Photo: Balboa Spatouch 3
Role: UX Researcher
Company: Enovation Controls LC
Department: Digital Product Design
Product: Hot Tub digital display
Time frame: June-August 2023
Project type: Collaborated with a UX design intern
Hot Tub Digital Control Display
Overview
SpaTouch (ST) display is an interactive display for hot tub users to control temperature, lights, fan, and etc. ST3 is the current product, and ST4 will be launched into the market. This project is to conduct and compare usability testing for both displays and provide UX insights to improve future digital control displays.
My role
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Plan and recruit internal employees
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Conduct usability testing to discover user pain points
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Propose suggestions and feedback based on user testing and discovery
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Collaborate with a UX researcher from start-to-end of the UX process
Process
This is the timeline for the usability study for the entire internship period.
UX Methods
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Heuristic Analysis
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Interview
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Usability testing
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System Usability Scale
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User surveys
Existing screen flows
This is the timeline for the usability study for the entire internship period.
Heuristic Analysis
We listed out the UX and UI issues according to NN/G Heuristic Analysis.
Participant recruitment
We worked closely with the HR to send out survey for internal employers to participate in our user study. We created an online survey about their interest participating and past experience of using a hot tub. The poster was posted in the internal break room for a week. (what is the critera-pre-knowledge)
Image taken: Employer's break room
Comparative A/B Testing
This study was categorized into 4 studies with mixed up the order the participants receive the different designs to help mitigate bias: (grammar check) add one or two sentence to explain what eaach studiese is about).
User testing session with participant
Shots taken during the usability interview
Usability interview in a conference room
ST3 on the left; ST4 on the right
A picture of me reading out the next task list to a participant
Data | Qualitative Analysis
After participants complete the task according to the task lists, we would ask them "What do you think about this?" "What did you like the most?" "What did you dislike the most?" "Was the task difficult?" The responses was transcribed into qualitative analysis on the FigJam board shown below: (excel sheet for future use)
Tags were added to label each features; Color coded according to each participant
ST3 on the left and ST4 on the right; The data was categorized into different features of the hot tub
Data | Quantitative Analysis
A System Usability Score (SUS) was handed out at the end of each interview. Participants were asked to fill out a form that range from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree (shown beside).
Why SUS?
Using SUS as a post-questionnaire helps reflect how they feel about the usability of the hot tub display in terms of the UI design, UX, and overall impression.
The table above is a the average time taken to complete the task lists and the SUS score.
ST3 & ST4 average score falls into the marginal score of ST3 56% and ST4 64%, with the scale of 0-100. Click here to learn more about SUS score.
UX Suggestions
Lastly, we compared both of the devices and discovered the common pain points, differences, overall improvements, and future suggestions based on the usability testing and Nielson Norman's Heuristic Analysis.
Due to confidentiality purposes, the texts are not intended to be legible. Please reach out to me if you would like to know more about this.
Reflection
What was challenging?
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Understanding the UX design for marine, hot tub, food steamer.
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Taking consideration into the user's environment (Ex: boat drivers are constantly proposing while controlling the display.
What was the most enjoyable part?
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Applying different UX methodologies and laws of UX into the design process.
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The whole process from recruiting participants, conducting user interviews, to mixed-method data analysis.
What did I learn?
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Asking myself or the design team "what if" and "what else am I missing?"
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Limitations and opportunities of hardware products (Ex: screen size, hardware size, etc).
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Communication and collaboration with designers and developers.
Additional: Weekly Reflection
At the end of every week, I do a personal reflection on the things I have learned, to be improved, and goals for the upcoming week. Here are a few shots of my intern journal book.
