User Research Overview

Our solutions start with the user. We need to discover which potential users have the problem that can be addressed by our solution. The collection of processes that we use to put the user at the center of our product design and development process is User-Centered Design (UCD) and it is critical to the success of any new product.

For CFPB, we started with a the user research process that allowed us to look deeply at our target audience, discovering general demographic characteristics, particular habits and preferences, influences, goals and frustrations. These insights have shaped the solution, the functionality, the look and feel, the navigation and the platforms on which the tools will be available.

We depend on the user-centered design process to bring us insights throughout the design/development lifecycle by iterating through a regular testing schedule. In the initial User Research phase, we use the following methods to drive our design and development.

We start with a plan which encompasses the following 5 parts.

Objectives

What are our Learning Goals? These are the overarching intentions of the research. Identified here is what we need to know at this point in the design process and what knowledge gaps do we need to fill?

For the Money Calendar tool, here were are Learning Goals:

• Learn the ways in which the users currently manage their cashflow.
• Identify the most frustrating and confusing part of their current cashflow management methods.
• Identify the platforms and devices users use to access technology and any tools they use for financial questions.

Hypotheses

What are our key assumptions and what to we want to learn? We think we know certain things about the project and about our users. We need to confirm or disprove these assumptions and hypothesis. We include in this understanding what we think behaviors and our potential solutions to their needs.

• We believe that creating a calendar view of cash flow for user living pay-check to paycheck will make it easier for users to manage weekly cash flow. We will know that we are right when users return to the view and manage cash flow for following months
• We believe that showing personalized strategies based on weekly cash flow for user living pay-check to paycheck will make it easier for user to manage weekly cash flow. We will know that we are right when users use the strategies to move expenses to not end the week in negative.

Key Assumptions:

• The users' living pay-check to pay-check focus on getting through the week first
• The users' can move some of the expenses
• The users' will trust and feel more secure if they know any PII or financial data is being stored on their local devices rather on an external/CFPB servers

Here is what we wanted to learn (Research Questions).

• Which consumer segments are in the greatest need of a solution to manage their day-to-day and week-to-week cashflow?
• What are the frustrations and pain points that a consumer experiences when trying to balance their household budget?
• Where are consumers getting the help they need to understand the complexities of their cashflow?
• What digital tools are available that a consumer can take advantage of to help improve their cashflow? What are their advantages and disadvantages?
• What types of digital tools appeal to the consumer and what particular aspects of the tools are especially effective?

Method(s)

Which from the wide-selection of methods will allow us to address the gaps in our knowledge effectively. Given that resources are scarce, what methods can we use to maximize our understanding in the most efficient way possible.

CFPB and the Money Calendar tool, our methods included the following:

• Literature Review survey of periodical articles
• Comparative analysis
  • YNAB, Money Manger, Wallet, Credit Karma, Mint, NerdWallet and Credit Sesame
• User and stakeholder interviews
  • Users: Consumers and Case workers
  • Stakeholders: CFPB
  • In-person or remote user interviews; 60 mins at most
  • In-person or remote stakeholder interviews 30-60 mins

Conduct

In this discovery stage, we complete our research, carry out our interviews and execute any of the other methods we have decided on.

CFPB and the _Money Calendar tool, for each round of interviews, we will:

• Draft research plan and get feedback
• Recruit users and get DIG's approval
• Communicate ethics principles:
  • We will obtain consent prior to any interview session.
  • Note that interview is voluntary.
  • We will be honest and sensitive.
  • We will conduct unbiased interviews and accurately report data collection.
  • We will store data securely.

Synthesize and Converge

Did we get answers to our research questions? Were our key assumptions correct? In this phase, we make sense of the raw information that we have gathered and identify opportunities that exist for our design and development effort. We converge the data into a set of artifacts that we use as a foundation to our application.

CFPB and the Digital Tools project, our outcomes included the following:

• Personas: These characters represent consumers in those segments of the population that would most benefit from the solution that we are offering. Each persona embodies an aggregate of the character, skills, priorities, and goals that has been revealed through the research. They are used as references

• Problem Scenarios: Also surfaced by the research, scenarios are developed about the “daily life” of your persona. These scenarios describe specifically what problems the user's encounter and how these problems impact them emotionally. The scenario will be added to the backlog in GitHub as a user story or an epic and will use the following template. Each user story, we will have an acceptance criteria and definition of done. Epics will be labelled with an epic tag and will be broken down into smaller, more discrete, actionable user stories.

  • As a user based on our defined personas
  • I want to describes the key action the user performs
  • so that I can achieve the expected outcome

• Journey Maps: We want to see, in a visual way, the steps a user might take through their interaction with our application. It helps us see our product from the user's point of view.

• Epic and User Stories: From our user research, we can identify requirements and requests that formulate the basis for the functionality of our app.

• Design Principles and UI Patterns: From our user research, we will define core UX principles that will form the foundation of creating the tool.

Ongoing User Research

We will perform ongoing user research and usability testing to test and explore user needs and experience. For each round, we will share what we tested, findings, and recommendations, and where we should focus future research on. More details on ongoing user research can be found here