6 month research project
Understanding preferences & journey of mobile application developers at Goldman Sachs.
Timeline: Jan 2021-June 2021
6 month research project
Understanding preferences & journey of mobile application developers at Goldman Sachs.
Timeline: Jan 2021-June 2021
6 month research project
Understanding preferences & journey of mobile application developers at Goldman Sachs.
Timeline: Jan 2021-June 2021
6 month research project
Understanding preferences & journey of mobile application developers at Goldman Sachs.
Timeline: Jan 2021-June 2021
6 month research project
Understanding preferences & journey of mobile application developers at Goldman Sachs.
Timeline: Jan 2021-June 2021
Objective
Objective
In this study, we focused on understanding the current landscape of Mobile Development at GS and the overall experience of developers with respect to their journey right from creating designs, understanding the design process & how do they go about developing mobile based solutions.
Research
Questions
Research
Questions
How do developers develop mobile solutions with and without
the support & participation of designers?
What key challenges do developers face in understanding the designs and guidelines provided by UX designers?
Key findings from secondary research
Key findings from secondary research
There are two kinds of projects, one is that has both designers & developers; the second is that only has developers are responsible for creating the designs based on some description given to them by project managers.
In the first kind of project, after the designer has handed off the designs, there’s a sort of routine pattern that has been observed which is there is a lot of going to and fro about the understanding of UI designs thus either the time taken to finish off a project gets extended or there is some gap in the final application that’s developed in terms of its UI which
affects the timeline of the project or the quality of the work delivered.
In both of the cases, the designs are getting handed off to the developer with some guidelines. When there are multiple teams/people involved in a project there always exists a gap when things are getting handed off.
In the second case when there is no designer involved, developer has to play the role of a UX researcher, UI designer and a developer and he has no background in design whatsoever. It takes a toll on the quality of the project.
Developers have no ideas about typography, color, layout, interaction etc. and they are bombarded with this huge task of creating an application with very little information around user requirements. They not only have to understand mobile development but also mobile design.
Hypotheses
Hypotheses
The assets/design details that are provided by the designer to the mobile developers are not crystal-clear thus it creates a gap in developing pixel-perfect applications.
Developers have very little guidance about how to develop for mobile.
Assumptions
Assumptions
The design guidelines that are provided by the designers are not consistent.
Some of the mobile app development teams at GS don’t have a UX designer.
Mobile Applications
Number of Mobile Application| 22+
DA, Orbit, Marquee, Etask, GS Now, GSGO, Louisa, GS Market, GS Dashboard, Management Portal, Tripwire, Deal Insights, Bayou, SSM Control Panel, ME Portal, etc.
Participants
Criteria: Experience at GS from 6 M to 2+ Y
Survey: 233
Contextual Inquiry: 16
Usability Testing : 5
Research Methods
1. Qualtrics Survey
2. Contextual Inquiry 1:1
3. Usability Testing
Time Frame: January-May 2021
Methodology
1 year & beyond
Make developer community design-centric
Have class-room based UX training sessions
Have developers sign-up for UX based courses on GS based educational
platforms including LinkedIn Learning, Coursera
Conduct interactive consultative sessions with engineering teams to review their work. This could be more on the lines of Office Hours session, but in a more casual setting
6 months – 1 year
Redesign UI toolkit website
Improve categorisation of menus to improve exploration & discover-ability
Improve the labels to reduce ambiguity and increase findability
Improve visibility of key CTAs such as support button
Make content engaging: include videos, images, info-graphics
Make content interesting: Real-life example of components, other projects and related UI style guide information
Provide granular information on UI specs
Combine design and documentation to improve traffic and higher consumption of
information
Include CTA for feedback for users to share their feedback
Continuous Ongoing Initiative
Make developer community design-centric
Have class-room based UX training sessions
Have developers sign-up for UX based courses on GS based educational
platforms including LinkedIn Learning, Coursera
Conduct interactive consultative sessions with engineering teams to review
their work. This could be more on the lines of Office Hours session, but in a
more casual setting
Continuous Ongoing Initiative
Make developer community design-centric
Have class-room based UX training sessions
Have developers sign-up for UX based courses on GS based educational
platforms including LinkedIn Learning, Coursera
Conduct interactive consultative sessions with engineering teams to review
their work. This could be more on the lines of Office Hours session, but in a
more casual setting
Recommendations
Key takeaways from survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
233 Participants took the survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
Key takeaways from survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
233 Participants took the survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
Key takeaways from survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
233 Participants took the survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
Key takeaways from survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
233 Participants took the survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
Key takeaways from survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
233 Participants took the survey
The highest fraction of respondents i.e. 44.74% is building responsive mobile solutions which means that the firm is focusing on making web solutions available on mobile.
36% of the total respondents who have worked on building mobile application built them in the last 6 months, so the landscape if fairly new.
52% of the respondents used GS UI toolkit to build their applications.
Developers who had full time working designers in their teams were more satisfied v/s those who had designers working part-time with them, thus the quality of development was better when there was collaboration with designers.
Key takeaways from contextual inquiry
Developers felt that mobile development at GS is not at par compared to the rest of the world. They surfaced this idea due to the lack of optimal infrastructure related to testing, debugging & Deployment.
Developers had no clue where to look for resources (within GS) to get them started on the mobile development activities. Essentially they would look up resources outside of GS.
The GS Design System is a great starting point for developers. However, most developers require more hand-holding in understanding and usage of different components in order to
create a useful and usable mobile solutions. They expressed a desire to have a magic formula that tell them which color, font-sizes etc. would look good.
A few development teams had not adopted GS UI toolkit because of the perceived limitation of the toolkit. They used a custom toolkit and leveraged the visual styling of the GS UI toolkit
Developers found the current state of UI Toolkit documentation elementary. They expressed need to see more examples and application of the components in different scenarios.
Developers want components like ush-messaging, legend, nav-side, side-bar, dialog-box, chat bot, FAB in UI toolkit specially for mobile design.
16 participants gave 1:1 interviews
Key takeaways from contextual inquiry
Developers felt that mobile development at GS is not at par compared to the rest of the world. They surfaced this idea due to the lack of optimal infrastructure related to testing, debugging & Deployment.
Developers had no clue where to look for resources (within GS) to get them started on the mobile development activities. Essentially they would look up resources outside of GS.
The GS Design System is a great starting point for developers. However, most developers require more hand-holding in understanding and usage of different components in order to
create a useful and usable mobile solutions. They expressed a desire to have a magic formula that tell them which color, font-sizes etc. would look good.
A few development teams had not adopted GS UI toolkit because of the perceived limitation of the toolkit. They used a custom toolkit and leveraged the visual styling of the GS UI toolkit
Developers found the current state of UI Toolkit documentation elementary. They expressed need to see more examples and application of the components in different scenarios.
Developers want components like ush-messaging, legend, nav-side, side-bar, dialog-box, chat bot, FAB in UI toolkit specially for mobile design.
16 participants gave 1:1 interviews
Key takeaways from contextual inquiry
Developers felt that mobile development at GS is not at par compared to the rest of the world. They surfaced this idea due to the lack of optimal infrastructure related to testing, debugging & Deployment.
Developers had no clue where to look for resources (within GS) to get them started on the mobile development activities. Essentially they would look up resources outside of GS.
The GS Design System is a great starting point for developers. However, most developers require more hand-holding in understanding and usage of different components in order to
create a useful and usable mobile solutions. They expressed a desire to have a magic formula that tell them which color, font-sizes etc. would look good.
A few development teams had not adopted GS UI toolkit because of the perceived limitation of the toolkit. They used a custom toolkit and leveraged the visual styling of the GS UI toolkit
Developers found the current state of UI Toolkit documentation elementary. They expressed need to see more examples and application of the components in different scenarios.
Developers want components like ush-messaging, legend, nav-side, side-bar, dialog-box, chat bot, FAB in UI toolkit specially for mobile design.
16 participants gave 1:1 interviews
Key takeaways from contextual inquiry
Developers felt that mobile development at GS is not at par compared to the rest of the world. They surfaced this idea due to the lack of optimal infrastructure related to testing, debugging & Deployment.
Developers had no clue where to look for resources (within GS) to get them started on the mobile development activities. Essentially they would look up resources outside of GS.
The GS Design System is a great starting point for developers. However, most developers require more hand-holding in understanding and usage of different components in order to
create a useful and usable mobile solutions. They expressed a desire to have a magic formula that tell them which color, font-sizes etc. would look good.
A few development teams had not adopted GS UI toolkit because of the perceived limitation of the toolkit. They used a custom toolkit and leveraged the visual styling of the GS UI toolkit
Developers found the current state of UI Toolkit documentation elementary. They expressed need to see more examples and application of the components in different scenarios.
Developers want components like ush-messaging, legend, nav-side, side-bar, dialog-box, chat bot, FAB in UI toolkit specially for mobile design.
16 participants gave 1:1 interviews
Key takeaways from contextual inquiry
Developers felt that mobile development at GS is not at par compared to the rest of the world. They surfaced this idea due to the lack of optimal infrastructure related to testing, debugging & Deployment.
Developers had no clue where to look for resources (within GS) to get them started on the mobile development activities. Essentially they would look up resources outside of GS.
The GS Design System is a great starting point for developers. However, most developers require more hand-holding in understanding and usage of different components in order to
create a useful and usable mobile solutions. They expressed a desire to have a magic formula that tell them which color, font-sizes etc. would look good.
A few development teams had not adopted GS UI toolkit because of the perceived limitation of the toolkit. They used a custom toolkit and leveraged the visual styling of the GS UI toolkit
Developers found the current state of UI Toolkit documentation elementary. They expressed need to see more examples and application of the components in different scenarios.
Developers want components like ush-messaging, legend, nav-side, side-bar, dialog-box, chat bot, FAB in UI toolkit specially for mobile design.
16 participants gave 1:1 interviews
Top Findings from Usability Study of UI toolkit documentation
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
5 participants
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
Top Findings from Usability Study of UI toolkit documentation
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
5 participants
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
Top Findings from Usability Study of UI toolkit documentation
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
5 participants
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
Top Findings from Usability Study of UI toolkit documentation
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
5 participants
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
Top Findings from Usability Study of UI
toolkit documentation
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
5 participants
Ineffective categorization scheme & verbose content
Participants found the overall categorisation to be overwhelming and this delayed the discovery process.
Content is not written in a manner that is consumable to the developers. And in some cases, they walk away after seeing huge chunks of information.
The way in which context is presented and formatted discourages the developers from exploring
Confusing & ineffective labels slow down find-ability
Most participants could not locate the section on mobile design and they did not understand what is
contained within the Example section, which in fact has good content but it’s hidden away.
Fragmented information on components and their design
4/5 participants did not click on Check Design Documentation attached with every component. After being asked to open it, they were surprised to see it and fond the documentation helpful since it gave component can actually do. But finding design documentation on a separate page was a big turn-off for them.
Raising support ticket & feedback
2/5 participants could not find the Support option on the top left bar and they needed further assistance from the moderator. They kept searching for support in the left panel and failed to discover it
