@sotak

PHONE IS RINGINGOH

MYGODMarek Sotak@sotak

@sotak

I AM...

Marek Sotak - @sotak

web developer for the past 14+ years

Drupal developer - themer for the past 8+ years

design, research, UX, rootcandy,...

FrontEndUnited co-organiser,...

http://sotak.co.uk – http://inlinemanual.com – http://atomicant.co.uk

@sotak

You: Hello, how can I help you?

Customer: I can't login to my site.

Y: Are you sure you used the right password?

C: Yes, I'm sure. I saw my colleague do it.

Y: Can you tell me what the password was?

C: Five stars.

@sotak

THE PROBLEM

Once the site has been done

– …

– …

– Provide client with sufficient support● end-user manuals● learning resources● knowledge base● ...

@sotak

RESEARCH

Is it really just us?

How do others do it?

There surely must be a solution

@sotak

RESEARCH

Interview calls – 30 subjects

– Drupal companies

– Individuals

– Other companies

Subjects from all around the world

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

Hypothesis 1

– Interviews will reveal difficulty creating agile documentation-manuals for end-users

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

All interviewees expressed frustration with creating and maintaining documentation for end-users with theirs current solution

40% of the interviewees are not doing any documentation at all and rely only on the phone call support

Some interviewees expressed an idea to have a documentation department – but no budget there

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

Hypothesis 2

– Problem interviews will validate our belief that customers use one or more - custom - alternatives and that there are no alternatives to a better application documentation

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

NONE of the interviewees have a service/product in-place that they will be happy with. All of the solutions were semi-custom

All of the interviewees have no process implemented or are/were experimenting with different approaches (unsuccessfully)

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

Screenshots

30.8% Interviewees stated that they are using screenshots in documents

sometimes they allow client to react/give feedback within the document via notes/comments (Google docs)

everyone expressed high pain level, especially when it came to updating the docs

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

Screencasts

23.1% - often used to show the basics of how to deal with the applications (overview)

the rest of the functionality client has to deduct themselves based on the overview screencasts

more popular in terms of happiness of selected approach

re-used screencasts from other sources were often being used

successful with clients/end-users but failed for developers

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

Workshops

held when it was necessary to educate a team of people

painful and expensive, since there was a preparation needed and approximately one developers time

Workshops were often followed by phone call support

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

Phone Call Support

Interviewees were aware of loosing much more time on phone support, if they rather had a better documentation, but since it was so painful creating one, they didn’t care that much

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

well established companies - no idea how to improve the process

usually there is no budget for creating the documentation

@sotak

RESEARCH RESULTS

@sotak

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS THEN?

Support calls

Support chat

Workshops

Web ticketing

Knowledge base

– Screencasts

– Screenshots

– Solutions

Better UX

@sotak

WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS THEN?

Support calls – expensive – approx $12/call

Support chat – still requires person to answer, exp.

Workshops – expensive – lots of preparation needed

Web ticketing – still requires person to answer, $2/iss

Knowledge base

– Screencasts – reusability?,...

– Screenshots – don't get me started here

– Solutions – good content helps

Better UX – won't cover workflows and processes

@sotak

MY PERSONAL BEST

Better UX

Self-help support

Knowledge base● Screencasts● Screenshots● Solutions

@sotak

BETTER UX

Things that are aesthetically pleasing, which we enjoy looking at or touching, and which are attractive make us feel good. And when we feel good our thinking is more creative and we have an easier time solving the problems we face. How to use a particular object, for example.

That is why attractive, beautiful, appealing, aesthetic objects work better, because they evoke positive feelings and inspire more creative thinking.

@sotak

@sotak

UCD – User Centered Design

“In broad terms, user-centered design (UCD) is a type of user interface design and a process in which the needs, wants, and limitations of end users of a product are given extensive attention at each stage of the design process.”

@sotak

UCD – User Centered Design

A system can be designed to support its intended users’ existing beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors as they relate to the tasks that the system is being designed to support → increase userfriendlines, usability, ... → increase sales, reach business goals,...

@sotak

UCD – User Perspectives

Needs and wants

Goals motivation and triggers

Obstacles and limitations

Tasks activities and behaviors

Geography and language

Environment and gear

Work life and experience

...

@sotak

UCD – Not that

It is NOT just that you have to do

what the user asks for

“Our customer is our Master.”

Tomáš Baťa’s motto, 1909

@sotak

UCD – Not that

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want to buy a quarter-inch hole!”

Theodore LevittHarvard marketing professor

@sotak

UCD – Disciplines

Information architecture

Interaction design

Visual design

Research

Usability

...

@sotak

UCD – Process

Research

Concept

Design

Evaluate

@sotak

UCD – Process

Research

Concept

Design

Evaluate

–

Deploy

Learn

@sotak

@sotak

WHAT TO RESEARCH?

“Micro” approach

- take just one thing and analyse

access log examination

@sotak

WHAT TO RESEARCH?

The SEARCH

Needs RESEARCH

The search is one of the most valuable functionality of the self-help portal

@sotak

RESEARCHING THE OBVIOUS?

Sometimes we take granted that things that are out of the box on a widely used system work as they should.

We tend to be lazy

@sotak

RESEARCHING THE OBVIOUS?

@sotak

SETTING MY PERSONAL GOALS

Show the team that we don't know much

Showcase research approaches

Make search to be used more often

Make UCD one of the processes

@sotak

OUTPUT

An analysis of how the search works

Delivered as a presentation

Sent out to all team members and managers

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

We wanted to increase the use of self-help content > decrease raised tickets

We assumed that the search is not working based on the feedback from some users

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

Making a simple scenario – user story

The ideal simplified workflow

– find the search field

– enter the search term

– click the available action to perform the search - search button

– find the solution on the first page

– --if not found, refine the search by adding a keyword or using filters

– read the solution

– optionally perform any action that might help others (rate the solution,…)

– exit peacefully with problem fixed and spread how much they loved the portal

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

Keyword Searches Raised tickets Percentage Searched again

blank 3000 66 4.5% 2000

lync 1000 33 7.8% 300

nicpassword 900 24 5% 400

mindaling 800 54 4% 220

password 800 32 3% 60

outlook 700 67 6% 340

blackberry 700 12 7% 56

shared drive 700 4 8% 98

headset 600 15 5% 3

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

Total searches performed in last 10 days > 10000 out of 1000000 page views

What is that blank keyword?

Why are people searching for this?

Blank > 4.5% searches – 6% exit rate

It IS an expected behavior! > intention to make it easier for user to navigate through portal!

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

Reality check, are the filters being used?

Starting page:

search/apachesolr_search/blank?filters=undefined&retain-filters=1

Filters used page:

search/apachesolr_search/blank?filters=”content”&retain-filters=1

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

home – 1100

search – 510

referral – 110

ticket-page – 5

taxonomy – 5

user - 1

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

Home – 1100

There is a problem!

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

Search – 510

There is a second problem!

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

Referral – 110

There is a wrong link on the intranet

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

Ok, if you remember, we were trying to find out whether the filters are being used

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

20Is the number

how many times the filters were used

Conclusion:

The page does not work as it was designed

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

So what did we just achieve

by just looking at one keyword, we were able to identify quite a lot of major problems

the search box might be confusing on all pages

the "blank" page is not working as designed

we found two defects related to search and one wrong link on the intranet

Conclusion

the basic search user experience seems frustrating and adds time spent on the site while searching

@sotak

THE SEARCH ANALYSIS

And importantly, the points mentioned

are not assumptionsthis is what is happening on the site

there are numbers behind it

@sotak

RESEARCHING THE OBVIOUS?

@sotak

RESEARCHING THE OBVIOUS?

@sotak

MEASSURING

Define your KPIs based on the goals

- are users searching from HP more often?

- are users clicking search button only?

- are users asking questions?

- are users entering more than one word?

@sotak

@sotak

@sotak

@sotak

@sotak

@sotak

SELF-HELP Portals

Knowledge base

– Effective search

– Categorisation

Web-ticketing

– Support agents

@sotak

SELF-HELP

Source: zendesk.com

@sotak

SELF-HELP

Source: zendesk.com

@sotak

SELF-HELP Portals

Zendesk – http://zendesk.com

Desk – http://desk.com

Uservoice – https://uservoice.com/

...

Build your own with Drupal

Support ticketing system - https://drupal.org/project/support

Search – Apache SOLR,...

@sotak

END-USER Manuals

Usually exported as PDF, or HTML

Never updated

Never read

All above leads to frustration of the author

@sotak

END-USER Manuals

Manuals were here centuries ago

@sotak

FACTS ABOUT DOCS...

Documentation is hard to budget

Documentation can't be reused

Documentation is time consuming

Documentation is boring

Documentation is boring

Documentation is boring

Documentation is everything BAD you can imagine

BUT, think again...

@sotak

When we feel good our thinking is more creative and we have an easier time solving the problems we face.

@sotak

Documentation is

ONE OF THE PROCESSES

in web development

to make your client HAPPY

@sotak

TAKEAWAYS - research

Start your research NOW with one small thing

Learn from your own work after you launch → post analysis

Analyse, don't assume too often

Think about users but keep business needs in mind

@sotak

TAKEAWAYS - self-help

Users want self-service

Providing a help is part of our process

There is a solution!

@sotak

HOW DID WE SOLVE THIS

https://inlinemanual.com

@sotak

THANK YOU!

Marek Sotak@sotak

inlinemanual.com@inlinemanual

@sotak

CREDITS

Prague photo by Grim Berge

Other icons by Font Awesome by Dave Gandy

Historical Manual image - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MS_44_A_8_1v.jpg