Role: User Experience, User Interface Design and Front-end
Tools: Inkscape, paper prototypes, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, SASS, CoffeeScript
Problem
Curia Sport Center booking site (sports centers, soccer fields) used to have one daily support call from users complaining about password reset “I can’t change the password, could you change the password for me?”.
It seems that users were not able to recover their password because it was not so clear to them what to do next or if they had requested password recovery at all. Users didn’t know they needed to check their email, although the message was visible on the interface.
Above are some screenshots of the old user interface, miss-label input that reads “Begin Session” instead of “Recover your password”. After the first interaction, there is a new message with instructions, but in the same color, users dismiss this information (everything looks the same). We later saw that users were trying to do this same step over and over, they thought it was not working, but they only needed to check their email.
We evaluated the whole user flow and it was plagued by pain points, we also discovered another priority, the registration form. The registration form was too long and users were not able to select their “location” (because it was not listed in the drop-down menu), some users complained that they were not able to register at all using their cellphones as well. It was really something, users couldn’t even create their accounts; they were unable to use the application.
Challenges
Convincing my team to work first on the user experience and paper prototypes for this recovery password before moving on to other backlog items was really difficult. They were worried about doing all these design-related extra steps: user flow, personas, and paper prototypes. Nevertheless, they were really happy to collaborate once they saw all the blockers users experienced during the recovery password process and registration. They even provided ideas and were really involved in the solution.
Metrics
During the sprint planning meeting, we chose the goal to help the user have a good registration and recovery password experience. Because we were also fixing the registration form, we wanted to check:
1. Number of registered users.
2. Time that the users spent during the registration process.
Metrics play a pivotal role in our strategic approach, which we’ve closely aligned with the vision of our Marketing Director. Our focus has been on quantifying the number of transactions, a key metric that directly ties in with user registrations. This connection is vital because without user registration, transactions cannot occur.
The marketing team, eagerly anticipating this data, is now poised to leverage these insights for informed decision-making. The availability of these metrics marks a significant milestone for us. It opens up new avenues for strategic planning and targeted actions, enabling us to better understand and meet the needs of our users.
This initiative is not just about numbers; it’s about gaining a deeper understanding of user behavior and preferences. By bridging this knowledge gap, we’re setting the stage for more effective marketing strategies and improved user experiences. It’s an exciting time as we move forward with data-driven decisions that will undoubtedly fuel our product’s growth and success.
My Contribution
I was in charge of this particular sprint in the absence of the Project Manager. The main strategy was to use Human-Centered Design to define the sprint goal. I guided the sprint planning session, working with the rest of the development team and taking into consideration the main goal for the product.
We all worked together, offering a bright perspective of what the sprint should be. Each team member offered their skill set; mine included thinking about how users interact with the web application (User Experience), redesigning the interfaces, and refactoring part of the Front-End code used for the recovery password and registration forms.
Part of the job also required testing what we had done using different devices and browsers.
Successfull Sprint
We conducted a series of tests and noticed that the time to register and recover passwords was significantly faster, the interface was easy to understand, and the support team stopped receiving calls requesting manual password resets. This allowed them to focus on other support requests that required their attention.
