User Research

Client/Problem:

The International Monetary Fund is an organization that helps other countries secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.

The IMF wants to expand its readership for their annual report so they can let the general public around the world know about the impactful work they’ve done.

To achieve the goal of making their 2020 annual report a much more engaging read, my team and I conducted user research to understand what readers are looking for in an annual report and what would make it a more engaging read.

User Research:

Since the IMF’s annual report is very heavy on the subject of finance, my team and I decided to interview people who have a background or general knowledge of international finance.

Questions:

What do you know of the IMF?
Have you ever read any report by the IMF? or any other annual report?
What draws you to the sections of the report that you do read?
What do you hope/expect to read about in an annual report on international finance and development?
What information are you seeking when you read these types of reports?

The goal of these questions were to find out what makes an annual report engaging, discover how easily users are able to find the information they seek, and understand what information users are seeking when they read the IMF annual report.

User Interviews:

Two of the interviewees are in their mid 20s and one is in their mid 60s.
Two of the interviews were done over the phone, and one was done through Skype
One is a private equity associate, one is a finance controller, one translates business reports from English to Japanese.
All are males (2 caucasian and 1 asian).
Two read the annual report on mobile, one read it on both mobile and desktop.

Usability Tests:

After my group members and I conducted our user interviews, we then did 10 usability tests on the IMF’s annual report to see how navigable it is and how effectively content is laid out. We felt that when it came to testing the website’s design, it wasn’t necessary for the user to have any knowledge in finance. So we decided to try these tests on friends and family members.
The person I chose to do this usability test is an asian woman in her late 50s, who doesn’t have any experience in finance.
I gave her three different scenarios where she had to find a certain topic or section in the report.

If she completed or did not complete each task, I would then ask her:

What are your first impressions when looking at this page?
How engaging/compelling does this page look?
What do you like about the page(s) and why?
What do you think can be improved and why?

Findings:

Navigability:

People were not very fond of the bottom right nav bar
Most people automatically went to the PDF to read the full report
Most people had trouble finding the hamburger menu or if they did find it, they found it to be confusing to read

Content Layout:

Overall pleasing aesthetic
Home-page layout was lacking in info and presentation
Expected/preferred charts and graphs to be more visible
Thought pages had too much going on, weird placement of text, confusing info
Most liked the regional page layout

Usability Test Results:

Most found trade tensions page through hamburger menu
50% of people found or could not find the Brexit page
Some couldn’t find a link to the official home page

Competitive Analysis:

IMF:

Minimalist layout poses confusion
Can easily miss PDF download due to lack of color like World Bank & UN
Doesn’t show how the IMF itself is impacting these countries (how much $ given, projects they’ve signed off on, support in sustainability and growth, etc.) →only talks about people in power at the IMF

The World Bank:

Link to download pdf is highlighted and at the top center of the page
Main report sections are displayed on the main page with a picture and brief text explaining what it is about
Regional perspectives are nicely color coded
Gives link/access to archives (past) annual reports
Link for contact

United Nations:

Annual report can be downloaded (like World Bank, it draws eye)
Individual chapters can be opened as PDFs
Before opening a page, each Chapter had a title and short blurb to inform readers of its content
Talks about the results they’ve brought in (humanitarian assistance, human rights, sustainable development, etc.)

Suggestions/Problems:

Finishing our competitive analysis and looking back at our user interview/test results, we identified three main problems with the IMF’s report and formed suggestions to fix each problem:

Efficiency: Provide overview of all sections of report on homepage (see world bank) and have a central location for users to navigate to IMF website
Navigability: Remove next/previous arrows (or place them at the bottom of the webpage) and use expandable/collapsible sticky/fixed navigation instead of hamburger menu
Layout: Maximize space of the page to reduce mental fatigue for readers — bold headings, clear and relevant pictures/charts/graphs placed in optimal location on page for users to comprehend the graphic

Next Steps:

Efficiency: Provide overview of all sections of report on homepage (see world bank) and have a central location for users to navigate to IMF website
Navigability: Remove next/previous arrows (or place them at the bottom of the webpage) and use expandable/collapsible sticky/fixed navigation instead of hamburger menu
Layout: Maximize space of the page to reduce mental fatigue for readers — bold headings, clear and relevant pictures/charts/graphs placed in optimal location on page for users to comprehend the graphic

Client/Problem:

The International Monetary Fund is an organization that helps other countries secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.

The IMF wants to expand its readership for their annual report so they can let the general public around the world know about the impactful work they’ve done.

To achieve the goal of making their 2020 annual report a much more engaging read, my team and I conducted user research to understand what readers are looking for in an annual report and what would make it a more engaging read.

User Research:

Since the IMF’s annual report is very heavy on the subject of finance, my team and I decided to interview people who have a background or general knowledge of international finance.

Questions:

What do you know of the IMF?

Have you ever read any report by the IMF? or any other annual report?

What draws you to the sections of the report that you do read?

What do you hope/expect to read about in an annual report on international finance and development?

What information are you seeking when you read these types of reports?

The goal of these questions were to find out what makes an annual report engaging, discover how easily users are able to find the information they seek, and understand what information users are seeking when they read the IMF annual report.

User Interviews:

Two of the interviewees are in their mid 20s and one is in their mid 60s.

Two of the interviews were done over the phone, and one was done through Skype

One is a private equity associate, one is a finance controller, one translates business reports from English to Japanese.

All are males (2 caucasian and 1 asian).

Two read the annual report on mobile, one read it on both mobile and desktop.

Usability Tests:

The person I chose to do this usability test is an asian woman in her late 50s, who doesn’t have any experience in finance.

I gave her three different scenarios where she had to find a certain topic or section in the report.

If she completed or did not complete each task, I would then ask her:

What are your first impressions when looking at this page?

How engaging/compelling does this page look?

What do you like about the page(s) and why?

What do you think can be improved and why?

Findings:

Navigability:

People were not very fond of the bottom right nav bar

Most people automatically went to the PDF to read the full report

Most people had trouble finding the hamburger menu or if they did find it, they found it to be confusing to read

Content Layout:

Overall pleasing aesthetic

Home-page layout was lacking in info and presentation

Expected/preferred charts and graphs to be more visible

Thought pages had too much going on, weird placement of text, confusing info

Most liked the regional page layout

Usability Test Results:

Most found trade tensions page through hamburger menu

50% of people found or could not find the Brexit page

Some couldn’t find a link to the official home page

Competitive Analysis:

IMF:

Minimalist layout poses confusion

Can easily miss PDF download due to lack of color like World Bank & UN

Doesn’t show how the IMF itself is impacting these countries (how much $ given, projects they’ve signed off on, support in sustainability and growth, etc.) →only talks about people in power at the IMF

The World Bank:

Link to download pdf is highlighted and at the top center of the page

Main report sections are displayed on the main page with a picture and brief text explaining what it is about

Regional perspectives are nicely color coded

Gives link/access to archives (past) annual reports

Link for contact

United Nations:

Annual report can be downloaded (like World Bank, it draws eye)

Individual chapters can be opened as PDFs

Before opening a page, each Chapter had a title and short blurb to inform readers of its content

Talks about the results they’ve brought in (humanitarian assistance, human rights, sustainable development, etc.)

Suggestions/Problems:

Finishing our competitive analysis and looking back at our user interview/test results, we identified three main problems with the IMF’s report and formed suggestions to fix each problem:

Efficiency: Provide overview of all sections of report on homepage (see world bank) and have a central location for users to navigate to IMF website

Navigability: Remove next/previous arrows (or place them at the bottom of the webpage) and use expandable/collapsible sticky/fixed navigation instead of hamburger menu

Layout: Maximize space of the page to reduce mental fatigue for readers — bold headings, clear and relevant pictures/charts/graphs placed in optimal location on page for users to comprehend the graphic

Next Steps:

Efficiency: Provide overview of all sections of report on homepage (see world bank) and have a central location for users to navigate to IMF website

Navigability: Remove next/previous arrows (or place them at the bottom of the webpage) and use expandable/collapsible sticky/fixed navigation instead of hamburger menu

Layout: Maximize space of the page to reduce mental fatigue for readers — bold headings, clear and relevant pictures/charts/graphs placed in optimal location on page for users to comprehend the graphic