Brief

Find a scalable solution to manage test devices shared among different roles in the department

Process

Initial Research
Defining personas
User interviews
Team co-creation workshop
User testing sessions

Key Deliverables

Service Blueprint
Paper prototype
Hi-fidelity prototype
Web Design (HTML/CSS)

Results

Survey shown user engagement and increase of visibility for test devices; human effort managing devices has decreased to almost zero (observation); tool adopted by other departments in the company

Brief

Problem statement

The department has a bunch of physical test devices stored in a cabinet
User could request a device asking Quality Specialist to give it, making them a bottle neck
Distribution was managed in a spreadsheet, which was suffering from human factor
Some users had access to devices directly (knew the cabinet code), making device management more complicated
Tracking usage metrics, like average time or preffered devices, was not possible

Business restrictions

As this project was initiated by a group of colleagues (ourselves) and was around internal user experience, we were limited in our resources, i.e. we would not have budget for fancy solutions and would need to organize everything ourselves

Process

We saw the problem from perspective of managing test devices, needed to know the perspective of users (who borrow test devices)
Identified 2 major groups of users: tech users (developers) and non-tech users (product managers, designers, copywriters)
Based on these 2 groups created 2 personas filing assumptions to be verified during research
Needed more qualitative data (I.e. how are they interacting with test devices, when do they need them, etc.)
Chosen interviews as research method as the best way to get qualitative data + easy to approach colleagues and get insights
Created interview guide, conducted 4 interviews
Outcomes: was able to identify user paint points that were initially overlooked (main pain point - devices being uncharged)

I borrowed device that is not in condition to test: not enrolled in AirWatch or not having TestFlight or no charge left.

I just open the locker and see what's available and charged

I don't know what's the policy for sharing devices

Key Deliverables

Ideation brainstorming

Based on research foundings, I've decided to focus on 2 topics: how could we overall improve the current flow and how could we solve the problem of uncharged devices. To engage the team in brainstorming, I've conducted a co-creation workshop using Crazy 8's approach. After expressing the ideas we've upvoted the ones that were reasonable, cost-efficient and easy to implement

This activity helped engaging the team and also resulted in very insteresting solutoins we haven't thought about initially.

Service Blueprint

To visualize the mechanics of the new tool and spot potential pitfalls I've visualized the interaction of users in a blueprint

Paper Prototype

To be able to quickly validate our hypothesys and iterate on ideas, I've created rapid prototypes on paper. I've invited colleagues that approached me for test device to go through the new flow using paper prototypes. Based on observation and feedback provided during user testing we were able to improve the prototype on the early stage when nothing was coded yet. It was also based on paper prototype testing that we've decided to not proceed with chatbot based tool

Hi-fidelity prototype

Now it was time to convert gained learnings into actual screens and tool structure. The tool has 2 access modes (as regular user and as an admin), this needs to be taken into account when creating the screens. The devices are grouped per platform and divided into sections based on whether they are available or in use by a colleague. The user that has a test device borrowed sees it on their screen, so it serves as a reminder to return it

Results

Service provider impact

Managing shared test devices became a simple task, there was no longer a spreadsheet to mark which devices are taken and mark them as available when they are returned. Person in charge was no longer a bottle neck as the introduced tool doesn't require any human interaction. The security of storage has increased as we've introduced cabinet code updates. Solving the charge problem we've also attached charging cables to each device and reminded users to keep the device charging while using it

User experience impact

Based on a survey that we've conducted 2 months after the tool launch, we've seen the positive trends on discoverability, visibility and readiness for usage

Scalability & Iterations

After launching the tool within the department we've got some interest from colleagues working in other departments and managing a pool of shared test devices. We've presented our solution during bi-annual internal conference in Manchester and as a result it was adopted by QA colleagues too

To keep up with scaling to other departments and based on feedback provided by our users, we've brainstormed on how we're going to evolve the product. Here are the problems we need to tackle:

Users need support troubleshooting potential issues (like network, specific app instalation)
Management capabilities should be increased (admins being able to add/remove other admins)
There should be a way to set up a new test device library (for a new department, for example)
The tool look and feel should comply with company standards (should be using in-house design system)