Improving the User Experience of the MyPAssion App: A UX Case Study

The MyPAssion app was developed by People’s Association, a statutory board in Singapore established in 1960. The app was launched on May 1st, 2021; Its mission is to promote racial harmony and social cohesion. The app allows members to access deals, privileges, and book courses and facilities on the go.

Role and Timeline

My role on the project was to lead the research and design of the booking experience for facilities and courses. I worked with a junior UX designer and a team of developers, a product manager, and stakeholders from People’s Association. Over the course of two months, I worked closely with the development team to ensure that the app was designed with the user’s needs and goals in mind. My ultimate goal was to create an app that was not only visually appealing, but also intuitive and user friendly.

Problem Statement

The MyPAssion app faced several challenges, including low user engagement, difficulty in navigation, and poor user experience. These challenges were affecting the app’s ability to retain users and attract new users. 

Approach

To address these issues, I conducted a comprehensive UX design process, including competitor analysis, user research methods such as usability testing and A/B testing and prototyping. I analyzed the insights gathered from the usability tests to identify areas for improvement and make recommendations that met web contrast accessibility guidelines ‘WCAG 2.1’.

Stakeholder Interviews

I started by gathering background information on the problem and speaking with stakeholders to understand their goals for the user research. They sought to identify the pain points and usability issues associated with the key user flows that were to be published in the coming months. The stakeholders were tight on time and requested that the research be done quickly so as not to delay the developers workflow.

Competitor Analysis

I analyzed the design and user experience of similar platforms, such as Meetup and Skillshare, to understand the best practices and trends in the industry. I used these insights to inform my design decisions and to create an intuitive and user friendly flow for MyPAssion app.

Remote – Moderated Usability Test Sessions

I decided to conduct a usability test with five users who fit the primary persona description. Personas were created by a third-party agency. One constraint we faced was that the People’s Association’s member list was confidential, which meant we had to source for participants on our own. To find the right participants, we screened for age, gender, ethnicity, knowledge of MyPAssion card, and recent booking behavior. 

I created the research plan, discussion guide, and usability test script, as well as a recruitment screener, which my team and I distributed to potential participants. We conducted two pilot studies to refine the usability test script and confirm the validity of the findings. This also allowed us to double-check the phrasing of the tasks and estimate the session duration. 

I chose to use Lookback as the user testing tool to carry out the remote usability test sessions as we had 7 stakeholders from the People’s Association team who were keen to attend the usability test sessions. By using Lookback, I was able to provide a more intimate and personalized testing experience for the participant, allowing for a more natural flow of feedback and reducing any potential discomfort or distractions. Additionally, Lookback offers a wide range of features such as audio and video recording, screen recording, and on-screen annotations, which allowed me to effectively capture and analyze the participant’s actions and interactions with the app. These features were crucial in providing valuable insights and identifying areas for improvement in the MyPAssion app’s user experience.

We tested the prototype with 5 participants and evaluated three primary user flows:

1. Booking a facility, 
2. Booking a course and
3. Signing up for a MyPAssion card membership

On this project, I had the opportunity to mentor a junior UX designer. I conducted the first four sessions to provide her with first hand experience on how to moderate a session. After that, she felt confident enough to conduct three usability tests under my supervision.

Findings and Recommendations

Usability test report

I concluded the usability test with a usability test report that uncovered 29 user insights. I then categorized the user insights according to severity rankings from 1 to 4.  Ranking ‘1’: being a cosmetic problem and rank ‘4’: being a ‘usability catastrophe’. These rankings allow the development team to allocate the most resources to fix the most serious problems and can also provide a rough estimate of the need for additional usability efforts. I went the extra mile and added WCAG 2.1 recommendations for color contrast – since all government apps must comply with these criteria.

1. Facility flow: Filter out CC’s without a badminton court

Based on the results of our user testing, the majority of users (4 out of 5) understand that the facility flow filters out community centers ‘CC’ without a badminton court. However, to ensure that users have a smooth experience, we recommend implementing a “Filtering System”. The system should show community centers in Singapore that have the selected facility, such as a badminton court. This will provide users with a clear understanding of which community centers have the desired facility, making their search easier and more efficient.

2. Facility flow: Selecting a timeslot

During our testing, we found that two out of five users struggled to select the exact timeframe they were looking for when booking a badminton court. To address this issue, we recommend changing the call to action to “Find available timeslot” or “Search”. This will match the user flow of booking a flight, which is a common flow referred to by one of our testers. Additionally, on the facility detail page, all available timings should be displayed upfront and all unavailable timings should be “greyed out” and hidden under a drop-down titled “Show all timeslots”. This change will help users find the specific time slots they are looking for, reducing the likelihood of them having to contact the community center for assistance.

3. Courses flow: Calendar view

Our user testing revealed that four out of five users were expecting to see a calendar view when they selected the date. To make it easier for users to search for courses, we recommend removing time and date search filters from the home screen. The call to action on the home screen should be changed to “Search”. Within the search screen, a filter/sorting function should be added to rearrange the courses by time (AM/PM timeslots) and date (earliest to latest). Crucial details such as time, vacancy, number of classes, and date should be displayed upfront to provide users with all the information they need at a glance.

4. Courses flow: Easier to key in my own number

During the user testing, one out of five users found it tedious to add participants’ details when booking for their friends, and one out of five users felt that the email and mobile number fields should not be mandatory. To make the booking process seamless and hassle-free, we recommend auto-filling data from the user’s profile when they book for themselves. When booking for others, consider removing fields that may be considered private and confidential, such as NRIC number, ID Type, home address, and race. Fields such as email and mobile number can be added but should not be mandatory. Collecting only the full name of the participant and indicating that they will need to present their NRIC at the start of the course will ensure that the process is quick and efficient.

5. Courses flow: Familiarity Bias

Our testing showed that all five users wanted to key in the details of all participants before clicking on continue, which they felt would take them to the next page. To match users’ mental models, we recommend allowing them to fill up all the participants’ details before clicking on “Continue”. This is similar to the booking flow for flights and will shorten the booking process by reducing the number of taps to get to payment. By aligning with users’ familiar booking processes, we can provide a more efficient and enjoyable experience for them.

System Usability Scale (SUS)

I conducted a System Usability Scale (SUS) post-test assessment on the MyPAssion app, which resulted in a score of 73. This score places the app’s usability in the top 30% of all applications, demonstrating its effectiveness and user-friendliness. The reason for using the SUS score as the assessment tool was due to its validity and reliability as a measure of usability.

Impact and Metrics

The changes we made to the booking of facilities and courses experience based on the user insights from our usability testing sessions led to a 20% improvement in overall user satisfaction. We also saw a 10% decrease in the number of users who abandoned their booking process due to difficulties navigating the app. The number of successful bookings also increased by 15%. These results were measured using a combination of qualitative feedback from users and metrics from the app’s usage analytics.

Conclusion

The MyPAssion app project was a success. By conducting moderated usability test sessions, I was able to validate our assumptions and identify areas for improvement in the user experience. Our team’s efforts to make changes based on the insights from our research led to a significant improvement in overall user satisfaction, a decrease in user frustration, and an increase in successful bookings. The project highlights the importance of user-centered design and the benefits of conducting usability testing in the design process.

My Learnings

“The greatest enemy of progress is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.”

by Daniel J. Boorstin

I discovered an opportunity to improve the user experience in the user flow of discovering an open badminton court. To make the user flow more intuitive and user friendly, I proposed eliminating the checkbox – which was an extra step user’s had to take in order to display available community centers with a badminton court. A more intuitive flow in my perspective is to instead display the available community centers upfront. This change was made without prior consent from the clients, who were initially concerned about the modification.

I proposed conducting a quick A/B test to gather user insights and provide the team with a fast solution. I designed a chalk test focused on optimal sort and administered it to ten participants who fit the primary persona profile. The results were visualized using heat maps, showing where users interacted with the screen. Upon presenting the findings to the clients, they were impressed by the intuitive nature of my recommended design and agreed to implement it. This project demonstrates my dedication to user advocacy and ability to drive design decisions based on user insights, ultimately strengthening my relationship with clients and earning recognition from the UX consultant.