Lesson 10 of 10 lessons from building a user-friendly corona-app
The design process of the Dutch corona-app (CoronaMelder) was as user centered as it gets. During the project we did more than 25 tests with over 200 users. I had the honor to be part of the team. Together with my colleagues, I was responsible for collecting user insights and creating a simple, user-friendly app. One that everybody in the Netherlands can use.
Over the past months we have learned a lot and it would be a waste not to share our insights with the world. I hope other teams working on corona-apps can profit from them. I’m quite sure some of these lessons are universal and could apply to other (healthcare) apps as well.
If you’re working on corona-apps or (healthcare) apps in general, this article is for you.
I’ve summarized our most important lessons and give a few concrete tips for each insight. Enjoy the read!
Lesson #10: Test early, test often
You know how the WHO motto in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is ‘testing, testing, testing’? Well, it’s not much different when developing apps.
The CoronaMelder design team had as many user researchers as designers. From the very beginning of the project we tested a new iteration of the app every week. This allowed us to move fast, settle design questions, make decisions, make quick changes, and test assumptions. Furthermore, we designed with accessibility in mind from the start. As I said in the introduction: during the process we ran usability tests with over 200 users for over two dozen iterations.
I’ve never done a project with user research as thorough as in this project. We tested among others: ex-corona patiënts, low literate people, people with a motor impairment, people with a mental disorder, elderly with poor digital skills, blind people, partially sighted people and people who did not speak Dutch (for example: an Arabic version of the app).
Every concrete insight in this post series is the result of extensive user research.
- [Advice] — You don’t need to speak to 200 users to gather very valuable user insights. But plan at least some tests with a few users during your projects. Even a test with just 6 users will bring you many new insights.
- [Advice] — Don’t plan the test when you’re almost done with the app, because that’s too late to change stuff. Plan them at the beginning, when you still need direction for your design decisions. You will notice it will tremendously speed up your process, and increase the quality of your app.
Read more
The article could have easily been called ‘148 lessons for people building corona-apps’. This is one of 10 lessons I selected and summarised. All our research findings are available on our public GitHub.
Through this process we developed a profound understanding of what works, and what doesn’t. Any questions? Want to learn from our mistakes, successes and experiences?
Get in touch! :)
The other lessons
- Lesson #1: Help people understand when they’ll receive a notification. Avoid visual references to maps and radars
- Lesson #2: Focus on the intended effect, instead of on the technical details
- Lesson #3: Privacy and (perceived) usefulness are key
- Lesson #4: Don’t give people the option to skip an explanation before asking for permissions
- Lesson #5: Any notification sent by the app will freak people out
- Lesson #6: The more details you give about a moment of contact, the more likely people are to take warnings seriously
- Lesson #7: The devil is in the details, small differences in text will have a huge impact
- Lesson #8: It doesn’t hurt to ask to share the app
- Lesson #9: Take into account the entire ecosystem: app-users are not your only users
- Lesson #10: Test early, test often
