re-work. The harder the interface is to use, the higher the likelihood that the colleague will make mistakes. These mistakes will ultimately affect their ability to deliver a quality service to the customer by forcing the customer to constantly ask for corrections. This definitely does not make for a great customer experience.
In addition, according to a 2017 study by Harvard Business Review, companies that invest in employee experience are four times more profitable than those that don’t.
3. Colleagues play a role in self-service adoption
Although customers are eager to adopt self-service capabilities, they are often are looking for a human to support them through that transition. Self-service may be unchartered territory for many customers and, knowing they have a human to lean on during the transition to self-service, may give them the extra boost of confidence they need to make the leap.
Even once a customer has migrated, it is important to remember that self-service options don’t replace human support. Rather than investing in one or the other, the two should seamlessly work together to provide an exceptional service experience.
This model offers an opportunity to build loyalty in a self-service model — bringing that much needed (and wanted) human element to a digital world.
4. Improve EX can create business efficiencies
A great user experience for colleagues means a reduced need for training (with intuitive systems and processes), reduction in errors and rework (through reduced user fatigue and improved readability), and a user that is more engaged in their work — focusing on a customer problem to solve rather than mastering a challenging system.
Ultimately, we want a colleague to be successful in their role because of how they solve complex customer issues and not because they have mastered a difficult system over a number of years.
While user experience is only one factor contributing to a great employee experience, it can play a major role in making a colleague’s job that much better on a daily basis.
The question now is, how do we more effectively design for the colleague and how is it different to designing for our customers?
Not all users are equally familiar and comfortable using technology
When designing for customers and colleagues you will often find different “levels” of users — some are confident and frequent users of technology while others are less familiar or comfortable with technology. The book, About Face has categorized users into 3 groups that we should be designing for: (1) Beginners; (2) Intermediaries, and (3) Experts.
They illustrate how user needs and wants differ as they move from being beginners to intermediates and (for some) to experts. While customers often start as beginners and may move to be intermediary users of your product (frequent users), very few of them actually invest the time to become expert users of a product or service — so, when designing platforms where a customer is your end-user you find yourself designing for the intermediary or even the beginner (for once-off uses like a digital Home Loan application).
Colleagues, on the other hand, use the system as a tool to fulfill their day-to-day work. Many of their jobs are done multiple times a day and hundreds of times in a week — quickly making them experts in the systems/tools they use along with being experts in the field they are working in. Thus, it is important to change the approach slightly to ensure you create a user experience that is fit for the expert in your organization.
The table below gives a great overview of how the users differ from beginner to intermediary and expert.
While some of the fundamentals of great user experience are the same across the spectrum, there are a couple of things I have found in the past 3 years that I believe either needs additional focus or should be approached differently when designing for your expert.
7 things to consider when designing for colleagues (your experts)
- Prioritize the most frequently used functions
About Face refers to this as “Organising for inflection” and is about placing the most desired functions and controls in the most immediate and convenient locations for the user.
This is important because the amount of functionality and tools that are wanted and/or needed by our colleagues means there is a lot of work to be done to understand and prioritize what is most important.
The book also recommends organizing information according to three attributes:
- Frequency of use: how often the controls, functions, objects, or displays are used in typical daily patterns of use.
- Degree of dislocation: the amount of sudden change in an interface by using a specific function or command (higher impact functions are often deeper in the interface).
- Degree of risk exposure: Whether the functions actions are irreversible or have other dangerous ramifications.
2. Design for higher density pages but remain focused
Allow the user to access more information at a time but ensure that it is all related to the task at hand or the job to be done. Although the density may be different from how we design for customers, the principle of focus remains the same.
Higher density does not mean:
- Filling up white space unnecessarily (embrace the white space.
- Using excessive (for colleague) branding or illustrations.
- Bringing in unnecessary features/functionality that is not related to the user goal or task at hand (studies show that multitasking can reduce productivity by as much as 40% and increases error rates by up to 50%)
- Prioritizing density over the speed and responsiveness of the interface (more information can mean longer loading times — talk to your technical teams)
3. When in doubt, design for the intermediary user
Although our core user is the expert, designing for the intermediary colleague means that new users are able to pick up on the new system with limited training and guidance.
This principle is especially true when it comes to supporting and guidance on the platform.
Being an expert in their job (even if they are not yet an expert of the system), the user already possesses the necessary technical knowledge to do the job. By the time your user has seen a piece of information for the 4th time in a single day the value is no longer there and valuable real-estate has been wasted.
Do not embed help content on the interface!!!
Intermediaries want reference material when needed. Online help or a knowledge base is a great alternative tool that caters for the intermediary user without interfering with your experts.
4. Keep it simple — the copy that is
The copy on a customer interface is usually a lot more elaborate and conversational since the relationship there is between the system/interface and the customer.
Copy for colleague interfaces is different: the conversation/relationship is between colleague and customer whilst the interface is just a mediator.
As a result, the content can be kept simple and to the point. It does not need to be descriptive, conversational or “friendly” to the user.
This does not mean we should use jargon and acronyms. The design effort is in simplicity and directness.
The below example shows how the copy has been simplified for a colleague interface (right screen), compared to the more conversational and elaborate copy on the customer interface (left screen). Notice that the copy on the colleague interface is still clear and easy to understand.
5. Prioritise efficiency
Experts have a wide range of tools that they use every day and they want shortcuts to EVERYTHING. Not only do they want shortcuts from a navigation perspective but interaction shortcuts are also key — these to work hand-in-hand.
Understanding how your user navigates and their mental models around their way of work will inform your tabbing patterns. Make sure you specify these patterns in your designs and with your development partners.
6. Create power features for power users
Experts appreciate new, powerful features. Their mastery of the product/business means that they are less likely to become disturbed by added complexity.
Power features are those that are available to an expert but as a result of you “organizing for inflection” — these do not tend to interfere with others’ day-to-day work.
Power features could enable the colleague to solve for outlier or complex customer needs but due to the very specific needs they solve, the functionality (unless proven otherwise) can often get deprioritized in backlogs.
7. Don’t forget accessibility
Equality in the workplace is critical and we wouldn’t want any one colleague to be disadvantaged as a result of a design that is not accessible for them.
Designing for accessibility is not any different for the expert user but it is just as critical of a consideration and it is often forgotten.
Remember, the interface is used by our colleagues for at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week continuously — make sure you prioritize accessibility.
As a start, the above 7 tips will help you in improving the user experience for your expert.
Now that you are excited and ready to start designing, there are two other elements for you to consider when building your approach and getting started.
What you need to consider before you even begin designing
1. Conduct primary research
When conducting primary research with colleagues in our organization there are a couple of things I have found I needed to pay extra attention to:
- Creating a “safe zone” of trust: This is absolutely key with colleagues. The implications of telling a team leader or manager something that was said by a colleague in a safe space can have far-reaching consequences for someone’s career. Anonymity in playbacks to leadership is crucial to ensure you never break that trust.
- Create context upfront: Setting the scene with a colleague for user testing can be quite challenging as it is often seen as a feedback/opinion-based session — making it challenging to get usability insights.
- Look past their biases: They will always tell you (in detail) what type of horse they want and you will need to place additional effort into understanding their needs beyond immediate pain points.
- Give feedback: If a colleague takes time to spend with you, give them feedback on how they have contributed to the improved solution.
2. Understand the user’s workspace and equipment
The workspace and equipment you are designing for can be quite different to what you may imagine as a user yourself or the customers you are used to designing for.
Here are some things you should understand before starting your designs:
- The number of screens: Do they use multiple screens and if they do, how do they use them?
- Screen resolution: Bulk purchased equipment for massive front lines doesn’t often have the same screen resolution as a Macbook or iPhone.
- Mobility: As they are on the move and will be using the tools and systems outdoors?
- Lighting: How does the light in their workspace affect screen clarity and how important is contrast?
- Peripheral equipment: Do they use any phones, scanners, etc. as a part of their toolset?
- Network speed: Will their network be slow and how does this affect load time?
- Engagement with the customer: How will they be engaging the customer — will it be on the phone, in person, on chat, or something else?
Same principles, different users — let’s start designing!
In summary, always remember that designing for a colleague is very different from designing for the customer. Even though the core design principles are the same, there are key user needs that differ and it is just as important to make sure that you truly understand these needs to effectively design for them.
Hopefully, you are now as passionate about designing for the expert in your organization as I am, and that these tips and tricks will help you get started. I hope to see you on the front line, improving the customer experience one expert experience at a time.
