Overview
I joined HP Inc. for an internship with the Print Design department, specifically on the Setup & Onboarding team. On top of conducting in-depth analyses of multiple small office and home printers, I streamlined efficiency by designing a system where expert users could quickly identify pain points with the printer unboxing and setup process.
Disclaimer: The full extent of my work at HP Inc. is under an NDA but please email me sjnagasuri@gmail.com with any questions!
Timeline: Jun 2023 - Sep 2023 (3 months)
Role: User Experience Design Intern
Team: UX Research Team & 1 Content Designer
Tools: Miro, Figma, Excel, Power Automate, Forms, JIRA
The Problem
The old heuristic checklist for printer setup had never been updated and posed challenges for expert users trying to unbox and set up a new printer simultaneously. Its length and lack of efficient data processing resulted in infrequent usage. The 500-question document required copy updates, content revisions, and alignment with user experiences.
Format of Heuristic Checklist & Example Heuristic Question
Therefore, I created the following problem statement to address the issues I was trying to solve by redesigning the heuristic evaluation checklist...
How might I find a way to standardize the checklist, make it quicker to fill out and automate the process of receiving data quickly so that users can actually utilize the data to determine pain points more efficiently?
The Solution
After conducting more user research, I was able to create a system that addressed the pain points from my target audience: expert printer evaluators.
The system created has several different steps as referenced by the chart below:
01 Forms + Users
The expert printer evaluators (users) would first answer rating scale questions (1-5) on one of four Forms (each form corresponding to a different part of the setup process).
02 Power Automate
Utilizing Power Automate, the data from one expert user’s unique response would be populated onto an Excel Spreadsheet.
03 Excel
Using Excel’s formulas, the process was further automated so that the spreadsheet would produce a summary of what heuristics were met and to what degree.
04 Result
This new way of heuristically evaluating a printer allowed experts to analyze the results of their unboxing and setup process more quantitatively.
The Process
Discover: Understanding the Users
Starting With My Manager
My manager alerted me to the issue of the cumbersome heuristic evaluation checklist, prompting me to delve deeper into the problem.
Myself
After evaluating printers using the checklist, I identified specific pain points that defined my understanding of the problem.
Consulting 5 Additional Target Users
I interviewed 5 of my co-workers who had performed heuristic evaluations. Some of the key questions I asked are listed below.
| How often do you use the completed checklist to make a final report?
| Is there anything about the process that you find tedious?
| How would you conduct a heuristic evaluation without the checklist?
Insights Gathered
General Insights: Users found the checklist to be too lengthy to be effective, tedious to navigate due to 10+ clicks to answer a single heuristic question, and no immediate data summary after completion.
Copy Specific Insights: Users also said the questions were very redundant and outdated.
Define: Ideation
Redefining the Scope
I sought to refine the checklist's scope by deciding between Yes/No/NA and Rating Scale Questions (1-5). Preliminary user feedback highlighted redundancy in answering both types of questions.
Making Improvements
I consulted experts in packaging, setup manuals, physical setup, and online setup (the individual sections of the checklist) to refine the checklist's questions and copy, ensuring clarity and relevance.
Figuring Out the Format
I opted to distribute the heuristic checklist via Microsoft Forms, a familiar platform for my colleagues, and utilized Power Automate to seamlessly connect responses to an Excel Sheet, generating automatic data summaries.
Develop: Exploring other Option
Working Out the Details
I conducted A/B testing with five co-workers to gauge preference for question formats. I asked expert users to evaluate printers while doing the survey.
All 5 users preferred option B for its flexibility in entering scores.
Deliver: The Final Deliverables
How It All Turned Out
This is the format our final solution took. It included a qualitative data report can be easily inserted into reports and read by higher ups.
Reflecting on Some Additional Changes
I incorporated 3 different forms for each section to
cut down length of form (50 questions per section)
and because during user interviews, people mentioned they only performed a part of the total evaluation occasionally.
Making Sure the Form Outlasted Me by
creating a guide detailing the process of how to operate and adjust the form from the backend should any changes ever need to be made.
This is to ensure the form outlasts my time at HP and expert users can continue to benefit and improve from it and in turn help our target users.
Reflection
My Impact
Streamlined efficiency by creating a system which motivates expert users to utilize it through...
an uncomplicated method of data collection and
a more through & automated report which increases efficiency with identifying pain points
Standardized the evaluation process thereby ensuring no gaps or areas were missedan uncomplicated method of data collection
Set & Standard criteria prevents biases - keeps experts from paying too much attention to one aspect of the Setup & Onboarding experience or neglecting any aspects thus skewing the collected data
Even novices will be able to easily understand what criteria to consider during evaluations which streamlines the onboarding process
Takeaways
Communication is key! Reaching out to experts of different knowledge areas regarding printers was instrumental in ensuring the checklist contained clear, concise and accurate information. Identifying needs of experts to determine problem areas was also very helpful in establishing direction and creating the final product.
Prioritization ensures productivity. While my main project is what I focused on during this case study, I had more responsibilities and mini-projects to complete on the side. Making sure to prioritize what needed to be completed first based on business needs, user needs and expert needs ensured my goals aligned with my team’s goals.
Pictures make the presentation. While working at HP, I realized that pitches always do better when accompanied with a visual aspect. Thus, I always made sure to create prototypes or mock up examples of my pitch. This ensured I received precise feedback and gave me an added opportunity to self-evaluate the feasibility of the project.
