CCI UX Lab Research Improved Usability for Nonprofit’s App for Seniors

Before Bruce Tonn worked with the User eXperience Lab (UX Lab) at the College of Communication and Information, he had little to no familiarity with how pivotal UX research and testing can be for a digital project. But after the UX Lab worked with his team at nonprofit Three3 to develop software to help seniors be aware of the air quality in their homes, he’s completely sold on the value of UX.

“I’m a believer now. As far as the amount of time spent on various things in the User eXperience Lab, it was a small component. But if the elders weren’t able to use the system, all that work would have been useless. It was absolutely key,” Tonn said.

Tonn, a professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science as well as co-founder and president of Three3, said he’s so convinced of the necessity of UX work that he wrote it into grant proposals he’s submitted so this project can be extended. The project, Elders Alert System about Imminent Environmental Risks (EASIER), according to Three3’s site, “provides real-time data on indoor temperature, humidity, TVOCs, PM 2.5, and CO2 are used to generate alerts which are communicated to elders via the tablets and to members of their designated social networks via text or email.”

EASIER was funded by a grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority and Tonn teamed up with Tickle College of Engineering to develop the software and with another local nonprofit, SEEED, which acted as a community partner. 

CCI Innovation Labs Manager Logan Montuori took the lead on conducting an assessment of the initial iteration of the software, providing insights on how to improve it for usability and accessibility. Good accessibility ensures users who may have conditions that affect how they interact with the software—such as vision or hearing impairment—can still use it. While incorporating accessibility should always be an important part of UX, it was paramount in this project as the main users were elders, both Tonn and Montuori said.

“In terms of the design, we had to think about accessibility. Can they read what is on the screen? Can they find what they need to find? We took into account color contrast, text size, use of icons instead of text,” Montuori said.

After revisions were made based on his initial assessment, Montuori set out to test the software with participants. He was accompanied by Laura Humphrey of Three3, and together they worked to ensure the participants were comfortable with the testing as it was an unfamiliar process for them.

“Logan did a great job. He tested five users early on in the process and five later in the process. We had to coordinate schedules to go into the homes and travel back and forth, and he was always timely and polite. We also did check-ins with our team and Logan always had really valuable feedback from the things we learned from the testing,” Humphrey said.

Like Tonn, Humphrey said the UX work Montuori did was invaluable to the entire process, and she would highly recommend that others working on projects work with the UX Lab to ensure their digital product works well for its users. 

Montuori said the first round of testing provided a lot of insight to changes and additions that could be made on the software. For example, users expressed that they wanted to know what the air quality was like in other parts of the area so they could better plan travels; so, the development team incorporated an interactive map that allowed users to do just that. 

“The value we wanted to provide was giving the user a voice, because what better way to create a user-centered interface or application than to get the voice of the user?” Montuori queried. “In a sense, the elderly users in this community are the ones who designed this app. It gives a sense of community and empowerment because they’re helping create something that’s not just useful to them but to their friends and neighbors.”

The impactful work of the CCI UX Lab and the rest of the team at UT was made possible through the support of the Research and Innovation Center (RIC). RIC supports the CCI Innovation Labs through their world-class facilitation of research activities. Their support enables the CCI UX Lab to conduct research and develop strong working relationships cross-campus, as well as externally with organizations like Three3.