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UX Research for Internal Enterprise Tools

Stéphanie Walter
January 27, 2022

UX Research for Internal Enterprise Tools

Tools and software enterprise users have to work with on a daily basis are often described as "ugly" and "hard to use". Most of those tools are built by IT teams with no designers in the process.
I share my UX research process for the redesign of a tool used by 1000+ internal users on a daily basis: the challenges for researchers, how to overcome them, what surprised me, what I love about working in Enterprise UX and how to grow in such environments.

I think there's a lot of missed opportunities in those environments and a huge potential for more UX work. Let's improve our internal employees' tools!

Stéphanie Walter

January 27, 2022
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  1. UX Research
    for Internal
    Enterprise
    Tools
    Stéphanie Walter - 2022

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  2. stephaniewalter.design @WalterStephanie
    !
    User Researcher & UX Designer
    Mobile expert. Pixel & CSS Lover

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  3. I design products &
    softwares used by
    internal employees
    for their daily work.

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  4. Products, Softwares &
    Services built internally
    in the company
    SaaS product sold as
    packages to be then
    used by employees

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  5. Historically,
    enterprise products
    meant “ugly” and
    “hard to use”.

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  6. Our UX Researcher and Design
    Process for an Internal Tool

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  7. One Internal
    Tool, a LOT of
    different user
    groups

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  8. We start with
    quantitative data
    ๏ What and how much:
    current pages usage
    ๏ Analysis (business) of the
    content of the pages

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  9. User Interviews &
    Task Analysis
    ๏ Understand tasks and
    activities
    ๏ Get pain-points, needs
    and frustrations
    If you had a magic wand, what would
    you change to make this activity/task
    easier for you?
    Can you remember you biggest pain or
    issue when trying to perform this activity?
    How do you overcome this today?
    Interactions
    Dependencia
    Pain
    points
    What actions or decisions do you take in
    order to accomplish this?
    Describe an activity or task that requires
    you to use Scrap« in your dailywork.
    Are they other actions/ people you need
    in order to perform this activity?
    Activity
    How?
    changes
    Rythm & duration
    Hew long does ittake?
    Objects Are they other tools you need irt order to perform your activity?
    ^ Priority
    If you had a magic wand, what would
    you change to make this activity/task
    Can you remember you biggest pain
    Interactions
    V- Dependencies
    Describe an activity or task that requires
    you to use Scrap« in your dailywork.
    What actions or decisions do you take in
    order to accomplish this?
    Magic
    Are they other actions/ people you need
    in order to perform this activity?
    Activity
    How?
    How do you overcome this today?
    A'rfw-J- dL
    Rythm & duration
    How long does it take?
    do you to (hi
    Objects Are they other tools you need in order to perform your activity?
    ^ Priority
    If you had a magic wand, what would
    you change to make this activity/task
    easier for you?
    Can you remember you biggest pain or
    issue when trying to perform this activity?
    How do you overcome this today?
    Pain
    points
    Describe an activity or task that requires
    you to use Scrap« in your dailywork.
    Activity
    changes
    Rythm & duration
    Hew long does ittake?
    ^ Priority

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  10. “I need an export to excel
    button” she said…
    What she needed was to only
    see the active projects in the
    table. Filters!

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  11. 1 to 1 Early adopters
    “first time” sessions
    ๏ Observational feedback
    session on beta version that
    we opened to some users.
    ๏ “Please try to do whatever you
    needed to do with [oldtool],
    but use [newtool] instead”.

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  12. Indirect user research to
    gather feedback, first
    impression, etc.
    Training sessions

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  13. A user interface is like a joke.
    If you have to explain it, it’s not that good.
    Like any good joke, you might need some
    prior knowledge (business) to understand it.
    Doesn’t make it a bad joke. Or a bad interface.


    For
    Enterprise
    UX

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  14. User diary - understand usage over a period of time
    The trigger: when you were trying to do something with the new tool but couldn’t and had to fallback to the old one

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  15. Reporting and
    defining priorities
    List big pain-points and
    needs
    Prioritize those with the
    team: fast track vs big topics

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  16. Fast track
    ๏ Content, small features where we don’t have
    time / need to do intensive research
    ๏ Mostly UI design (and information architecture)
    ๏ Use the design system to migrate the content
    ๏ Ask a few users for their feedback by email or
    small 1 to 1 calls sometimes
    ๏ Gather more feedback on the developed
    feature

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  17. Specific research for
    big topics
    ๏ Gather the previous research on
    the topic
    ๏ Schedule some more interviews /
    task observation for that topic
    ๏ Advanced Prototype (Axure)
    ๏ Usability Testing

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  18. Monitoring &
    Measuring
    ๏ Usage with Matomo (daily
    session, how many users,
    etc.)
    ๏ UMUX-lite Survey (perceived
    usability and usefulness)
    ๏ Feedback and Verbatims

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  19. A User Centered Process
    applied to enterprise
    environments
    Analyse &
    Understand
    Design,
    Explore,
    prototype
    Test,
    Evaluate,
    Measure
    Learn,
    Update,
    Implement

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  20. Some challenges UX Researchers
    might face in such environments…

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  21. Bad user experience is the
    norm because perceived
    value of design is low.
    1.

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  22. ๏ Users start demanding better
    tools & experience.
    ๏ Make the process transparent.
    ๏ Turn developers, BAs, QAs into
    design advocates.
    ๏ Don’t bring an opinion to a data
    fight: measure, bring proof.

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  23. You are saddled
    with legacy
    (data, user habits)
    2.

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  24. ๏ Keep a candid eye to question
    things: tell me whyyyyyyyy…
    ๏ Seek business / developer’s help
    ๏ Change management is key:
    prepare, support and help users
    going through the change.

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  25. Complex internal
    organisations slow things
    down.
    3.

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  26. ๏ Patience: you are in for the long
    game
    ๏ Keep your research safe and
    available. Even if it is not used
    today, it will eventually.
    ๏ Find political allies who can help
    you move things and break silos
    ๏ Understand what makes people
    click and leverage it

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  27. A lot of security and tool
    constraints.
    4.

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  28. ๏ Be flexible, the tool doesn’t make
    the designer "
    ๏ Accept you may not be as
    efficient at first

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  29. Working in such environment can be
    nice and rewarding for researchers

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  30. Easier access
    to internal users to
    conduct research.
    1.

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  31. A LOT of improvement
    opportunities.
    2.

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  32. It involves some
    service and process
    design as well.
    3.

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  33. Complex Information
    Architecture: I feel like a
    detective some days.
    4.

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  34. My advice, to grow as UX
    Researcher, in such environments

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  35. Content might be here
    for a reason. But you are
    allowed to question it.
    1.

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  36. Start with the business &
    users process
    Don’t try to “force” users
    into your ideal flow.
    2.

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  37. Find people to help you get
    familiar with the business,
    the jargon, BEFORE
    starting your research.
    3.

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  38. Complexity is scary…
    Cut it down in smaller
    parts. And document!
    4.

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  39. Analysis
    Asking for business help
    to take a closer look.
    Complexity
    Fear: how am I supposed
    to design that??
    Solution Design
    Once everything clicks
    into place
    User Research
    Finding & understanding
    more of the puzzle.

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  40. There is a big need for UX
    designers in such environments!

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