Tasks Redesign Usertesting.com Usability Test

Background

Projects in TSheets are currently able to be estimated in two ways.
  1. By Total Project hours (a guess at the total number of labor hours needed for a project.) 
  1. By custom fields/tasks (by an itemized list, used by employees to track time against these specific items.) 
Significant usability issues with the current implementation of “Estimate by custom field” design pattern  were discovered during recent usability testing and customer outreach. The team discovered that users are currently unaware that there are two options for estimating a project in its current implementation. 
  • a dropdown that defaults to “Total Hours”
  • the other “estimate by total hours” being hidden in this dropdown. 
 Old Design
According to the PM,  multiple users have been wanting this type of functionality yet were unaware of this existing functionality due to the above design pattern. According to PM, once customers discovered this feature they vocalized this was meeting their needs of tracking time to specific project items. 
As a team, we decided to redesign our “tasks” like experience to increase the visibility of the two estimate types by following a similar 
  1. Tasks
  1. Total Hours

Goals
Evaluate new interaction patterns/designs in redesigned task flow for usability issues (whether interaction or copy).
Confirm that new design increases discoverability of the two estimate types available (currently) in TSheets Projects. 
Research Objective / Research Questions
  1. What usability issues, if any, exist in redesigned task experience? 
  1. Do people 
  1. know how many estimate types there are?
  1. know how to add a task-based estimate?
  1. understand the type-ahead pattern?
  1. understand how to edit estimate hours?
  1. understand how to remove an estimate item?
  1. Does the new design improve the discoverability of estimate types? 
  1. What changes (UI or copy), if any, need to be made before production work begins?
Related Research/Projects 
Projects Tasks RITE study, Workforce management RITE study
Key Differences from other research: 
The RITE study conducted by tasks was focused on generating ideas for future states of tasks. Discovering what we’re missing in our current implementation, what people expect out of tasks, etc. 
This plan focuses on evaluating a redesign effort to confirm it is increasing the discoverability of our existing functionality. 

Recruitment Plan

Target User Career Profile
 Ideally an admin or owner type who has
  • planned projects
  • estimated tasks within a project for a team
Demographics
Geographic- Prefer varied regions within US
Gender- Prefer spread of male/female/non-binary
Education- No preference
Career Background-  Prefer construction or project-based workplaces


Method

Unmoderated Usability Testing
Usability testing chosen as standard way to evaluate HCI and interaction pattern decisions for substantial usability challenges (NNG recommends ~5 participants to uncover majority of usability challenges). 
Unmoderated 
 Chosen due to ability to perform test asynchronously due to time constraints of team.