Design Success Through User Research and Iterative Testing  

Intuit was faced with serious usability problems causing high support call volumes for one of its major payroll software products. Improving training and online help did not solve these usability problems. Results from research techniques such as usability studies and customer site visits supported a software interface redesign that raised performance as much as from 13% to 89% success for customers' most critical tasks (for novice users with no training). This paper describes how several different strategies combined to yield design success: using multiple data gathering techniques to converge on an understanding of customers' problems and details of software redesign, iteratively prototyping and testing until performance reached desired levels, and using diverse sources for design suggestions. Applicability of these strategies to other projects will be emphasized.

Petrick, M. Susan and Mark Keavney. STC Proceedings (2005). Design>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis