{"id":3786,"date":"2019-01-05T17:06:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T23:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/?p=3786"},"modified":"2020-07-08T17:22:33","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T23:22:33","slug":"deep-dive-guest-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/deep-dive-guest-management\/","title":{"rendered":"UX Audit of Guest Management Service: A Project Deep Dive"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Over the course of several weeks, I completed a UX audit of a guest management platform including personas, competitive evaluation, and heuristic evaluation.\u00a0The research revealed an internal user base, many usability issues, and a number of competitive features to consider for future redesigns.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Role:<\/strong>\u00a0Freelance Product Designer<\/li>\n<li><strong>Firm:<\/strong>\u00a0DOOR3 Business Solutions<\/li>\n<li><strong>Design Tools:<\/strong>\u00a0G Suite<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tasks:<\/strong> Personas, Competitive Research, Heuristic Evaluation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<pre>My portfolio includes a quick overview of DOOR3: <a href=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/ux\/guest-audit\/\">alliwalk.com\/ux\/guest-audit\/<\/a><\/pre>\n<p><strong>Note: <\/strong>DOOR3 had their own UX\/presentation templates, which I followed for each of these deliverables.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>I. Personas<\/h2>\n<p>Personas are used\u00a0by design teams to create representations of end-users that can help ground the design team in the realistic capabilities and expectations of users.\u00a0I conducted interviews with the client, to learn more about their users and develop personas.<\/p>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h3>Introduction<\/h3>\n<p>The template for DOOR3 organized personas by the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Characteristics: <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What do we know about them?<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><strong>Goals:<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are they trying to achieve by using our product or service<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Questions: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are some of the common questions they have while using our product?<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Personas\u00a0were then separated into <strong>Internal Actors<\/strong> and <strong>External Actors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h4>Client Interviews<\/h4>\n<p>In order to answer these questions, I set up an interview with\u00a0one of their lead client services managers and a product manager. I also read job descriptions for some of clients they worked with, such as an event manager or director of development. Using this information, I created six personas, which the client reviewed and validated.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-3786 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-large'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ga-personas1-768w.jpg'><img width=\"768\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ga-personas1-768w.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-4007\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ga-personas1-768w.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ga-personas1-768w-300x244.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-4007'>\n\t\t\t\t&#8220;Internal actors&#8221; are primary users.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ga-personas2-768w.jpg'><img width=\"768\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ga-personas2-768w.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-4008\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ga-personas2-768w.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ga-personas2-768w-300x244.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-4008'>\n\t\t\t\t&#8220;External actors&#8221; are secondary users.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><em>(Note: These are replicated\u00a0originals.)<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>3 Key Learnings<\/h4>\n<p>I learned three key pieces of information that affected the user experience:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Roles &amp; Permissions Restricted Functionality:<\/strong> User roles and permissions\u00a0was a core aspect of the user experience.\u00a0Many functions required could only be accessed if permission was granted by admins.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Internal Core User Group:<\/strong>\u00a0Most end users were internal members of the client services team; many did not have admin access. Only a small minority of users were\u00a0actual customers. Of those, only a rare few had accessed the site independently. There\u00a0were no plans to add user registration so that new customers could sign up on their own.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Extensive Training Required:<\/strong> I learned that the platform required\u00a0a significant amount of training before\u00a0users could became sufficiently productive. The reasons for this became clear during the heuristic evaluation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>II. Competitive Evaluation<\/h2>\n<p>The competitive evaluation or analysis is a common stage in product design.\u00a0I identified at least 20 competitors and related industries, to gain knowledge of industry conventions and identify potentially useful features.<\/p>\n<h3>3 Tiers of Competition<\/h3>\n<p>To locate competitors, I reviewed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.capterra.com\/event-management-software\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Capterra<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.softwaresuggest.com\/event-management-software\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Software Suggest<\/a>, and included obvious choices such as Eventbrite and Splashthat. I included a few I&#8217;d learned of during the interviews.\u00a0Competitors\u00a0were organized into 3 tiers of competition: direct, secondary, tertiary.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Direct Competitors<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>I identified 10 and evaluated 4: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planningpod.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PlanningPod<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/learnabout.eventsquid.com\/?utm_source=Capterra&amp;desktop=1&amp;Capterra=capterra\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">EventSquid<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Eventbrite<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/envoy.com\/visitor-registration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Envoy Visitors<\/a>. I reviewed all competitors, but included examples from these four in more detail.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3799\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3799\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-3799 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/pod-e1591313081227.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of Planning Pod website\" width=\"620\" height=\"366\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3799\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Planning Pod, a direct competitor, has\u00a0a robust set of features focused on event and guest management.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4><strong>Secondary Competitors<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Offered the same functionality but specialized in specific types of events, like weddings or travel.\u00a0I identified\u00a02 and evaluated 1: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tripit.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TripIt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3798\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3798\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3798\" src=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/tripit-m-e1591312995862.png\" alt=\"TripIt Screenshot\" width=\"620\" height=\"382\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3798\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">TripIt specializes in helping their users keep track of travel itinerary. The client&#8217;s owner said he was a user of TripIt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4><strong>Tertiary competitors<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Represented tools or industries that the users encountered frequently as a part of their work, such as airline websites or industry news.\u00a0I identified\u00a07\u00a0options and evaluated 4: <a href=\"https:\/\/sendgrid.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SendGrid<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/beefree.io\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BeeFree<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flightstats.com\/v2\/flight-tracker\/search\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Flight Stats<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizbash.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BizBash<\/a>. These services specialized in only certain features and I wanted to\u00a0review the functionality they did well.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3796\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3796\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-3796 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/tripit-min-e1591313035406.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of BeeFree (BEE).\" width=\"620\" height=\"368\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3796\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">BeeFree (BEE) has services related to email marketing. I reviewed this tool because it was mentioned by the client. I was impressed by the cute animations and whimsical email character throughout the site.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>4 Categories of Findings<\/h3>\n<p>Findings were organized into 4 categories, based on functionality or features users would be likely to find important.\u00a0Examples are below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Competitive Overall Features<\/strong> &#8212;\u00a0i<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ntegrations with third-party apps and services, (e.g., MailChimp, GoldStar, Zapier, etc); branded user profiles<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Platform-Specific Features<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; ability to create and share a favorites list or vision board; easy access to help or reference guide<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Design and Information Architecture<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; high-contrast between foreground and background colors; strong global and sub-task navigation<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><strong>Additional Event Capabilities<\/strong>\u00a0&#8212; r<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">eal-time RFID event tracking; ability to preview and export name badges<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>III. Heuristic Evaluation<\/h2>\n<p>The bulk of my time was spent on the heuristic evaluation. In a heuristic evaluation, a UX expert uses an established guideline to identify potential usability issues.<\/p>\n<p>A large number of issues were revealed during the heuristic evaluation. While many were not critical, the cumulative amount was a concern.<\/p>\n<h3>Method:\u00a010 Usability Heuristics<\/h3>\n<p>DOOR3&#8217;s template only referenced\u00a0Jakob Nielsen&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nngroup.com\/articles\/ten-usability-heuristics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design<\/a>, which I used.\u00a0I also included principles from Bruce Tognazzini&#8217;s,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/asktog.com\/atc\/principles-of-interaction-design\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">First Principles of Interaction Design<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3815 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/nng-min-1-e1591321909739.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Over 70 Usability Issues Identified<\/h3>\n<p>I identified over 70 usability issues, from their main platform as well as their public website.\u00a0For each usability issue, I included a suggested recommendation on how to fix it.\u00a0I also included an appendix with additional UX references on typography, accessibility, and navigation.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the main issues had to do with inconsistent use of UI elements, navigation, or labels, as well as accessibility issues like low contrast. There were also technical issues, cryptic error messages, and confusing workflows.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Presentation of Findings<\/h2>\n<p>I presented the evaluation\u00a0so that the most important findings came first, then organized the rest of the findings by section such as groups or account tools.<\/p>\n<p>Since their users were internal, I focused on the connection between usability issues and productivity &#8212; that is, a\u00a0interface\u00a0with a shorter learning curve would save money in training and overhead costs.<\/p>\n<p>During my presentation to the client, they revealed that they were aware of many of the usability and design issues I identified, but they had been backlogged in favor of &#8220;hot fixes&#8221; due to many issues in the code.<\/p>\n<h4>Outcome: Prioritization<\/h4>\n<p>The DOOR3 team worked with the client to help identify all the issues with the platform &#8212; front-end, back-end, design, future features. The issues were then prioritized, so that they could be put into a backlog and managed over time.<\/p>\n<p>The client continued working with DOOR3 on engineering updates and some design updates.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Thanks for visiting! Feel free to read my latest blog post, or if you came from my portfolio\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/ux\">head back there<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I evaluated a guest and event management platform using personas, a competitive analysis, and a heuristic evaluation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[420,1],"tags":[546,585,353,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3786"}],"version-history":[{"count":55,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3902,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3786\/revisions\/3902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alliwalk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}