A Tale of Two Customers Addressing the struggle between flexibility and usability in B2B software implementations

Eileen O’Brien, Usability Analyst, Salesforce.com

Peter Roessler, User Researcher, Salesforce.com

UPA 2009 International Conference

What we will share today

• Offer perspective on the challenges of ensuring usability of software that is customized for Business-to-Business (B2B) customers

• Share our case study to explore methods we used to address these challenges

• Suggest additional strategies for ensuring ease-of-use for customized applications

THE PROBLEM

Our Process

UCD not part of post-release process

As usability practitioners working with Business-to-Business (B2B) software, our efforts focus on providing ease of use for the ‘out of the box’ application.

What We Usually Do

We can ensure usability to a certain point:

• We conduct formative usability testing on prototypes • We review the coded screens • We work with development teams to be sure that UI bugs are fixed

before release

At the point of release, we feel confident in the UI we have worked to validate

It works

HOWEVER…

In the realm of B2B software, what the user eventually sees is not always what was originally released.

A key selling point of B2B software for the enterprise customer is its flexibility to be customized.

Consultants often customize B2B applications for larger customers in order to accommodate their individual business processes.

Implemented Product

• New Screens

• New Tabs

• New Field Labels

• Modified Navigation

• Integration with 3rd Party Systems

• Simple Processes Now Multi-Step

Customizations

Yet the developer consultants are rarely trained in user-centered design methods

Example: Terminology

Example: Navigation Issues

Example: Horizontal and Double Scrollbars

• Poor usability increases training costs

• Poor usability increases inefficiency

• We need an on-going relationship with our customers – for them to be successful we need to make it work

Why it is important

• Many stakeholders = politics

• Limited Budget = no allotment for design/usability testing

• Time = they paid all this money for the system because they need it and nobody wants to wait to start to use it

Why it is not an easy fix

CUSTOMER CASE STUDIES

• Two Call Centers • Implementation by partner and internal consultants • System integrations with billing system, product databases • Addition of non-standard components, new screens

The Customers

What we were asked to do

• Conduct usability assessment of in-progress implementation

• Provide recommendations to improve usability

Implemented Product

Where we came in

Special Considerations

• Customers wanted us involved

• But, consultants had completed considerable work and were nervous that our recommendations would require major re-work

Back Story | Call Center Customers Request Usability Assessment

1

Conference call with customers and development consultants to walk through the implementation so far.

Demo 2 3 4 Field Research Heuristic Evaluation

Involved the Consultants

Contextual Inquiry at customer call centers to understand motivations and goals, current task flows and business processes supported by current products.

Group heuristic evaluation to identify violations. Prototype suggested solutions and present to customers.

Reviewed findings with the consulting teams before sharing the results with the customer.

How can we improve the user experience for these customer implementations? What we did

Back Story | Call Center Customers Request Usability Assessment

1

Conference call with customers and development consultants to walk through the implementation so far.

Demo

How can we improve the user experience for these customer implementations? What we did

Back Story | Call Center Customers Request Usability Assessment

2 Field Research

Contextual Inquiry at customer call centers to understand motivations and goals, current task flows and business processes supported by current products.

How can we improve the user experience for these customer implementations? What we did

Back Story | Call Center Customers Request Usability Assessment

How can we improve the user experience for these customer implementations? What we did

Back Story | Call Center Customers Request Usability Assessment

3 Heuristic Evaluation

Group heuristic evaluation to identify violations. Prototype suggested solutions and present to customers.

How can we improve the user experience for these customer implementations? What we did

Back Story | Call Center Customers Request Usability Assessment

4 Involved the consultants

How can we improve the user experience for these customer implementations? What we did

Reviewed findings with the consulting teams before sharing the results with the customer. • documented issues they were already working on • documented successes • gave them time to determine what development work they could salvage & form a strategy

“You solved a few dilemmas for us. The evaluation was very valuable and will help us in deciding what we want to have accomplished before the roll out.”

- Customer B

How it was received

“I’ve been building call centers for years and the amount of detail and focus on detail is amazing. This service could be sold every time.”

- Professional Services Lead

How it was received

WHAT WE LEARNED

Timing is important

Prototype the recommendations

Make it a win-win situation

WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?

UCD in Consulting Certification Program

• Add basic user-centered design training to consulting certification program

• Keep content lightweight - touching on usability methods as well as design standards and guidelines, such as our team’s “8 Guiding Principles of User Experience”.

UCD in Consulting Certification Program

User Experience Office Hours for Implementers

• Held at standard times 3 days per week

• UI Designers, Usability Analysts, User Researchers staff the office hours

• Internal and Partner Consultants can present interfaces and ask questions about ‘Best Practices’

Design Patterns

Title

Summary

Category

Graphics Screenshots Illustrations

Standard Components

Salesforce Human Interface Guidelines

• Goal is to assist developers building on our platform

• Provides detailed information on fundamentals of good design

• Includes details of the elements of our Interface, including components, behavior and guidelines

Our Key Takeaway

The more flexibility we offer to customers, the more responsibility we have to provide solutions for a positive user experience.

Our suggestions are not a panacea, just a beginning…

AUDIENCE ACTIVITY

Audience Activity

• Share examples of any related experiences working with customizable software

• Reflect on proposed strategies and suggest modifications

• Suggest additional techniques the team might pilot in future projects

THANK YOU!

eobrien@salesforce.com and proessler@salesforce.com