Infor's user testing community
- Role: Senior Information Architect
- Company: Infor
- Sector: Enterprise software
Hook & Loop is the in-house branding agency for the multinational, industry-specific enterprise software company Infor. As their first Information Architect, I worked directly with the Creative Director and the UI designers, and I wrote frequently for the company Medium channel.
Challenge
While Infor has a tradition of in-depth user research methods for its product development, there was no process for doing quick, iterative website tests with a large number of users at once. As Infor's first Information Architect, I recognized this gap in how the organization generated research.
Solution
When planning for Inforum 2016, (Inforum is an annual event hosted by Infor to showcase products, share customer success stories, and discuss industry trends) I proposed and led the creation of Infor's first live user testing lab, a cross-disciplinary initiative that brought customers, executives, and UX practitioners together for three days of structured UX testing. This offered attendees—both customers and Infor's executives—a tangible way to participate in and appreciate our user-centered design process.
I defined the testing framework and organized the workflows for the team running the tests. To extend the impact, I also launched the Beta Tester Community, a scalable quick-testing program that made ongoing feedback more accessible and helped organize internal knowledge across diverse teams.
Result
During Inforum, we completed 96 tests across five products. Within a year, the Beta Tester Community grew to 480+ participants, enabling continuous feedback that supported more effective patterns and stronger information science practices. I later published insights from the initiative on Infor's Medium channel to further reinforce shared purpose across the organization.
Medium: "Experiments in User Testing: the Pop-up Lab"
Medium: "Experiments in User Testing: Putting "More with Less" to the Test