Call to Actions and user task hierarchies

hi all
we are working on a feature we deliver within our product.
In a nutshell it’s about a communication tool.
As a user you can:

  • check all the communication between the bank and yourself
  • check all the communication between the customer and yourself
  • filter all the items according some rules
  • create a new communication item (mail, call and appointment)
  • manage your notification settings

Due to some issues related to the responsiveness (especially in the XS view) we ran a qualitative usability test and the most important finding was about the task hierarchies.
Our main user target is pro users (ex asset managers) we found out that these people:

  • do not sort,
  • they scan the page even if there’s a huge list of items
  • they mostly create new items even if in most of the case are duplicated
  • they are not familiar with the process to create a notification setting

According those info which prototype do you like most?

**

1.

**

2.

3.

thanks in advance for your feedback :slight_smile:

Hmm, interesting problem.

I personally am going with option 1. The difficulty with options 2 and 3 are the icons-- they don’t easily reflect meaning to me, and I’m not sure of their functionality. I could see a fair bit of confusion resulting around this piece, especially for new users, given that your user group is a scan-heavy, visually quick searching bunch. Option 1 offers the easiest ability to for the user to find and use site functionality without adding to cognitive load.

Given that icons are already trickier than they seem, you might be able to salvage Option 2 with a text label on the bell+ icon, if you are particularly attached to that idea.

hi @dougcollins
thanks a lot for your feedback.
Your comment is perfectly consistent with the main finding from the usability test.
Due to the large amount of available languages, displaying labels can provide some issues in terms of alignments and room.

Anyway I was plying a little bit with another version of the design #2

What do u think about it?

Thanks in advance for your time :wink:

I think most ordinary people think of making coffee when they see the word “filter”. How about making it a search field instead? By now just about every person on earth has been trained to search for things. Maybe you could integrate creating notifications in the search function.


hahah, I fully agree!

I do like your option because it is brilliant and more easy to use.

Anyway, it would be a kind of blackout into the user journey. The context where this view is available is a web-banking responsive app. The user range we are delivering the product, starts from basic users (people with a saving account and maybe a credit card) to asset managers (professional users with a bunch of features to manage a lot of clients). It’s not easy for us to figure out how much content will be displayed for each view.

My gut says that we are not ready for such approach, for sure, I believe it is a great way to help users to accomplish the task.

Thanks for inspiring me :wink:

That’s all I meant to do. :slight_smile:


[quote="dopamino, post:5, topic:2464"] it would be a kind of blackout into the user journey [/quote]

I don’t understand this wording. Do you mean it would break continuity with the rest of the UI?

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It will be not only a break of consistency in terms of UI, it will be a break of focus during the user journey.
This feature, as I said, is part of many user tasks, one of the most common user case is:

  • you fill in the form for a order (ex. trading)
  • you receive from the system a notification, on your devices, when the order is processed
  • you open the web app to verify the full content of the message
  • you want to create a new order and/or to communicate with your asset manager

my point is that if why apply your suggestion to the communication overview we have to be consistent with all the other screens. Is it more clear now?

BTW this post just appeared on my LinkedIn stream, it perfectly match with my thoughts about your suggestion :wink:

Alright alright… :wink:



A bit of brainstorming:

  • do not sort,
  • they scan the page even if there's a huge list of items
  • Why?

    1. They are too much in a hurry and think it will be faster to scan.

      Not much for us to do in this case. And who knows, maybe they are really fast scanners.

    2. They don't understand what filter does and maybe they are afraid to click on something unknown.

      In this case there are a few things we can do.

      • Shuffle things about

        Sometimes this helps with UX problems, but it’s hard to see how it will help users understand a new concept.

      • Use a completely different solution to the sorting/filtering function

        Not an option in this case, at least not for now.

      • Rename the filter button to something the users are more familiar with, like "sort"

        Maybe this simple change is all that is needed,

    3. Is the problem something else?
      • Other solution

  • they mostly create new items even if in most of the case are duplicated

    Why?

    1. They don't know that the item already exists
      • Show a popup informing them that the item is a duplicate of an existing item. Would they like to proceed anyway? [yes] [no]
      • Display a list of similar items as they type the name of the new one

        >b

        bathyspheres
        beryllium isotopes
        betamax video tapes
        bob-sleighs

        >be

        beryllium isotopes
        betamax video tapes

        >bet

        betamax video tapes

        >betting chips

    2. Is the problem something else?
      • Other solution
  • they are not familiar with the process to create a notification setting

    Why?

    Well, I’m not familiar with your notification system either, but usually notifications are either on or off for all items, in which case this option could be moved to the application’s settings screen.

    If notifications are set per item, maybe this should be moved to the item edit screen.

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hey @Bleke
thanks a lot for your time and effort in collecting al those thoughts, I’m impressed!
Our product is a framework for building web-banking system, as I said, the user target is very wide.
When we plan to change something we have always to consider the impact at application level.

I will share your comments with my team and let’s see how to push some of the topics with our stakeholders.

Anyway tomorrow we will run a workshop, of collaborative design, with one of our customer to design together the solution, I’ll keep you posted on it :wink:

I wish you a great week!

Thank you for providing real life examples to consider!

I’m still not sure if I’m just making a fool of myself here and you’re too polite to say it. :slight_smile:

https://www.youtube.com/v/AS8X2Qp_6aA?start=9.5&end=15

I’m not believe me, my mediterranean blood makes “to be polite” a very tough task!
I do like your approach, it sounds to me focused on simplify the process and decrease the user load.
That’s the real goal of a UX IMO

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That’s a relief. Thank you! :slight_smile:

Nah @Bleke – you’re nailing it. It’s a pleasure to read your posts.

Thanks Hawk! It’s a little unsettling to step into this room of professionals and just start winging it.

I hope that other newbies reading this and seeing how good sports you guys are will feel encouraged to participate in discussions, because sharing ideas is a good way to learn.

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Me too! Nothing like some good behaviour modelling. :wink: