YouView : Product testing app
An app dedicated to providing product feedback on pre-launch TV, mobile and digital products for YouView and BT
Responsiblities: UX / UI Design Process
Client: YouView
Industry: Telecommunications
Platform: Mobile app
Tools: Figma / Miro / Adobe Creative suite
My Role
As I was managing the product trials at YouView and handling pre-release feedback from staff at BT, I was asked to lead this project with regards to research, UX & UI design as I worked with all product testers and managed the current product testing platform
Brief
Conceptualise a product testing app for YouView & BT internal staff and external customers, to submit feedback, answer surveys and track their activity on pre-launch YouView and BT products.
CURRENT PROBLEM
How can the current product feedback mechanism be improved?
Product testers who are required to give feedback on a suite of YouView and BT products do not have access to a simple, quick and effective mechanism to give product feedback easily and readily.
The current mechanism for providing feedback is a dedicated software testing platform. Whilst this platform has many capabilities is does not have a mobile app and the user experience can be bulky, slow and inconvenient.
Using this platform decreases submissions from some users due to the poor user experience, and lack of mobile app which means users have to submit feedback via a desktop/laptop.
This leads to a decrease in the amount of feedback received which results in a lack of confidence in product stability and delays in product launches.
SOLUTION
Develop a mobile app for product feedback
Create a mobile app dedicated to product feedback, which focuses on a unified user experience which is fast, simple and easy to use. The design and functionality of this app would serve the needs of both technically experienced internal staff, and customers who use the product once launched. The capabilities of the app include:
submitting feedback
uploading photos and videos
completing tasks and surveys
tracking status of feedback
contacting trial team
accessing profile
BRIEF BREAKDOWN
Opportunities and guidelines
To understand how we could provide a solution to the current problem, the program manager, project manager and I constructed an action plan which would take into consideration the following:
Gathering requirements - what are the business goals, user goals and technical considerations that need to be included in this solution?
Budget - what solutions can we provide within the budget provided?
Maintenance and sustainability - How would the solution we provide be maintained, and is it a sustainable option which would meet the goals of future product testing projects?
WORKSHOPS
Bringing together unified goals
The first step in this process was to understand the goals of internal and external stakeholders in relation to this solution.
Business goal: To ensure products in a developmental and pre-launch phase are tested by c20-500 testers and feedback given to gain confidence in stability, usability and functionality before a soft launch.
User goals: To ensure product feedback can be submitted easily and readily including the submission of text, audio and visuals. Feedback, tasks and surveys can be tracked and notifications enabled.
Technical considerations: Up-keep of the solution would have to be regular but light touch and not impede with the technical teams ability to work on major business projects.
The above considerations were documented and became the unified goals for developing a solution.
Key findings
Users can easily upload images and videos related to their feedback reports
The app allows users to view updates and replies to their feedback, as well as access a historical view of all the feedback they have given
Users can search for and filter the issues they have submitted
The app integrates with the user's sales/internal profile, automatically pre-populating their name, location, STB information, and internet connection
Sign-in details are related to the sales/internal profile, and the app ensures security by signing out when not in use
Notifications are provided for new tasks, surveys, reports, and software releases
The app saves time by eliminating the need for repetitive data entry, thanks to pre-populated user and STB details
The platform's safety measures ensure that only authorized users can access the app
Users can provide feedback through feedback reports, and also through video and image uploads
The app features filtering capabilities, supports audio and video content, and allows browsing functionality
Early feedback through the app enables the identification of product defects before launch, gathers valuable insights, instills confidence in new product launches, and reduces drop-out rates among testers
Customer User Persona:
Requires a simple way to access tasks, surveys, and feedback related to product testing
Seeks a straightforward method to give in-depth feedback and see status
GATHERING REQUIREMENTS
Minimum Viable Product
The second step in developing a solution for this problem was to discover and understand the requirements needed for the product testers to successfully give feedback. For this purpose myself and a Program Manager created a Minimum Viable Product post-it wall so we could map out scope and requirements which would underpin the features and functionality of the solution.
The MVP focused on the following key points:
Who is the user?
What goals and tasks will the user accomplish?
What will the product do?
Why does the user need the product?
What information will be created, entered, and featured in the product?
What business goals will this product achieve?
Which platform will the product live on?
PERSONAS
Understanding goals & needs
To form a deeper understanding of users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviours, user personas for each of the user segments were created. They were based on data held from both YouView and BT as to who their staff and customers are. The choice for having personas was to ensure the needs and motivations of both these groups were represented in the app. The personas were used in the design process to underpin design choices that were suited to both technically experienced staff who wanted to give instant feedback on a weekly basis, and paying customers who would be giving detailed feedback and surveys a few times a month. The personas would be used throughout the design process to reflect user needs.
Key Findings
Staff User Persona:
Requires a quick, simple, and reliable method to provide product feedback directly to the test team
Desires access to feedback from other product testers in the same group
Requires a streamlined feedback process supporting text and video formats
USER INTERVIEWS
Understanding user experience
User interviews were conducted on forty product testers. Twenty of these were internal staff and twenty were customers. These two user groups were the prime users of the app.
The interviews sought to understand what they thought of the current tool they used to give product feedback. The survey questions centered on the following:
User experience
Pain points
Product suggestions
How would you rate your experience of giving feedback?
( give reasons for your feedback)
Easy
Somewhat easy
Difficult
Very difficultWhat are your frustrations when providing feedback?
(open text)
What would improve your experience of providing feedback?
(open text)
What features do you enjoy when providing feedback?
(open text)
Key design goals
Accessible products
Understanding process and outcomes
Clear status
Managing information
Help and support
Customisable experience
DESIGN GOALS
Prioritising clear understanding
Design goals were created to solve the frustrations and pain points that users had highlighted in interviews; and in combination with the business goals which required a pain-free yet efficient gathering and submission of feedback from users. The design goals would underpin the functionality and usability of the app.
Design goals were presented to stakeholders, in addition to documentation for developing a bespoke app for YouView and BT product testers. Once this was given the green light work began on ideation and design of the app.
Key findings
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
Defining Navigation
To make sure the information architecture on the app is aligned with user expectations, a card sorting session was used. The goal was to find where large and smaller groupings would appear intuitively for the main categories of the app. After organizing the data, we ended up with 5 clearly defined main categories with 3-5 subcategories in each.
In establishing the main product categories and forming subcategories, the IA resembled a clear order, from prioritising submitting feedback all the way through to accessing profile details.
Key IA Structure
Landing page - selecting trial category
Submit feedback - selecting categories and inputting text based answers
Access feedback - filter between feedback, surveys and tasks to see status
Contact page - to message trial managers
Profile page - to see device types, networks, location, preferences and adjust notifications
IDEATION
Creating Low Fidelity Wireframes
Quick-fire low fidelity mock-ups were made in Miro to create visual styles for the app. The mock-ups centered on four main screens of the app and each design was iterated upon four times to provide breadth in understanding which design would suit user needs. These designs were then developed into a prototype for user testing.
USABALITY TESTING & ITERATION
What works, what needs improving?
A session of user testing was carried out on a low fidelity prototype of the app using Figma. The two main users for this app were internal staff and external customers. Six user testers - 3 staff and 3 customers- were asked to:
Login and submit feedback
Browse and submit surveys in the feedback section
Key Findings
Issue 01: Both sets of users wanted a dedicated section for submitting feedback on the homepage. The current design nested the Submit feedback button in the individual product pages for each trial
Solution 01: Create a floating button on the homepage which would lead directly to the Submit feedback page without having to enter product pages first
Issue 02: Both sets of users agreed the completed survey section was not something they would use as surveys were completed in the first instant
Solution 02: The completed survey section would be replaced by a New Surveys section indicating the total number of surveys to complete with a Submit button next to each survey
Prototypes
Submitting feedback
The prototype below shows the journey users would go through to submit feedback on the app
Accessing feedback
The prototype below shows the journey users would go through to access feedback, task and surveys on the app
Soft Launch - User Testing
A soft launch version of the app was provided to 50 staff members and 50 customers to understand if the app met user expectations in the following categories.
Submitting feedback
Uploading photos and videos
Completing tasks and surveys
Tracking status of feedback
Contacting trial team
Accessing profile
Soft Launch - User Testing Results
Submitting feedback: 73% of users agreed that submitting feedback via the app was an improvement.
Further suggestions: Text field entry on the form could be made easier by adding prompts/examples
Uploading photos and Videos: 90% of users felt that direct access to a camera/video function in the app made uploading feedback much easier
Completing tasks and surveys: 82% of users felt that completing tasks and surveys on the app was easier
Further suggestions: Enable a feature whereby they can save and complete tasks/surveys at a later stage if they couldnt be completed at once
Tracking status of feedback: 74% of users felt that tracking the status of their feedback in the app provided better clarity
Further suggestions: allow a filter for the status
Contacting the trial team: 90% of users felt that contacting the trial team via the app was more accessible than having to send a separate email
Further suggestions: provide dropdowns for enquiry to reduce writing long messages
Accessing profile: 90% of users felt that seeing all their personal details for the trial was more convenient
Next steps
Whilst this was the first iteration of the app other nice to have features highlighted through user testing were documented and added to the product roadmap for further development. They included, but were not limited to:
Promotional banners for new trials
Timers for completing certain tasks
Product Innovation page for suggesting new products and ideas
Reflections
I learned
How to handle 'Scope Creep' - The initial MVP detailed the basic requirements for the product to be viable to a user. As the project developed, 'scope creep' was rearing its head and it was very challenging explaining to external stakeholders why certain features would not make the initial launch of the product. I had to learn how to communicate this and provide reassurance that future iterations of the app can include 'nice to have' features.
The benefits of concise and clear presentation and collaboration when working with Product managers, Developers and Higher Management is key is ensuring the product meets business, user and technical goals.
Creating a product that meets the needs of two diverse sets of users can be challenging, but this challenge can be overcome by really getting to know the user through user research, user testing and interviews.
I would change
The amount of time dedicated to this project - the inital timeline for this project was two months, but some parts of the UX process such as design and testing took more time than expected; this meant myself and the team were running against the clock. I believe understanding that projects need contingency time allocated relieves time burden and stops mental burn-out.