With these challenges in mind, I started reviewing information on the product and it soon became clear to me that the eIFU has the potential to serve pressing yet unmet user needs. When I asked the team about the UX issues with the current product, I learned that the team is getting a large volume of inquiries from frustrated users who were confused about the UX. A medical company like Avail can’t immediately update designs due to regulations, and I noted that the eIFU can not only serve as an electronic version of the IFU but also help resolve the usability issues that users are encountering until UX designs are updated.

Armed with this insight, I set out to first reorganize content and, second, develop wireframes. In reorganizing content, I started by writing down the list of content each user group needs and the list of questions each group is likely to have, and then refined the lists with the PM. At the same time, I started conducting a thorough review of the IFU content and asked clarifying questions to develop a nuanced understanding of the content. Finally, I developed wireframes, which we iterated multiple times per user feedback.

We learned useful insights from sharing prototypes with users.

First, while we initially planned to offer content for Avail’s engineers, who provide technical help on-site, too, in the eIFU, we learned it’s better not to since Avail positions itself as a white-glove service provider and it’s best to take care of internal needs in a non client-facing place. Second, we gathered useful feedback on the tone. Folks found the “I want help with…” tone (vs. simply stating the task) to be friendly and helpful, so we went with that tone. Third, we learned valuable insights on whether to use gridview vs. listview in presenting selections. While I initially leaned towards listview, I soon learned that folks prefer gridview — they thought it looked nicer visually and liked not having to scroll down to review selections. UX research uncovers that listview works better when users are in search mode (and rely primarily on reading the text to make selections) and gridview works better when in browse mode (and rely on images to make selections). While our users are in search mode, I felt that user testers made a valid point — listview, in our case, forces users to scroll down to view selections and we went with gridview.