GE Healthcare - Usability testing of next generation ultrasound devices

Usability Testing, Task Analysis

Context:

GE Healthcare wanted to conduct customer research and usability testing in Bangladesh, with sonographers of varied skills. Five devices were tested for their interface and product attributes. 

My role:

I led a team of researchers that travelled to Bangladesh and a local vendor including translator based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In order to collect relevant data, I conducted task based suability testing, observation and heuristic evaluation. At the end of the usability testing, users were asked to fill a small survey based on Likert scale that help us understand their product preference in term of their attributes.

All the data collected was mapped to user experience metrics that were defined for a fulfilling user experience. The analysis aided in the creation of performance and software requirements for new ultrasound market of ~17million.

 Secondary Research:

My team conducted secondary research to study retail trends, design trends, and features and functionality. The focus was on the success and failure stories to identify what’s relevant for the target audience currently and where future trends could go. We also dived into the current ecosystem for both product and mobile application development in India. 

Primary Research:

My team conducted a mix of contextual inquiry and ethnography study on the real-world practice of users and stakeholders (retailers, gadget experts, mobile technology futurists) for the selected focal segment.

We targeted 8-10 lead users (covering a good distribution of students and women) in this category to understand their current usages, pain points and aspirations for future handheld devices.

 We also conducted retail study to get deep insight from 3-4 dealers on future trends. Apart from this we interviewed 2-3 experts and futurists relevant for the selected segment (a.k.a. low end, middle or high end gadgets).

Findings:

Based on the data collected from ethnographic user research, and user experience evaluation of existing gadgets appropriate for the segment, we proposed high level product/system/service opportunities for Intel.