Why you need a UX team (Part 5)
Uncover flaws in your business
When we shadow users in their work environments, we learn how to design a user experience that considers how users perform their jobs and go about their daily routines. Often, during these activities, we also uncover flaws in our clients’ businesses that they were unaware of.
Example 1: Identifying role discrepancies
One client had employees with the same job titles but had different responsibilities at different locations. This was discovered because we were trying to define consistent user personas for the application’s user experience and roles-based security model. This discovery also revealed how certain employees were given too many responsibilities, whereas others were not given enough. In some cases, compliance-related issues and risks were happening because unauthorized employees were expected to perform tasks using information they were not supposed to have access to. The ripple effect of this discovery led to a complete overhaul of the company’s job titles and responsibilities.
Example 2: Revealing operational inefficiencies
In another example, we revealed how certain employees were required to perform an enormous amount of redundant paperwork and data entry daily. This was not only extremely inefficient but also posed a significant risk of flawed data due to inevitable human error.
To measure and demonstrate the magnitude of the problem, we used a stopwatch to time the most commonly performed tasks. Then, we multiplied them by the number of times the same data had to be reentered in on paperwork or screen. Needless to say, the minutes quickly added up to hours as we factored in the number of employees all performing these same tasks. As a result of our findings, our client re-prioritized the features in their product backlog so that all data could be entered into the software and, once entered, it could be available on any screen without ever having to re-enter it.
