A research study for Microsoft’s health application and the accompanying wearable band to assess the usability of the predefined workouts, which also turned out to be the most popular feature for users.
UX Researcher
3 Researchers
3 months
Here we can see the broad overview of the project and the steps taken to successfully conduct the study.
We started our study with a set of key questions that we wanted to investigate, which would help the user in accomplishing the key tasks in successfully using the health app with the band.
How easy is the sign-up process for the MS Health Application and Band?
How easily can a user search and choose a desired workout plan?
How efficiently can the users interact with MS Band and MS Health Application?
How successfully can the users sync a workout plan to their band?
Can a user locate the details of the synced workout plan?
Before we approach a user to test the system, it is helpful to get a good understanding of the system, its functionality, and how this functionality is available to the users. To this end, we explored the common and important interaction flow with particular attention to the preplanned workouts feature.
The fitness tracker and the health app can be effectively used by anybody who wants to live a healthier life. However, different people can have different experiences using the same product and features. Some of the influencers we identified are prior experience with health tracking devices, current fitness levels and the desire to get more fit. We thus arrived at the two major buckets of our users – The New Users and The Existing Users.
After recruiting, three group sessions were conducted at the participants’ places based on their availability and ease. Sessions were conducted at their Seattle and Bellevue residences and at the Microsoft campus at Redmond. Conducting the study in the participants’ natural setting made them feel more comfortable during the test and also helped us get their earnest reactions and feedback. The sessions were about 30 minutes in length consisting of a 5 minute introduction to the study, signing of the consent form, and a pre-test interview; 20 minutes for the task flow; and 5 minutes for the post-test questionnaire.
We developed two different scenarios and task flows, one for the new users and one for the existing users. We used In-Lab Usability Testing Method with think aloud moderated approach. To conduct the test, we used the MS Band, MS Health mobile application, pre-test questionnaire, note taking forms, post task and post test questionnaires.
We collated the data that was collected with the note-taking comments, post-test questionnaires, observations and user feedback; and combined them into a spreadsheet. Our metrics included both qualitative and quantitative data. Through Spreadsheet Analysis, we looked at patterns and co-occurrences in the data to come up with the findings.
The overall result of the study is positive in favor of the Microsoft Band and Health Application. 7 out of 8 users said they would use the band for the features tested. 6 out of 8 users said they would recommend the Band to their friends and family. It was interesting that none of our existing band users had tried the guided workouts feature. They were excited to use it in future and asserted that the workouts were well planned and very helpful. They however, had some difficulty in navigating the features and locating the workouts, which are some opportunities to provide a better experience with the product.
1. Popularity of the “Find a workout” feature
3 out of 4 New Users said they would use the feature in the future.
“Good for people who don’t have access to outside classes.”
4 out of 4 Existing Users said they would use the feature in the future.
“It has a lot of information. I wish I had explored it earlier.”
2.Learnability on the tasks
All new and existing users were able to find the pre-defined workout plans in the second attempt.
The study revealed a few moderate to severe issues that were limiting the users from having a smooth interaction with the product.
1. Difficulty in finding the pre-defined workout plans in the MS Health Application
2.No notification on syncing a workout plan to the MS Band
3.Difficulty in locating the workout icon on the MS Band
3.Difficulty in locating the workout section in the MS Health Application
Some easy fixes that we suggested were
1. Enabling a notification on the MS Band on subscribing to a workout plan
2.Redesigning the look of the “workout” icon on the Band
3.Improving the discoverability of the “Subscribe to your plan” button
The findings of our study should be interpreted in the context of some limitations. In the initial three weeks of the study, we had to change the scope of our study thrice due to client’s preferences and availability of the prototypes.
If time wasn’t a constraint, we would have also given more thought into scoping our study and development of tasks and scenarios.