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HelloLily and the User Compass

Written by Birgit Timmerman on 17th May 2015

• HelloLily
• User Compass

The last two weeks

Two weeks ago I wrote my first blog post. By now, it has more than 100 reads and I got some great responses. I’m very grateful for that! A big thank you to everyone who read or responded to my blog post. At that moment, I just finished my Plan of Approach and I was working on my desk research report. There were a few topics I wanted to focus on, for example: what is a CRM, what are the most common CRM systems in the Netherlands, what are the functionalities of HelloLily and what are the biggest usability issues concerning HelloLily according to the users.

User Compass

The latter was meant to help me set my scope for my main research questions. To find out what the biggest usability issues of HelloLily were, I used a tool called ‘User Compass’. A User Compass visualizes the usability of a product using twelve factors, divided into three groups: to want, to know and to be able. I asked the users of HelloLily if they wanted to score the twelve factors, which together would represent the usability of HelloLily. 

After analyzing the results, this was the main conclusion: HelloLily scores high on useful, desirable, valuable, fun, simple, understandable and recognizable. HelloLily scores average on accessible, comfortable and findable. HelloLily scores low on practicable and learnable.

Practicable and learnable

With those results I had set the scope for my main research. I’m going to focus on finding a way to improve the practicability and learnability of HelloLily.

Definition of practicable: The extent to which the users are able to use a product for the purpose for which it is intended.
Definition of learnable: The degree of effort which is required to learn how to use a product.

My first step will be doing an in-depth interview with the users to understand why they think HelloLily scores low on ‘practicable’ and ‘learnable’.

The next two weeks

The next two weeks I will finish writing my Research Proposal, doing in-depth interviews with users and composing my final research questions. This is the moment I’m really getting started with my research and I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be sitting down with actual users, trying to understand their difficulties whilst using HelloLily and finding solutions to its usability problems.

My experiences so far

So far I still really like working here. I’m very convinced that the Holacracy model, which I explained to you in my previous blog post, is the model of the future. Besides doing project work, I also got to know this great product called GRID360, which was created by the developers of Spindle. It’s a tool that gives you the opportunity to give and receive feedback from your co-workers. Giving and receiving feedback is very motivating.

I hoped you liked this blog post. The next one is coming in two weeks. If you have any questions concerning my blog post, project work or anything else, don’t hesitate to ask them in the comments below. Thanks for reading everyone!