Ditto is a small, discrete, wearable notification device that lets you know when you get a call, text, email, or an app notification.

The Problem

85% of all calls and emails made to the Simple Matters Support Desk were about on-boarding issues in the Ditto app. While I was working as a tech support team member, I recognized the issues were not technical; they were primarily a usability issue. A good number of those emails also complained about not knowing how to properly set their notifications up for the apps they were using. This resulted in most of the support staff's time invested in an issue that was easy to fix, and increased costs to the company because of the amount of hours needed to help users with these issues.

My Role

For this project I was the main UX Researcher/Analyst. I had one other IT Support coworker to help as my research assistant.
The visual designer and UI designer were  responsible for the wire framing and visual design. The team wanted me to focus on finding participants from our core customers, get a better idea of what they were experiencing, and coming up with some solutions to fix those problems.

The Plan

With this, I came up with a plan.

1. Identify our core users and conduct user interviews
2. Find current users and do a contextual analysis of their experience with Ditto (how, where, when, and what they use Ditto for) and establish a baseline for their experiences.
3. Conduct usability studies of the current version of Ditto as well as various prototypes with new users from  our identified core user populations
4. Iterate and reiterate prototypes based on the feedback we received.

Ditto's Users

Previous efforts at UX done by marketing and a General Assembly UX Design cohort produced a journey map and some initial personas. While the effort was commendable (the Journey Map was exceptionally good), the personas original personas were inaccurate.

Ditto’s Actual Users

Working as part of the IT Help Desk gave me access to the most reported issues, as well as the people who felt Ditto had the most value to them. My initial instinct was to go to them and find out more about the people who were passionate about our product. I also reached out to our backers on Kickstarter, people who registered their devices on our website, and customers who bought the device on our website.

After conducting my surveys, interviews, and contextual analyses, I was able to identify Ditto's three main users: Deaf/ Hard of hearing, the elderly, and blue collar workers. What was surprising was that although young professionals were buying our device, they were not buying it for themselves. They were buying it for their parents. Also, a good portion of help desk calls were made through a Video Relay Service, which is a service deaf and hard of hearing people use to call hearing people. This pointed to a deficit in knowledge, and thus an inaccurate portrayal of who our actual users were.

My work produced three workable personas: Julie’s mother Abigail, Linda the Deaf User, and Tom the Factory Worker.

The User's Experience

Using the in-person contextual analyses, I was able to verify the Journey Map the General Assembly team put together. Their map closely reflected the experiences our core users had with Ditto and identified the major pain points they experienced throughout that journey.

Critical Take Aways for Future Development

After doing multiple contextual inquiries with our core user groups (5 members of each group) there were things that we really needed to keep in mind moving forward when implementing changes if they were going to be effective.

• All Ditto’s main users were people who were lower income AND had limited experience with mobile technology

• Two populations in particular (elderly and the Deaf) were largely neglected by tech development despite wanting new tech that would address their needs

• All future development on Ditto needed to account for the Deaf and elderly because they combined are the people who made up 70% of Ditto’s user base

The Usability Study Tasks

Now that we identified who our core users were and understood who we were designing for, we could finally tackle our main goal: fix on-boarding issues and setting up notifications.

1. Set up Ditto with your phone

2. Change the notification settings for texts and phone calls

3. Change the notification settings for the Facebook App

The Key Pain Points

Solutions

Each solution we tested, prototyped, and implemented focused on the expectations and experiences of our core users. Seeing as nearly 70% of our users matched up with the Linda the Deaf User Persona and Tom the Factory Worker Persona, our designs had to be made for users who were less experienced with mobile technology while still lining up with the expectations of  Julie the Professional Persona. This meant we had to guide our relatively inexperienced users, as well as teach them common design language other apps and services used. This was a challenge, but with multiple iterations, we were able to get satisfactory results.

Results

Post implementation of these changes found significant results:

• Onboarding issue reports virtually disappeared
• User adoption rate increased by 45%
• Customer satisfaction  with Ditto increased from 85% to 96%

Conclusion

The major changes implemented were highly successful in fixing major usability issues within the Ditto app.
In the end, this short project saved Simple Matters LLC time and money which we then utilized on developing more features that Ditto users wanted. It also resulted in greater satisfaction with Ditto as a whole for its customers. In all, this project for us was absolutely necessary in making Ditto a better product and making it a better experience for everyone involved.

Final App Designs