Sound Transit Case Study
I joined the Passenger Experience team at Sound Transit to conduct a full-scale generative research project of internal tools used by the 800+ person organization.
Sound Transit is the transit organization serving the broader Seattle metropolitan area across Puget Sound.
Role: UX Researcher
Location: Seattle, WA
Methods: Literature Reviews, Surveys, Card Sorting, Interviews
Objective
Sound Transit uses a number of internal tools to manage projects and information across multiple departments. Information sharing is largely dependent on knowing who to ask, and often information gets lost because people do not know how to surface their questions.
My goal was to understand and document the current processes for information sharing, and create recommendations for how to improve internal tools and knowledge management. In addition, this research project served as a tool to embed the UXR best practices into the newly constructed Passenger Experience team.
Research Question
How might we improve and streamline information sharing at Sound Transit?
Research Methods
Literature Review
Study Scenario
The following scenario shows how I determined whether the new design would still have a drop off in user retention.
Prompt: “As this page loads, tell me the thing that jumps out at you. Describe what this page does."
Goal: This point was a major drop off point in the old design. I wanted to know what the users first impression of the new results page was, and what they felt that they could gain from this page.
“Hmmm, is this number how well I did on the assessment? Why is this one bigger?”- P3
As evidenced by the quote, only 7 out of 8 people understood that the numbers on the assessment results indicated a score for each personality. Although each person vaguely understood the numbering scheme, this could be clearer as a few people struggled to grasp their meaning. The current layout somewhat works, but our team determined that the visualization of the numbers needed adjusting and clarity.
Iteration
After the usability tests were complete, I collaborated with the development and design team to ensure that necessary changes were made to the next iteration of the product launch. Some of these key changes included:
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Clearer organization and description of how numbers correlate to assessment
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Color choices to increase contrast for low vision users
Impact
The new system, including the user test implementations, has been displayed by Career Key’s CEO at conferences and sales meetings with prospective clients. Counselors and professionals in Education Technology are astonished by the clarity and level of customization the new system offers.
Takeaways
Do more usability tests throughout redesign process
Having multiple usability test sessions throughout the product development cycle if financially feasible would greatly aid a project. For example, I realized that while I knew where the drop off in user retention occurred, it would have been beneficial to test this in real time with the old design to gain a deeper understanding of why this happens. This would have allowed me to be more informed when writing the test scenarios in attempts to test if the problem had been mitigated. My results would have correlated more directly to the old platform.