Background —

The Portfolio Manager is well-known and established software developed by ENERGY STAR and the EPA, used to measure energy consumption and emissions. As its companion, a new tool was being developed: the EPA Building Emissions Calculator. This application would take data from Portfolio Manager and provide additional, analytic information like forecasting to users.

Problem statement: What additional, useful information can be gleaned from actual users and used to quickly make changes in the product before launch?

Method —

I developed a usability test plan and tested with 5 participants (moderated), remotely.

Qualitative data were coded using a deductive coding method, which allowed me to analyze findings by: task, feature, design area, and usability issue.

Usability Tasks were tied back to design areas so that information could be acted upon more easily by Engineering.

It was at this level (Design Area) that severity was placed, assisting the Product team with placing priority.

Impact —

Calendar functionality: The platform used two calendar interactive elements, both different from each other and different from typical calendar functionality, generally. While both were awkward for users, one was especially problematic.

Change: both calendars were internally standardized, and externally standardized.

UX Writing: This proved to be an issue throughout the application with inconsistent wording and over wordiness.

Change: I provided guidelines and specific language recommendations, which were accepted.