Spontaneous User Research

February 12, 2004 | 4 Comments

Earlier this week I got the chance to do a little “Gorilla usability” and as it usually is, it was a very interesting and eye-opening experience.

You may have heard about the new Movable Type driven Policies and Procedures site we’re working on down at the hospital? Well, this wasn’t done solely out of a desire to take a maintenance burden off the Web team. We really hope to improve it’s use for folks as well.

One of the largest and most diverse user groups for these policies and procedures are the nurses. It was arranged for me to head over to the hospital, in the company of one of the nurse coordinators, and meet some of the nurses face to face.

I went from ward to ward, notebook in hand, and was able to sit down with the nurses for a few minutes, watch them interact with the site and gather feedback on what they found frustrating or useful.

Turns out they often start off searching, rather than browsing. As well they often have different titles for the procedures than do the administrative people who organize and publish them. I quickly found that the nurses, the people who are expected to learn and use this site, don’t really use it much at all.

One of our goals was to improve the site. We’d gotten feedback from quite a few people and were working on a plan to make changes that would hopefully result in a better user experience as well as higher adoption of the Policies and Procedure tool. It’s pretty important that nurses use it, as it should have the latest and greatest.

Had I not met these nurses face to face and actually watched them use the site, there is no way I’d be prepared to make those changes that will help them out. Now that I’ve seen what they see, and discussed their issues, I’ve got some really great ideas on how to help them and at the same time help myself sort out other problems. Ideas I’ve have never come to in a vacuum.

I also don’t think I’d have uncovered all the information I did if I’d had done some formal usability study here instead.

I’m not stressing informal over formal user testing, only saying that I feel that it’s very important to interact with the people that actually use the Web sites, software, and interfaces that we build in their own element. A spontaneous visit to your users can be of great help. Not only to the user, but to the designer or developer as well.

Because I spent a few hours with the users my job will ultimately be easier and this tool will be that much better.

Filed under: IA and Usability