Live Sharing Integration

**The below study is strictly covered by NDA. Many details have been omitted or intentionally kept vague.**
Presentation

(Light-weight, externally facing slide deck)

Summary

PROBLEM

A product team created a novel, streamlined live content sharing experience integrated into the upcoming Windows 11 OS. They needed to evaluate the learning experience (LE) that would effectively educate users about the feature.

METHOD

  • Interview
  • Concept testing
  • Basic usability
  • Thematic analysis
  • Video editing

RESEARCHERS

  • Anton Sirotin

MY RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Led all aspects of the research
  • Scoped, planned, designed study
  • Executed data collection
  • Analyzed data
  • Wrote up and presented insights to stakeholders

IMPACT

Insights from this study directly led the product team to pivot to a more effective learning experience, thereby saving engineering time and resources. The timing and outcome of the study was critical for the team as the Windows 11 release was only a few months away.

Background

Remote content sharing became an increasingly important user need during the Covid pandemic. During this time, people increasingly relied on technology to help share their lives with others. Seeing this as an opportunity to uplevel the live content sharing experience, one of the product teams (PM’s & designers) I supported created a streamlined Windows integration that could help users do so.

Having created the experience, the product team needed UXR support to evaluate an in-situ learning experience that could help educate users about this new Windows feature. I worked with the product team to understand the problem space and help them craft research questions from which I designed the study and research protocol.

 

Methods

INTERVIEW

Study components were contained within a remote 1:1 interview structure involving external Windows 10 users who used only one monitor. Participants were recruited through UserTesting.com.

CONCEPT TEST

Leveraging a Figma prototype created by my design partners, I conducted a concept test to showcase both the sharing experience itself as well as its accompanying learning experience (LE). Participants were asked about sentiment and perceived value of the LE.

USABILITY TEST

Within the concept test I embedded a light usability component to test the discoverability, understandability, and error tolerance of the LE, which required some user interaction. This piece of the study also enabled me to pressure test the LE experience by crafting a high-stakes user scenario within which participants performed basic tasks.  

THEMATIC ANALYSIS

I analyzed all qualitative data using a thematic analysis to synthesize understand key themes within user sentiment within the Concept and Usability test. 

Findings

Despite overwhelmingly positive sentiment for the novel sharing experience, sentiment toward the LE was low. 

It was discovered that the proposed, in situ LE was not an effective way to educate users of the new feature — particularly in high-stakes sharing contexts — because of its low discoverability and low understandability. It was also found that the LE synergized negatively with existing Windows features as it negatively impacted user confidence in other aspects of the sharing experience. 

Alternative LE’s were recommended based on synthesized qualitative findings derived from expressed user needs.

Outcome

The insights gleaned by this study directed the product team to scrap the proposed LE and begin exploring alternative methods of educating users based on my recommendations.