Reimaging Ethos Group Training
TEAM
2 designers
1 PM
SOFTWARE & TOOLS
Heuristic Evaluation, User Interviews, Mockups
TIMELINE
October 2023 - November 2023
Define
Project Overview
Docs & Tests is a test-taking software used by Ethos Group internal and external employees to remain compliant with corporation standards. The initial landing page for this app was dated and built-in 2001, redesigned, and reviewed again for another redesign. The initial redesign had issues with accessibility & legibility which led our team to do a second redesign. Our objectives with this updated redesign are to ensure accessibility and modernize the interface based on user feedback.
The Ethos Group Docs and Tests initial landing page was originally developed in 2001, had become outdated and did not meet modern usability standards. A redesign was attempted, but it introduced new issues related to accessibility and legibility, making it difficult for users to adopt the app.
Accessibility
The redesigned interface lacks proper accessibility features, making it difficult for users with disabilities to navigate and use the app effectively. Issues include insufficient contrast, small font sizes, and non-compliant navigation elements.
Usability
The overall user experience is hampered by an unintuitive layout and excess information leading to frustration and decreased efficiency for users trying to complete their compliance tests.
User Adoption
The negative user feedback from the initial redesign made it difficult for new users to adapt to the initial redesign, which can ultimately lower compliance scores and build a negative reputation for the application.
Initial Feedback
User Interviews
As a team, we interviewed with the app’s main stakeholders to understand the present usability issues with the initial software redesign. We received feedback from five users of the application.
“There’s too much color on the page. It’s very overwhelming look at.”
“Many users are still sticking to the outdated version of the app. The new app seems to overcomplicate the test-taking process”
“It feels like there’s too much going on on the page. The simplicity of the original app is more appealing”
After getting initial feedback through user interviews, our team worked on conducting a heuristic evaluation of the initial redesign of Docs & Tests. We wanted to evaluate where the usability issues lied in the first version.
Heuristic Evaluation
Heuristic evaluation is a process where designers use rules of thumb to measure the usability of user interfaces and detect usability issues that may occur when users interact with a product and identify ways to resolve them.
Visibility of System Status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.
Match Between System and Real World
The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms.
Consistency & Standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations or actions mean the same thing.
Recognition Rather Than Recall
Minimize the user’s memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the interface to another. Information required to use the design (e.g. field labels or menu items) should be visible or easily retrievable when needed.
Aesthetics & Minimalist Design
Interfaces should not contain information that is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in an interface competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Design
After conducting a heuristic evaluation of the first redesign, we wanted to consider how we can iterate on the usability issues that were present in the first redesign.
Main Highlights
Highlighting the top KPIs that would be most important for a user at the top of the page
Reducing to just a tabular view for users to see training modules. This way they can easily sort through modules and view more training at one time.
Takeaways:
“Important Documents” widget where users can access top documents from the landing page. A “View All” link to navigate to the Documents Page
Top navigation & breadcrumbs are a more familiar way for users to navigate within the internal pages of an application.
Although this project was short, this application needed a face-lift before roll out. The previous iteration of the landing page and document library distracted users from their purpose of entering the site to take their assigned trainings. This was my first time using heuristics evaluations in a project and I found the process helpful in objectively “grading” the previous landing page on common usability standards. Heuristics are an efficient way to understand how to improve and iterate a design.