UX Analysis: an Enterprise Communication App
Service-oriented organizations, that need to deploy staff remotely, have a vested interest in clear, synchronous, and effective communication. A way to accomplish this is by using an enterprise communication app to make announcements, house documentation, and host conversations. An organization tasked me with analyzing their communication app and offering insights on research methods and recommendations that could assist them in identifying opportunities on their platform.
Project Constraints and Context
To accomplish this challenge, I was provided with guest access to the desktop version of the platform. With my account, I would be able to see actual posts made by employees, but I would not be permitted to interact with other users by making posts, commenting, or direct messaging; I was a fly on the wall. My analysis was rooted in what I could witness and not direct user feedback. Also of note, users primarily accessed the app using their mobile devices. With my desktop view, I could not directly mirror the mobile experience which may have skewed my perception of its features. Because of these constraints, I focused my efforts on observing user behaviors and measuring them against the app’s foundational tools.
The Goal
What is the goal of this app?
I wanted to know this because understanding the primary goal of an app is crucial in creating metrics for its success. I was not provided with this information, so I extrapolated it by exploring all the features of the app, familiarizing myself with the mission and messaging of the company, and conversing with the product team. My following analysis was anchored in this statement, that I crafted, representing the app’s main goal.
“Our goal is to provide accessible and instant communication across all levels of the organization so employees can stay informed while feeling supported”
The Users
Who are the users of this app?
The first step was learning about who this app was made for so that I could later judge how well it was meeting their needs. I asked the product team to provide demographic information about the age range, device usage, and location, as well as an overview of an employee’s daily job requirements. I had a broad picture of who these users were, next I needed to refine the details of their needs and behaviors.
User Archetypes
For a few days, I watched the interactions on the public message board. I was looking for recurring interactions or patterns in user behavior. I chose to compile my observations into user archetypes as they are a more abstract representation of a user with their needs and motivations. User persons would have been another way to represent users, but I did not feel it was an appropriate deliverable since I was lacking the additional, humanizing details from the users themselves (Personas vs. Archetypes).
The Help Seeker
The Help Seeker needs information or assets to help them do their job confidently. Their goal for the app is to find a solution to their problem by making a post asking for help or locating relevant documents. The app will meet their needs if it facilitates a dialog with the right person or helps them locate the right resource efficiently.
Needs
Answers to questions
Resources
Work opportunities
Behaviors
Posting calls for help on the public forum
Asking for clarification in the comments
Making requests for work
The Help Provider
The Help Provider is someone who gives out helpful information to the other users. They may be a corporate employee dedicated to the role or a supportive front-line worker. Their goal is to make sure everyone is on the same page and to quickly address any issues that arise. The app meets their needs if it provides a means for bringing attention to their information or helps them start a conversation with those in need of help.
Needs
Communicate info or instruction
Quickly reach users in need of help
Behaviors
Posting announcements
Responding to comments
Tagging relevant people
The Community Cultivator
The Community Cultivator wants to make connections with their coworkers. They use the app to make social posts and to start conversations in the comments, to celebrate (or commiserate), with their peers. The app will meet their needs if it’s a place where they feel comfortable and welcome to engage with their community.
Needs
To feel seen by peers
Share something fun or inspiring
Give kudos to coworkers
Behaviors
Making a casual post
Starting a rapport in the comments
The App Experience
How does the app let users accomplish their goals?
The enterprise communication app offers 3 key features to fulfill the users’ needs.
Public Interactions | Public Forums
The public forums make up the bulk of this app. It mimics prevalent social media platforms, hosting public interactions where any member can make a post or reply in the comments. It allowed the user archetypes to achieve their goals in a few ways. Help Seekers had a place where they could ask questions openly and, as a result, Help Providers could swoop in in the comments and give them answers. Help Providers and Community Cultivators could also reach a large amount of people with announcements or just fun posts!
Direct Messaging
Similar to other communications apps, users are able to start private conversations using the direct messaging feature. It’s easy to search for another employee, using their name or credentials, and start a conversation right in app. Help Seekers would benefit from this feature by being able to get answers to their questions without the pressure of their peers watching them in the public forum. Community Cultivators would be able to utilize the tool for staying in contact with the people they worked with.
Document Library
Important company documentation and frequently reference resources had their own place in the app. Files were grouped by category and accessible for download on one page. Help Seekers are able to use this feature to quickly locate resources to help them do their job. Help Providers can utilize this area of the app to make information easily accessible to the other user archetypes.
Testing the App Experience
Is this app meeting the users’ needs as effectively as possible? After getting to know the users and features of the app, I came up with suggestions for how the product team can approach user testing by seeking out user feedback and deploying quantitative and qualitative research methods.
What Are User Attitudes?
A free and accessible piece of user feedback are the reviews on the Google app store! I was able to look at reviews made by android users and get an impression of their attitudes towards the app. Overall people liked it, but would like to see the features for the Forum interactions to be push further. Other users shared that they found the frequency of notifications frustrating.
Takeaways:
Like the ability to interact with others, suggestions for more refined interaction features (emoji reactions | replies)
Some notification frustrations
Generally the app meets users’ expectations
Starting with a Hypothesis
As most of us have learned (and few remember) from high school science lab, every experiment needs to start with a hypothesis. It focuses the team on an idea or assumption that they need to validate or disprove through the course of their user testing. From that starting point the testing plan takes form as you decide on the best testing methods to measure how accurate your hypothesis is.
From my time observing active users on the app, I formed a hypothesis about a user need that was not being met by the app’s features.
We believe that Crew members could quickly find out who they need to contact, before posting on the forum, if they could easily look at existing resources
To verify, we will pin the “Who Can I Call” infographic to the “Helpline” forum
And measure the number of posts asking about who to get in contact with afterwards
We are right if there are fewer posts made asking about who to contact and analytics show regular user interaction with the PDF
Further Research (Quantitative)
Quantitative research would back up the takeaways of the user reviews. A user survey asking to rate users’ experiences and asking questions about their satisfaction with the features is often the first step to discovering widespread issues. Heat maps, on the other hand, give a picture of users’ actual behaviors, for example, are their items in the shortcuts that no one is using?
Surveys | Quickly getting user attitudes toward the app
Heat Map Analysis | Get an impression of what users are/aren’t interacting with
Further Research (Qualitative)
There are also a number of qualitative research methods that can be implemented. Because information is organized into categories throughout the app, card sorts could be an effective way to make sure those groupings make sense to users. There are lots of ways user testing can be utilized. One way is to quickly determine if users can parse the design. If you tested a prototype with a new reaction feature, but testers could not figure out how to react to a post, then the design needs a second look. Focus groups and interviews would both be effective at learning the context around the app’s use. It can help paint a picture of how the app fits into the users’ day.
Card Sort | Getting users’ input on how things should be organized
User testing | Making sure that users can successfully accomplish key tasks
Focus groups | Casual atmosphere, learning how they have been using it since its implementation
User interviews | Stories about “a time you did…”
Using the Research
Lots of data is collected during research, mapping it out in a visual way helps it stay relevant in later stages. A journey map pairs the users goals, tasks, and emotions throughout the day helping to show how small interactions fit into the big picture of the user’s life. Because the app encourages back and forth between multiple users, a sprint map helps to see the channels interact.
Journey map | Seeing how app usage fits into the user’s day
Sprint map | Mapping how user archetypes are interacting with each other
Next Steps
If I were to conduct user testing for this product, the first thing I would do is regroup with the product team to identify which behaviors they hope to foster in the app. I would also get a better idea of any assumptions the team had about the users and how they interacted with the app. From there I would craft hypotheses along with the research methods that could be used to disprove or validate the teams assumptions. Qualitative information was sorely missed in my “fly on the wall” approach, so the next phase would include moderated user testing or interviews on the field to see the users in action!
My research was positively received by the product team who were particularly impressed that I had included the app store reviews as a source of user feedback. It was not something they had ever thought to look at, and I’m sure this source of free and accessible information it will not be overlooked in the future!
