Kyu Taek Hwang - Blog

I was invited to speak on a panel to talk about practical solutions to track textbooks at the Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) 2018 in Mexico City. The theme of the conference was: Re-Mapping Global Education. 

Description: Usability testing is a methodology to measure a quantitative and qualitative metrics of a system. It’s a rigorous version of the System Usability Scale (SUS) described on Usability dot gov. 

The categories of metrics measured in usability tests are: 

A remote usability test is a type of usability testing that is conducted virtually.

Pros of remote usability testing

• Saves time and money on travel cost • The participant and facilitator can be anywhere they please • Participants can use their own computers • Recruiting participants can be faster and easier • A lot of services out there right now that cater to this, with proven results • Better option than skipping the test altogether

Cons of remote usability testing

• Difficult to troubleshoot any problems the participant may be having • Difficult to know when to ask a question (ex: silence on the other end could mean confusion, total immersion into the content, loss of focus...) • Cannot read body language of the participant • Technical problems may arise (ex: bad internet connection)

Moderated vs. Unmoderated

There are two types of remote testing:

• Moderated: The participant and facilitator are in the same "virtual" space, and "live" person-to-person communication via Skype, phone, or chat • Unmoderated: The participant is alone, given freedom to finish the test at their own time, and the session is recorded for a later viewing

Costs

There are many services out there, each with their own specialty. Most of these services, however, are not free. Remote Research Tools has a comprehensive list of remote testing services that is regularly updated.  

There is also a cheaper option for those companies that do not have a UX budget: Screencast-O-Matic (screen recording software) + Skype. When you start your Skype session with the participant, get consent to record, and ask the participant to share his or her screen. Now make your Skype window full-screen, and hit record on Screencast-O-Matic! Sure, it takes a couple of steps to get started, but it certainly gets the job done. I remember was involved in one project where I had to conduct a moderated remote usability test with users from twelve different time zones. By using this method, I managed to conduct all the tests for under $30. 

More reading

An excerpt from a Medium article by Geoffrey Keating on how to balance compliance and design.

“...it’s important that designers ensure that the methods of presenting a cookie notification outweighs the associated costs of distraction, that interrupting a user with a cookies statement will create sufficient payoff in terms of useful information. Compliance to a rule aiming to protect an individual’s privacy shouldn’t have to result in a broken experience for your customers.”

What is a Design System?

A Design System is a collection of stylistic elements, patterns, and rules that is used as a scalable framework across a portfolio of products. A team can merge their design and development efforts around these principles in its design, code, and documentation. 

Companies that offer a suite of interdependent tools as their product strategy may benefit from Design Systems (e.g. Google, Apple, and Airbnb). In fact, this was one of the selling points for adopting UXPin when I introduced Design Systems to CSF. This was very much inline with our goal of moving away from bespoke applications and finding consistency in all of our products. 

Project: UN Women Gender Data Portal

Description: A card sorting exercise is a simple way to bring out ideas on what’s most important to people you’re designing for. An open card sorting exercise helps place unorganized cards into labeled categories - which often helps with the information architecture of the website. Card sorting can also be done virtually in case your users are remotely located. If your organization has very little to no UX budget, do not fret! Trello is an easy and free tool to use. Just create a board and invite the user to participate in the activity. Make sure to give clear instructions on what this exercise aims to do and what their tasks are.

Read more on the Card Sort methodology on Ideo.org’s Design Kit. 

Our Track & Trace solution was presented in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in January 2018 at the African Book Industry Stakeholder’s Conference hosted by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and the Global Book Alliance (GBA).

The Track & Trace project was presented at the 2017 Grand Challenges Conference in Washington D.C., organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. There was a technical demonstration of the system to attendees taking part in the Accelerating Development Through Breakthrough Global Education Innovations track; the first of its kind.

Our Track & Trace system was chosen as one of the winners of the All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development, Track and Trace competition. The system tracks the delivery of items to schools using a web interface, a mobile app and SMS technologies. It is an open source solution that is designed to work online and offline. It leverages other OpenEMIS technologies which manage data on schools, students and staff to achieve better data for better outcomes.

Check out the video!

Project: Tracking books to schools - Malawi

Description: In order to design a system that supports accountability at all levels, it was vital for communities to be aware and empowered with access to information. Most parents and teachers, in both rural and urban settings, owned a mobile phone with SMS capabilities. 

Project: Tracking books to schools - Malawi

Description: The first step was to better understand how books were being delivered in Malawi. We gathered various stakeholders typically involved in the distribution process, and visited communities in remote villages: Donor groups, Ministry of Education officials, warehouse staff, couriers, delivery drivers, field experts, teachers, and parents were interviewed.

Project: Tracking books to schools - Malawi

Description: To understand how textbook distribution works in Malawi through contextual analysis

I will be joining a team of developers and researchers in Malawi, early February 2016. Our goal is to observe how textbooks are distributed in a country where there is a shortage of trained teachers, learning materials, and classrooms.

Momofuku's David Chang is solving the problem of urban food delivery by getting down to the root of the issue: "traditional restaurants... don't focus on home delivery". This reminds me of how we should approach understanding the problem, and the users' pain-points. We must continue asking questions until the real issue is identified. Many times, users think they understand their problems and we try to come up with solutions based on what we know. ‪But we must dig deeper and get to the bottom of it, or else you will enter a vicious cycle, unable to engage the user and keep them happy. 

Day 8