FamilySearch Planner
Adding a limit to the planner and search capabilities.
Introduction
Helper Resources is a page on FamilySearch.org where people can go for tools and resources to help others with their family history. The main tool for helpers on the site is the planner.
Problem
The problem we were having on the help team is that helpers were adding hundreds of people to their planners and crashing our servers. We had to set a limit to how many people they could have in their planner at a time. We also had to create a search for users to find people in their planners.
User Testing
High Fidelity Prototype Test #1
With this problem I was given, I made a design and tested it with users at the Family History Center in Lehi, UT. Most of the users weren't familiar with this page and were seniors.
While testing, we learned that users tried to click on the "Find a person" search to add someone to the planner instead of reading that their planner was full.
High Fidelity Prototype Test #2
From this round of testing, users still tried to click on "Search Planner" to try and add someone to the planner but eventually read the yellow box saying that their planner is full.
High Fidelity Prototype Test #3
Users were able to differentiate between the add someone to the planner button and the planner search. None of the users tried to add someone with the search as in the previous tests. Users also immediately knew that their planner space was full and eventually realized that they needed to delete someone to make space.
Reflection
Looking back, I realized that I have a lot to learn with UX design. I need to understand users more so that I can make better design choices from the beginning.
I was shocked when users tried to add someone to the planner through the search and learned that I can't always anticipate how users think and approach the sit.