User Experience Designer
Client confidential
Our client wanted to ensure that they were listening to their customers and creating something that genuinely improved day-to-day living for them. DXC Technology was brought on board to discover, prototype, and build a solution aimed at supporting blind and visually impaired people with peer and community engagement.
Two other Canberra colleagues and myself were sent down to Melbourne to assist the team with completing the discovery phase of the project. All the feedback had to be synthesised into usable and valuable information which could guide and direct the product development in the next phase.
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The Problem
are well known for listening to their customers and providing them with solutions that genuinely empower them to live their best life. After our initial discovery phase, it became clear that the large variety of tools available solved individual independence challenges, but were lacking the foresight to satisfy community, companionship, and friendship desires.
Our client wanted to get their ear to the ground to understand what, why and how people are using existing solutions, where the gaps lie, and how the whole process can be simplified and integrated to link everything to lower the barriers for peer engagement.
The discovery phase and user research
Our core team had conducted 16 contextual enquiries in the discovery phase, which were designed to build a picture of the diversity of the community and how peoples needs aligned and differed.
We started by affinity mapping all the captured feedback and allowing the data to naturally categorise itself into appropriate groupings. From this we distilled and refined the groupings until a succinct, diverse and accurate representation of our users needs were visible.
The team then began discussing how we could solve/address these insights by building out “how might we” statements, and then hypotheses as to how we can address the “how might we” statements.
"The speed at which Ryan was able to come in and pick up the key issues on the peer support project – to the point of actually facilitating the affinity mapping sessions – was really quite amazing. He was able to re-energise a team that was beginning to fatigue and provide the direction needed to achieve the sprint’s key deliverable on time.
Ryan is a skilled and experienced facilitator – that came across clearly in his articulation of compelling questions and thoughtful observations. The sessions he ran were genuinely engaging and produced a lot of 'lightbulb' moments. Faced with a tight deadline, I and the team appreciated his relaxed, convivial and affable leadership.
Something else that’s often not always explicitly valued – Ryan speaks because he has something to say, not because he has to say something."
Abe Ropitini, Product Owner, represents the client
The key takeaways
- Conducting user interviews and contextual enquiries needs to be carefully managed to ensure feedback is genuine
- All team members should be involved in the research and synthesis of findings; team wide empathy is invaluable
- You can conduct too many interviews; know when you have enough information
- Multidisciplinary teams are vital for generating a diverse perspective