New Product
Design
of
Relatree App
Many people who are interested in their family history have tried to map a personalized family tree. Today there are many tools that try to help from legal records to genealogy.
Family members may live in different countries, speak different languages, or spell the same family name differently. A family member may be known by one name to some, and another name to others. Or use a nickname instead of their legal name, thus making legal records difficult to follow. They may be adopted or ‘step’ relations and thus not genetically related.
UX researcher
UX/UI designer
interaction designer
Miro, Keynote, Google Sheets, Affinity Designer, Adobe Illustrator, Figma
independent
For people wanting to document their family history through a personalized family tree, it gets more difficult to map a family tree beyond the family you know well. In a family history, there are relationships and gaps that only family members know. However, if members of different branches work together, filling out a family tree would be easier, faster and more complete.
Based on family reunions that I've attended, I have observed family members often attempt to gather information for family trees, ranging from informal to detailed questionnaires.
From conversations with other people who want to learn about their family history from one family member only to be told that another family member knows more or has better information.
Relatree, a new app designed to make it easier for people who want to map their personalized family tree by collaborating and connecting their tree branches with relatives who are building towards the same goal, a faster fuller family tree.
I quickly began by brainstorming solutions to the problem and then–
I explored the idea by concept mapping and creating an affinity diagram to help discover which tasks and content to prioritize to help solve the user's problem.
I created a user journey map to help me understand the user's pain points. It also helped me discover opportunities for features that could improve the product based on the user's needs. For example I learned that there is an opportunity for the app to allow users to share their family tree with family members who don't have the app.
To examine the steps and various paths that the user could go through to complete the tasks, I created flow diagrams for three key tasks:
To rapidly test the interactions, I built a paper prototype first.
To simulate the final product for users. And so I could capture users' thoughts and feelings that would more closely represent their experience with the final product.
I chose to do usability testing so I could gather both quantitative data about tasks like completion success and difficulty ratings and qualitative data on what users were thinking as they performed the tasks
I created a screener to make sure the participants would be potential users of the product. Therefore, I first had potential participants fill out a screener with questions I wrote, such as:
How interested are you in making/seeing your family history in a family tree format?
a) very interested
b) somewhat interested
c) not interested
Have you used any tools, app or sites listed below to look into your family history? (select all that apply)
a) through genealogy or DNA testing sites like: ancestry.com 23andme.com, myHeritage.com
b) through official records like: archives.gov, ellisisland.org, census records
c) if other, please list
d) none
Since Covid-19 was still a factor at this time, I recruited participants by word of mouth and who was comfortable doing testing in person and over Zoom. Each candidate was screened for suitability before participating in the study.
I created my script (moderator guide) beforehand, including the expected actions and answers so that I could quickly check them off during the interview. The script included three scenarios for the participants to attempt to complete while I observed:
play a video of a video of an already added family member 'Jenny Swashbuckle'.
add a family member 'Hope Chance' as 'adoptive parent' of 'Lucy Chance'.
merge your family tree with 'Joe Buckle', another relative (user's) family tree.
The sessions were schedule over three days which was difficult for many participants.
I performed separate testing with five participants in their own environments to keep the experience as typical as possible. Every participant granted me permission to video record each session for later review which took some of the pressure off my note taking. Then each participant went through the scenarios and tasks.
"I pushed play. Nothing happens."– Mike. Before noticing 'play' was not the middle button
The toughest part was when the participant looked to me for help and I had to redirect back by asking what they would do.
When a task could be done by using a search box, my testing found that all of the participants used it.
Concerning UI interactions and controls, my testing confirmed that users expect them to follow common conventions for intuitive use. For example, users expected controls for the app’s video player to be similar to YouTube, Netflix or other common video player layouts.
Four out of five of the participants expected to be able to zoom out to see the entire family tree even if it was no longer legible, which surprised me.
Betsy – "...would like to see my and Joe's merged tree."
I would conduct additional user interviews to learn more about the privacy controls users want and to identify which Relatree features to prioritize next.
I’d also look for pre-existing research or conduct new UX research, including A/B testing, to compare various common video player layouts within the prototype to learn which users prefer and why.
I learned that there is a need for an app that helps people create family trees by collaborating with other relatives.
Privacy was a concern for many participants because the Relatree app would contain personal and family information. I learned that I didn't think about privacy as much as users preferred, in the future I'd make sure to keep user privacy in mind.
It took me longer than expect to find times willing participants would be available. Two people cancelled on short notice. Next time I’d plan to have an alternate participant available from the beginning in case other’s plans change.
Next time, when conducting usability testing I would note timestamps of key insights or behaviors when they occur to make them easier to find when viewing recorded sessions for analysis or editing for presentations.
