“What is UX?” Sometimes you have to help business people identity their own needs.
The Director of IT for Retail Program Management reached out to the Creative Department asking about colors and customizations for a unique implementation of Microsoft Point of Sale. The Creative Department listened and responded with basically, “Whoa! This is a problem for UX!”
I listened to the subject matter expert.
I met Theresa and listened to learn about the project. She knew all about being a store associate, she had been one for many years before this position. She knew all the retail processes like the back of her hand. She knew all the industry jargon that I didn’t understand. I had lots and lots of questions. But really only one question did I find most important.
I asked, “Have you spoken to any users?”
The answer was “no”. The sentiment was “I’m the expert, so I don’t need to.” But to me, as valuable as the subject matter expert’s knowledge, I want to hear the knowledge of the trainee. In User Experience, the most valuable opinion on how software works comes from the person who just was introduced to it today – the person who doesn’t know the acronyms of the workplace yet – the person who just started the job.
The subject matter expert’s knowledge is important, but the knowledge of the trainee affects the profit.
If the software is intuitive enough for the trainee to pick up right away, think about how that can positively affect the bottom line! Instead of two people (the trainer and the trainee) losing sales time, the trainee can be effective faster and the trainer can get back to their standard faster.
I then led in-store research to benefit the Modern Ashley Retail Store (MARS) project.
I expressed my concern and was contacted by the Vice President of IT – Retail Stores, Enterprise Architecture and Innovation. He requested that I conduct a human factors analysis of the sales process in the stores.
The request sounded large on top of my other responsibilities and I believe if possible observational research should be conducted as a pair. If there are two people present then you have additional accountability, you are less likely to miss something, and you are better able to hold innate biases in-check with another witness.
It’s important to know when to ask for help. The right teammate makes all the difference!
I asked another Senior UX Architect, Eduardo to join the project. Eduardo had previous experience conducting in-store research on the associate experience for the Apple Store. His experience, turned out to be a big asset, as well as the fact that he is fluent in Spanish. We observed stores in the Tampa Bay and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, both areas have a significant number of Spanish-speakers, and we were able to record sales that otherwise would’ve been lost.
We observed 61 point of sales at 6 Ashley store locations in the Tampa Bay and Los Angeles Metropolitan Areas!
We reported out a summary of our findings to the business that pleased both the VP of IT and the Director of IT for the retail stores that is being used as a baseline to compare the previous software to the newly released software and inform improvements in the future.
Our report covered the sales person’s experience level, time to complete a sale (from when customer decides to make a purchase to taking the receipt), what financing options were used, the device or devices the store associates used to complete the sale and any technical problems encountered in the process.