The Challenge
The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service asked our design team to boost adoption of their CRM’s notes feature. Low usage meant there was no reliable, centralized record of client notes—creating gaps in knowledge during staff turnover and risks in the event of a lawsuit.
USDA Photo by Paul Sale
My role
-
I performed a thematic analysis on the existing user feedback provided by our business partners to begin to understand the problem we were approaching from the users’ perspective. Read more >
-
I conducted stakeholder interviews to better understand business needs.
-
Based on what I learned from our stakeholders and existing user feedback, I conducted a discovery workshop with the product team to align on the problem we were solving.
-
I designed and implemented a nation-wide survey to learn about the most common pain points related to assistance notes and their severity.
-
To learn more about the employee experience and context in which they use assistance notes, the UX team lead and I conducted 8 user interviews. Participants represented the 4 U.S. regions of the NRCS.
-
I synthesized the existing user feedback, survey results, and user interview data into a qualitative meta-analysis for our business stakeholders and product team.
-
With our research findings as a launching point, I conducted a set of 2 design workshops using the brainwriting technique for idea generation and optimization.
-
The team built out these designs rapidly through the use of Pega out of the box components.
We performed two rounds of usability testing with 8 users each, updating the design based on insights. Read more > -
To ensure the new assistance notes application continues to meet user needs, we implemented a 2-question in-app survey to gather continuous feedback.
My approach to discovery
To understand why adoption of the notes application was low, I conducted a mixed-methods study. I began with a discovery workshop, using insights from existing feedback and stakeholder interviews to establish a shared baseline understanding of pain points and barriers.
To build on this knowledge and better understand the severity of user pain points and barriers, I ran a nationwide survey. Then our UX team lead and I conducted eight user interviews to ground the information we had in our users’ context.
Now I had rich information for a qualitative meta-analysis, which provided actionable insights for our team.
Research insights:
The time it takes to navigate to notes coupled with poor application performance are significant barriers to adoption.
Limited and non-editable attributes hinder the usability of notes.
A mobile tool to capture notes during site visits would increase employee efficiency as well as the quantity and quality of notes taken.
Hear from participants
“It's hard to find a note again. More attributes that we can use to filter (notes) would be great.”
“Being able to input notes while in the field would be incredibly helpful to me.”
Iterative design and usability testing
After presenting these findings, I facilitated a series of brainwriting workshops with our product team and business partners to generate ideas for addressing user pain points. Once we aligned on a design solution, our development team rebuilt notes as a stand-alone application that could also function as a mobile app.
To identify any basic usability issues, we performed an internal usability study with eight colleagues. Their overall experience using the new application was positive, but participants struggled with aspects of the search, attach, and export functionality.
With our business partners, PM, and the UX and dev teams, we identified and prioritized design updates to notes based on study results. Once these updates were made, we performed a second round of testing with eight agency employees. None of the issues uncovered in the internal study were challenges for agency participants in the second round, and their feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
Our solution
Separating notes into a stand-alone application has improved performance.
Direct access to notes vs. going through a case file saves time and avoids access issues with locked files.
Multiple editable attributes improves the usability of notes.
Early positive feedback points to increased adoption of notes.
A mobile tool based on this application is now in development.
Research impact
Before
The cumbersome and time-consuming process to enter notes discouraged use.
Limited, non-editable features made it hard to find, edit, or print notes.
With no mobile option, field notes had to be re-entered later, doubling workload for busy conservation planners.
Incomplete client records put the agency at risk in the event of staff turnover or legal proceedings.
After
Streamlined workflow with faster note creation.
Single Ease Question (SEQ) score of 6/7
Search, attachment, and export issues resolved through iterative testing.
Mobile-friendly design in development will support note-taking in the field.
Centralized, accessible client records reduce risk and improve collaboration.
User satisfaction is now tracked through an in-app survey to guide ongoing improvements.