University of Washington, MHCI+D
CISCO WEBEX TEAMS
• Designed and ran usability tests to identify critical issues of the onboarding process with Cisco’s remote, collaborative tool on the iPad
• Addressed usability issues from research with prototyped designs that contributed to greater user adoption
ROLE
UX Designer supporting an extensive User Research study process and providing key design recommendations.
SPONSOR & TEAM
Cisco UX Design Team
Anqi Cao, Erika Johnson, Evan Schmitz, Mojin Yu
YEAR
Winter 2020 (10 weeks)
PRODUCT OVERVIEW
By addressing the key usability issues within the onboarding process, first-time users of the collaboration tool are able to successfully activate their account, access prioritized functions, and visualize clear status feedback when utilizing whiteboarding or screen sharing features, leading to greater user activation.
PROCESS
Through usability testing, my team and I aimed to understand if users are efficient in their remote, collaborative workspaces through Cisco's video conferencing and whiteboarding platform, Webex Teams. Our goal is to find the usability flaws specifically on iPad devices and recreate mock designs to improve user interactions.
Sponsor
Meeting
Sponsor
Feedback
Presentation
to Sponsor
RESEARCH QUESTION
"Hey Cheyenne, we want to roll out an iOS update for our iPad application the following quarter that will encourage more viral adoption and user activation. How might we enhance the onboarding experience for users logging on to Webex Teams on the iPad for the first time?"
Meeting with Cisco Webex’s Design team and learning their goals, we gathered more information about their target persona and some upcoming developments with their product. This information informed our decision to test and find key usability flaws within the “Day Zero” experience, then address these flaws through prototyped mock recommendations.
HEURISTIC EVALUATION
In testing the iPad application, we quickly ran into issues and confusions with the account activation, chat experience, iconography, and feedback from key meeting features. We marked up the usability heuristics that were lacking in the app, which helped us to identify what was critical to test in our study.
Account Activation Misdirection
Not only was the account activation flow impersonal to the user, it did not communicate well with the already downloaded iOS application on the iPad making it inefficient.
PERSONA
During recruitment, we enlisted participants based on specific characteristics, such as frequency of internet use, frequency of iPad use, and experience with non-Webex Teams collaborative tools in both professional and/or academic environments. Our two main constraints for participants were having an occupation as an information worker and having familiarity with iPad and/ or iOS devices.
Information Worker
Someone who works with computerized information on a daily basis.
Familiarity with iOS Devices
Someone with similar device usage and the behaviors that correspond with it.
USABILITY TESTING
We conducted our usability test with 8 participants, utilizing several testing methods that include observation, think-aloud protocol, system usability scales, and semi-structured interviews; this allowed us to collect more contextual data to help us further assess the usability issues. Our usability test concluded that the majority of participants felt the collaboration tool was complicated and confusing, directly reflecting the SUS score.
Intent of Use​
Participants' intent for using the tool in the future
System Usability Score
Participants' impression of the collaboration tool
Word List
Participants' reflection of their experience with the tool
Here, I am preparing to facilitate this usability session as the participant is filling out their digital consent form.
DESIGN SOLUTION
After affinity mapping our data, we found six critical usability issues within the iPad experience. From each finding, I took the lead in designing mocks to provide recommendations on their collaboration tool. Below is a summary of the recommendations proposed to the Cisco UX Design Team.
Account Activation Misdirection
1. The initial login flow was discouraging for all participants.
The back and forth between the web browser and application in the first task complicated the initial login flow.
Inflexible Messaging Categorization​
1. Participants did not have easy, flexible access to contacts.
There is no clear, distinct list of contacts that shows the separation of both direct contacts or group messaging.
Poor System Feedback
1. Whiteboarding and screen-sharing features lack system status and feedback.
These two features congruently do not provide enough status or feedback information when in use.
Takeaways
After reflecting on this usability project, I would have liked to further validate the key findings. Beyond the current study, additional testing with a greater variety of professionals could have brought other usability issues to the forefront. This would have also allowed us to understand if a segment of information workers had substantial difficulty moving through the usability test, therefore scoping our assessment. Also, while the current study focused on iPad usage, investigating the onboarding workflows across other devices could have helped inform the standards required for the design recommendations.
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If given more time, I would have also preferred to conduct more usability tests after concluding the design recommendations. Testing the designs I've made would immediately validate if these recommendations successfully or unsuccessfully relieved the usability issues. Given that Cisco's UX Design team has taken the recommendations to improve this onboarding user flow, overall resulting in an increase in activation.
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