BoardSpace Case Study
August-September 2024
Overview:
This case study is a project for the website, BoardSpace. BoardSpace offers nonprofit organizations a hub where members can store documents as well as keep track of meeting minutes and attendees.
The Challenge:
BoardSpace tasked my internship team with the responsibility of improving the agenda-builder feature on their website.
The Solution:
BoardSpace’s goal is to reduce friction while members use their agenda-builder feature. My internship team will accomplish this goal by conducting appropriate research, synthesizing the research and by making relevant suggestions for an easier, more intuitive onboarding experience.
My Role:
I conducted one of three usability tests with an existing user of BoardSpace, who tested my internship group’s prototype. After conducting the usability test, I synthesized and presented my findings to my group.
After meeting with our company contact, my group organized a list of opportunities, specific to the agenda-builder and corresponding goals to increase ease of use.
Opportunities:
Drag-and-drop feature is hard to use when there are a lot of sub-items
The content on the screen looks messy when it content is collapsed
User wants to drag multiple items at the same time
Usability Test:
My internship group’s company contact provided 3 current BoardSpace users to test our prototype, which was built after completing heuristic analysis of the current website.
Goals:
Make reordering easier to use for older and non-tech-savvy users
Features should be responsive and work well on smaller screens
Interface should look clean and intuitive
Cater design to current demographic (approximately 60 years old, be mindful of dexterity)
Current BoardSpace Agenda-Builder
BoardSpace Design Proposal
Current BoardSpace Agenda-Builder
Design Features: ability to attach document to meeting section, clear sub-item visibility, dropdown minute selection, slide-out “upload document” feature
Tasks:
The user was asked to complete a series of tasks during the usability test -
You want to add a title to the agenda - how would you do that?
You want to view the subitems of subitem #4.2 - how would you do that?
You want to add a new agenda item - how would you do that?
How would you allocate an amount of time to the newly added item?
You want to make Jane Smith the presenter for the item - how would you do this?
What do you think the little box next to the presenter’s name does? What do you think about this feature and how it works?
How would you add a comment to the agenda?
How would you add a new document to the agenda?
How would you add a title to the agenda?
Document Management
Users had difficulty understanding the icons present for downloading, removing, previewing documents in the portal
Users suggested using an eyeball icon rather than an arrow icon to preview document
Minutes Picker
Users preferred an input feature, rather than a drop-down feature to enter minutes as the current drop-down selection were in increments of 5. Users stated that some sections of meetings are less than 5 minutes.
Recommendations:
Based off of heuristic analysis and usability tests conducted, my internship team provided the following recommendations to BoardSpaceInc
Utilize hover tooltips to describe actions
Add a dialogue box with instructions for how to drag a document to a specific section of the meeting from the document drawer
Add thumbnails to documents for easy identification
Differentiate newly added items by labels or bold font
Change the drop-down list to an input feature so users can choose any minutes, rather than the increments of 5 that were options in the drop-down list
Key Insights:
Drag and Drop Feature
Users desired more exaggerated indentation between items and subitems
Users desired differentiation between active and non-active states
Users desired the “+” icon to be clearly labeled as “add item”
Add new item
Users anticipated seeing the "add new item” feature at the top of the screen, rather than the bottom
Users found it difficult to identify a newly added item, and wished for differentiation between an existing and newly added item, such as bold font
