My Role
I conducted user research and collaborated with a product designer on my team on the final designs
timeline
June - July 2022 (6 weeks)
impact
Achieved a 38% increase in engagement among Canadians
Achieved a 22% increase in positive user feedback from Canadians
Expanded the feature set, allowing users to complete more tasks within the app
Strategy
The Plan
Our purpose at RV LIFE is to make RV navigation safe and easy. The goal of this project was to improve the product for Canadian RVers by redesigning the measurement unit settings to better meet their needs. To understand the nuances of their behaviors and preferences, I conducted user interviews. Using two earlier design concepts, I also ran moderated A/B tests because I felt that visualizations would help users better conceptualize these settings.
Goals
Explore how users conceptualize and interact with these settings
Understand user expectations and needs regarding these settings within our tools
Research
Users
I spoke with 6 Canadian users who crossed the border with their RV at least 1x a year and fit our main user demographic: 60+, retired, and drive big rigs (think Walter White’s RV plus some).
plan
The interviews were broken down into 2 parts:
User Interviews to uncover how users navigated between the systems while traveling and how they thought about them in a general sense.
A/B Testing of existing designs to observe how users interact with the settings and to understand their expectations. Below are the versions, they differ in their placement within the tools and how the Measurement Units are organized.
A Lesson
One user couldn't load the Maze test on his iPad due to large file size and the unreliable campground Wi-Fi. We discussed the designs instead, but in the future I'll prepare a backup plan, like sending the Figma prototype or sharing my screen.
research findings
insights
Flexibility between the two systems is very important to users. Since the systems changed in Canada in 1970, many of our users were raised with the Imperial system and still prefer it in some cases.
I grew up using miles and it wasn't until high school that they decided to switch to Metric... It's still easier for me to calculate in my head: ‘okay, 50 miles is an hour’ - Rick
Canadians will measure lengths in feet, but heights in meters which blew my little mind.
Up here in Canada, our bridges are all shown in metric, but when we book a ferry, that is in feet - Trudy
One user mentioned the need to adjust weather settings, which we hadn't considered. I mentioned this in other interviews, and additional users expressed interest in the functionality. This also revealed users want to modify settings across the app, not just those related to their RV. This was a major insight which led to our decision to store these settings at the Profile level rather than tying them to a user's RV.
Designing
Implementing the Findings
Looking Ahead
bonus
During past projects, I had written out Research Debriefs but I received feedback that they were too wordy. The big question then was: How can I get my colleagues and stakeholders to engage with my research? I decided to create a FigJam - a sort of 'museum of findings' - which included interview recordings and user quotes which my colleagues could explore at their own pace. Happy to report that this approach successfully increased engagement and support for research across the company!
The Results
Impact
This new design had an immediate positive impact on our Canadian users with a boost in engagement and positive user feedback. We also learned a lot about Canadian cultural nuances which will help shape future product decisions. Expanding the feature set also enabled our users to accomplish more tasks within the app, reducing their reliance on external tools.
Boost in Engagement
+38%
Among Canadian users after we rolled out region-specific enhancements
positive user feedback
+22%
From a happy camper: “It’s great to see that your looking out for us Canadian users!”
Learnings
Socializing research results in a way that is engaging is a great opportunity to make the design thinking process visible and to build support for research.
Being flexible during research allows the research plan to evolve as insights emerge. I learned to treat my research plan as a living document.
Discussing design concepts with developers ensures a feasible Phase I while also preserving insights for future phases.