Month 9 UX Interning Remotely
Preparing for user testing and the tragedy of cognitive overload
Back in my ‘Month 6 of UX interning Remotely’ Medium article I discussed some of my goals for the rest of my time at Puppet. One of these goals was that I would improve upon my user testing skills. This month John Murray has been doing some great work on some upcoming changes for the Forge and I have been getting involved in that process. Whether it be by research, thinking around concepts or by writing user testing scripts and refining the small details of upcoming user testing, I have been challenged in thinking about scenarios that are outside my current thought process in which the user may come across. It’s important to think about all the possible pathways your user may take when testing or the possible ways they may interpret a question you ask, therefore, you must craft your questions carefully and appropriately with feedback from those outside the project.
Focusing on the Forge this month has allowed me to achieve one of my other goals which I set back at the 6-month mark and that is to learn more about Puppet products. I have learnt more about the Forge, not only about its purpose and how it works but how changes in its UX over the years has shaped the product and improved it. I’ve had the opportunity to view google analytics and from this, you can see how changes in design can affect how users interact with the page whether these changes have a positive or negative effect on-page interaction.
Cognitive overload
This month I spent time writing a Medium article on Cognitive overload. By doing this, research and discussions took place about the topic. Rick Monro had a couple of conversations with me about how cognitive overload can have devasting results. One example he used was about an aeroplane flight that went wrong due to the cockpit being badly designed and having so much information close together. In this instance, the pilot got confused between Vertical Speed and Flight Path Angle as they sat on top of each other in the cockpit. This caused the plane to crash into a mountain and since this incident, the VS and FPA section in the cockpit has been redesigned to be side by side with spacing.
Other examples include health care. Health care record systems have been known for bad design and for having lots of patient records and information within them. At times this has caused the information to be hidden and for wrong medicine dosages to be prescribed, causing serious danger to patients health.
It’s important as designers we are aware of stories like these so it hits home how important our job is! Although at Puppet I’m not designing aeroplane cockpits, I am involved in designing software which if not designed efficiently or correctly could cause damage to businesses. For example, Puppet Comply enables continuous compliance across hybrid infrastructure with less overhead and manual work. It generates reports to easily prove that systems remain in check and are in line with standards. If we designed this product to not display businesses status of compliance then that would mean the user would be unaware if they are meeting the level of compliance needed. If a business isn’t compliant it can cost them a loss of reputation and a loss of customers. Therefore, we must ensure that we clearly show a businesses status of compliance. We must be aware of the needs of the product we are designing and provide them needs upfront.
There are only 3 more Medium posts left of my placement year. Time flies when you're having fun. In the meantime, check out my social media:
Email: hello@emmacorbett.design
