Robert Bosch GmbH Automotive Aftermarket

HFI helped Robert Bosch GmbH by carrying out end-user research in eight countries, leading to a redesign of its hand-held, diagnostic tools for car maintenance

The Brief: Review the Esitronic software application for the KTS200, KTS 340, and KTS 650 diagnostic tools for car maintenance worldwide

Without test equipment, even servicing tasks like changing the oil or brake linings are no longer possible on many modern vehicles. Bosch's Esitronic software provides car maintenance data for workshops to diagnose problems, find servicing information, and look up parts.

What We Did: We gathered end-user data by interviewing Esitronic users in workshops, wholesalers, and two fast-fitters in China, India, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, and the USA.

Each interview was a one-to-one session to collect background information about interviewees, workshop information, workflows within the workshop, key tasks, and use of Esitronic for specific tasks. We also interviewed stakeholders about business strategy, critical success factors, and development plans.

These interviews revealed that users felt:

• The application best addressed German or European cars
• Information on Asian, American or 'local' cars was patchy and inadequate
• There was a considerable time lapse between car launch and information showing up on Esitronic compared with local diagnostic equipment
• There were ambiguous troubleshooting instructions
• Translations were incomplete or literal

In particular, we found that four out of five stations we visited never used the work card feature, as it had a complex task flow and gave no assistance or feedback.

Our review also highlighted the value of Esitronic to users as an integrated diagnostic tool with detailed technical and troubleshooting information, which most other competitive tools do not have. Work cards and billing features were the least useful functions, while office workers and wholesalers valued the 'parts lookup' function.

In addition to undertaking a competitive analysis of the Bosch's strengths and weakness compared with one of its major competitors, the final part of the six-month project involved:

• Designing and validating the user interface structure
• Testing the usability of the interface prototype
• Specifying design at detailed page level
• Creating an interactive style guide
• Presenting the list of screens and test protocols for review by the Bosch team

The Result: Our recommendations led to a redesign incorporating a consistent navigational model and an enhanced interaction with controls, selection, feedback, and visuals. This included integrating the work card with the diagnostic process and localising the application to make users feel the product was designed for them.

The new, compact Bosch KTS 200 for diagnostic testing of vehicle control units has proved a great success in the market and won an award for outstanding innovative achievement at the 2007 Internationale Handwerksmesse in Munich.

Citibank International plc Portugal

HFI helped Citibank International plc Portugal add value to its online banking channel.

"HFI was our ideal partner for usability testing of our retail banking site. The results of the redesign speak for themselves: a sharp increase in conversions, the best month ever for the acquisition of new credit cards."
- Miguel Mendes, Internet Head, Citibank International plc – Portugal

The Brief: Test the prototype of a redesigned retail banking website prior to its launch.

Citibank International plc Portugal operates in a competitive market where it does not have a physical high street presence. Its new website not only needed to optimise business-to-customer interactions, but also compete to in a highly developed online retail banking environment.

We carried out usability testing to understand customers' needs and preferences.

We began by researching Portugal's online banking sector, including customer types and preferences. We then designed a test plan to capture information about our client's customers' needs, expectations and aspirations. We specifically looked at how easy it was for users to learn to use and navigate the site, find information, and make selections.

We also addressed any potential showstoppers at the detailed design level, for example, colour, layout, graphics and text.

Our brief included translating the usability test protocol from English into Portuguese for participants. Our Portuguese-speaking moderator in Lisbon conducted one-to-one prototype tests with a sample group of existing and prospective customers.

The Result: All the recommendations set out in our expert review to deliver a rewarding user experience were incorporated into the redesigned site. Launched on 1 March, 2008, the results speak for themselves: a sharp increase in conversions and our client's best month ever for the acquisition of new credit cards.

Citibank Spain - www.citibank.es

Brand is one of the most valued assets of an international group such as Citi. For this reason Citibank Spain employed usability and user experience design specialist, Human Factors International (HFI), to ensure that their new website prototype delivered a positive user experience consistent with the Citibank brand.

"HFI was our ideal partner for usability testing of our consumer banking site. The results of the redesign speak for themselves: a sharp increase in "Citigold" leads and credit card bookings."
Jose Luis Díez-Chellini
Internet Marketing Manager – Citibank Spain

The Brief: Test the prototype of a redesigned consumer banking website prior to its launch.

The new website had to support key customer tasks online such as applying for a credit card or personal loans and entering the customers' private area. Features such as navigation, search and calls-to-action had to provide strong support and encouragement for users carrying out these tasks.

The site had to provide a consistent brand experience which conformed to user expectations of Citibank.

The Project: We carried out usability testing to validate designs and provide insight.

The goals, scope and key activities for the usability testing were agreed by HFI with Citibank Spain prior to testing commencing. Target customers in Spain, both current Citibank customers and non-Citibank customers were recruited by HFI to take part in the usability testing process.

The tests with users were carried out remotely by a Spanish-speaking HFI usability expert via web conferencing software.

Following the testing, the results were analysed and findings and recommendations swiftly developed to deliver within Citibank's overall relaunch timeline.

The Outcome: The results revealed that users responded favourably to the new site design and branding. Some usability and communication issues were highlighted and recommendations to resolve these were made. Citibank Spain was able to launch a refined site design, confident that it would deliver a consistently high quality user experience.

dotMobi

HFI helped dotMobi evaluate the customer experience of its web-based Instant Mobilizer™ product through usability testing and online surveys in the US, UK, and Germany .

dotMobi is a worldwide leader in enabling the development & discovery of quality mobile Web content. With innovative services like Instant Mobilizer™ , they help businesses and individuals reach the world's billions of mobile phone users.

"HFI was instrumental in helping us achieve valuable insights into how customers would interact with Instant Mobilizer™... before we launched. We used the feedback for both our product design and marketing messaging to maximize our launch success," said Catrina Sheridan, dotMobi's Vice President of Product Deployment.

The Brief: Optimize the usability and customer perception of the Instant Mobilizer™, a revolutionary software product that converts a desktop website to a mobile Website.

dotMobi wanted to ensure that its Instant Mobilizer™ product was optimized for usability and customer understanding, prior to launch. The product is designed for businesses that are registering or renewing a .mobi domain through dotMobi's channels. The challenge was to ensure that the value proposition of Instant Mobilizer™ was easily understood by small business owners who did not have access to a technical budget or staff.

What We Did: We worked with dotMobi to identify the target users of the product and to develop a strategy for conducting research with representative target customers.

We then recruited participants who matched this profile in the UK, US, and Germany.

The next step was designing a study to evaluate the effectiveness of the tool in supporting key user tasks, and aiding customer understanding of Instant Mobilizer™ .

Five days of usability testing were carried out concurrently in New York, London, and Hamburg. An online survey was run in each location to confirm the findings and provide additional insight.

The Result: We presented our overview of findings in an interactive session designed to create strategies to implement our recommendations.

With that information, dotMobi was able to bring Instant Mobilizer™ to market with an effective value proposition while meeting aggressive "street availability" deadlines. The product is now widely available and is quickly proving to be a popular tool in helping businesses take advantage of the burgeoning mobile web channel.

ISI Emerging Markets Information Service – EMIS

ISI Emerging Markets has 29 offices throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. Its head office is in New York and European headquarters are in London.

EMIS provides market analysts around the world with intelligence from 10,000 publications on more than 80 emerging markets: macroeconomics, market sectors and companies. Subscribers include investment banks, corporations, law firms, consultants, brokers, insurance companies, universities, and libraries.

The Brief

ISI recruited HFI to revitalise the user-interface of EMIS.

The Project

We identified redesign criteria by interviewing key ISI staff and EMIS subscribers from 11 countries, closely assisted by ISI's usability manager in Chile. One key finding was that sales staff was spending excessive time supporting clients in the use of fundamental features like search. The priorities for redesign were:

• Update the user-interface and reinforce the brand
• Emphasize the breadth of information and tailored functionality
• Provide opportunities to sell additional components
• Reduce the need for training and customer support

By creating representative personas and task flows, we were able to illuminate existing usability problems and demonstrate the benefits from redesign.

The Results

Our recommendations for redesign included a home page showcasing the EMIS product that provides quick access to premium content and a simple search function that incorporates faceted navigation. Functions such as a personal "My EMIS" page and "Email Alerts" were treated to require little or no training.

ISI rapidly moved the design in the direction of our recommendations, as illustrated below.

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