Usability testing EagleView's property report checkout flow

EagleView is a property data and analytics company providing aerial imagery and measurement reports for construction, insurance, and real estate. This was an industry sponsored project where we worked with EagleView as a part of classwork for the HCIN630: Usability Testing course at RIT.

We conducted a heuristic evaluation, and moderated usability study paired with semi-structured interviews, collecting qualitative data to identify friction points on the platform and provided recommendations to improve the user experience.

• Understand what usability problems exist in the current checkout flow
• Provide recommendations that address user pain-points ahead of the redesign.

Before conducting the usability study, we conducted a Heuristic Evaluation using Nielsen's 10 heuristics to identify predictable usability issues. Our team went through the flow together and took notes about what heuristics were violated on each page (if any), the severity of the issue, and changes that could be made to improve the experience.

Error prevention

The claim number input accepted characters including alphabetic input while the claim numbers only consisted of numeric characters. Making the input field only accept numeric characters by default means users do not make or face this error.

User control and freedom

The final confirmation page implies that users accept the terms of use. There is no checkbox provided and it is easy to miss. Adding a checkbox lets users accept it voluntarily if they want to proceed with the order.

Internal inconsistencies

The buttons are different sizes while looking like different primary buttons. Establishing a consistent design language — clear primary, secondary, and tertiary buttons — would resolve this.

The usability test followed a within-subject design, with each participant completing all five tasks. We rotated our responsibilities as Moderators, Note-takers, and Observers for every session.

After each session, participants completed a short interview covering ease-of-use, points of confusion, and unprompted suggestions. We analyzed this qualitative data by coding quotes in four categories — Navigation (N), Interaction (I), Usability (U), and Information Design (ID) — to identify common themes and patterns.

Tasks and success criteria

Login/Signup and start the process — successfully complete the onboarding process of the system. Find the address — able to find the property they're looking for. Review and compare all plans to select one — must be able to view, compare, and choose one plan from all the available plans. Complete the checkout process — must be successfully able to place an order.

Participants

We recruited 7 participants. Due to the tight deadlines and budget limitations, we recruited architecture students and property owners who are familiar with roofing plans for the study, as they were easily available compared to contractors who need roofing plans.

Reposition the order button

Issue: Users looked to start the order button in the middle of the page, whereas the button was in the upper right corner. This can be a major drop-off point and can be addressed by repositioning the button to a more intuitively noticeable location.

“I kept looking for the button in the middle of the page. I didn't even notice it was up there.”

P4, homeowner

Make the address map interactive

Issue: Currently the map is a static image at first which changes to map after users enter the address. The image is not interactive and when it changes to map, users expected to interact with it similar to google and apple maps- using mouse to span, scroll and zoom in/out.

“I expected to be able to interact with the map like I do on Google Maps.”

P1, architect

Help users understand the plans

Issue: Currently the portal does not provide explanations for the different types of plans for users. Help them understand these by providing a tooltip or a link that explains these different plans.

“I had no idea there were different plans. A tooltip would really help.”

P2, architect

Add a reorder button

It should be easy for users to find their previous order and order it again if needed. This can be simplified by adding a reorder button to the orders page.

“I wish there was a reorder button. I had to go through the whole process again.”

P5, architect

EagleView's portal was very usable and got the job done. However, the suggestions we provided would help make the end-to-end user experience even better. Leading the team and acting as point-of-contact taught me to balance the deadlines and execution of the project.

Some things that I would improve if I had to take this project again would be looking at previous data (if any) to understand if there is a specific issue or problem EagleView is trying to solve. Also testing it with people who use it much more frequently than students and property owners would help optimize the portal for the primary users, and would provide different insights than what we found — e.g. the technical words will make more sense to a pro than someone who doesn't deal with these things regularly.