Erica: Yes, exactly. I don’t want them to expect that they’re going to get a yes or no. What if they get a maybe? What are they going to do with that? I want to get them what’s going to be the most usable for them too. eX: You said earlier you sometiems research new services and perspectives? Erica: Yes, that is a big part of it as well. For example, I have actually been called in to talk to LV customers and financial reps, LV planners and try to get what their impressions are of these more conceptual changes and what that would mean for them. I’m not actually watch- ing them do anything or use anything or ask them about how they use something. I’m more just understanding what their expectations are in an unbiased format. So instead of having someone who is coming up with the idea asking them, I come in, being Switzerland here, not having any stake in the game. It helps with design and product own- ers as well. Product owners and designers are really in the weeds with the concepts and their ideas, whereas I am not. It’s always a best prac- tice to not have a designer or product manager, for that matter, test what they are working on because no one likes to hear that their baby is ugly. Also, my training is in asking things in a certain way to get the answers that they need. eX: Are you always trying to make improve- ments on usability? Or at a certain point are you done? Erica: I think there’s always things that can im- prove. Right? It’s hard to have something that is perfect, but usually I’m done researching when I get answers to the product team and design team, and then when they are able to, in terms of resources, make changes.
eX: How do you find people to be testers and if there is a pool of testers, are there any that do testing often? Would that skew the results? E: Yeah, it does. It’s really important not to get people participating all the time in these types of tests, because they learn the tricks. It depends on who we’re trying to get feedback from. Is it a planner? Is it an FR? Is it a custom- er? Is it a general population person that’s not currently working with LV/NM. At different consulting firms I worked at, we also used to use screeners to try to get, like if we are work- ing with a certain bank we want to get people that have used that bank or that currently use that bank. Usually we’ll work with an outside vendor who will help. They have a panel and a screener who will ask questions like when’s the last time you participated in one of these tests. eX: Do you try to get people on the extremes? People that don’t have cell phones or people who are UX designers themselves? E: Oh, yeah. That’s another thing we screen for. I usually screen for researchers or designers, or work with that type of product, like a product manager for a fintech company, for example. eX: What if that person is super opinionated about UX or UI, but they’re not a designer. E: It happens nowadays. It’s happening more. People are becoming more savvy about design. It’s kind of a problem because you want to reflect the typical uses. Abigail actually has a great thing she says, “we design for the mass- es, but we adjust for the exceptions”. So, if you think of a bell curve, we’re designing for the general population but there are always the one offs and we’ll make tweaks.
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