Refining Column

Treading the line of product design and greater purpose, Column, a collaborative public notice platform, bridges the gap between user and publication creating a streamlined process for a once previously complicated task.

THE CHALLENGE

On the hunt for feedback, Column was looking for ways to refine their re-branded product in hopes of landing more partnerships with publications across the country.

I completed a one-week research sprint involving preliminary research, usability testing, and synthesis. In just one week, I immersed myself in the world of Public Notice. I completed a heuristics evaluation, a WGAC audit, and 9 usability tests to inform my recommendations to communicate to the team at Column.

Say, What?

Public notice, I said! You’ve seen one out there in the wild, as you stroll down the street, more popularly, in the newspaper. You know, the ones posted on those closed bars marked “NOTICE.” They’re exactly what they sound like. A notice to address the public. In what capacity, you say? Well, a public notice is used to address the public regarding certain proceedings, typically legislative or community rule-making. They allow the public to become privy to certain community proceedings in order to allow their opinion to be known if they so please. If you don’t know now you know.

So, Who’s Column?

Column is “the first collaborative public notice platform helping journalists, governments and legal services work together to inform their communities,” according to their website. Their main product is a portal created to act as a liaison between the publisher and the user, making it easier for the user to create and send a public notice to be posted in their local paper and making it easier for the publisher to receive and field those public notice requests. Additionally, Column helps local newspapers and small scale publishers to ensure they’re not missing invoices and properly keeping track of payments, thus simultaneously supporting local publications.

Column’s mission is to support the distribution of public interest information, to make it more accessible and usable for users and publishers.

Screen shot of a Notice within Column awaiting confirmation from the publisher and publication.

THE GOAL

While I didn’t know much about Public Notice, I quickly learned that prior to Column the process was rather confusing and antiquated.

The goal was to understand how users from a variety of backgrounds approach the Column product, and where it could use suggestions to set Column up for future partnerships. From one side, we have government agencies, law firms and individuals submitting public notices for a variety of reasons and on the other side we have publishers, or local newspapers fielding submitted public notices and publishing them.

I immediately noticed that Column’s target audience included publishers, journalists, government agencies, law firms, and individuals. I structured my research to target those who had previous knowledge about public notice and those who did not. Unfortunately, due to the week-long constraints, I was unable to focus solely on the target audience; however, I was able to find six participants with prior knowledge of Public Notice and six without.

THE APPROACH

I first reviewed the purpose of a public notice, what kinds there were, and why they may be used. Having been unfamiliar at the beginning of this project, I found a helpful resource at the Public Notice Resource Center website.

Court Notices

· Mortgage
· Foreclosures
· Name Changes
· Probate Rulings
· Divorces
· Adoptions
· Orders to Appear in Court

Commercial Notices

· Formation and Dissolution of Corporations
· Unclaimed Property, Banks or Governments
· Debtor Property Auctions (e.g., Self-Storage)
· Delinquent Tax Lists, Tax Deed Sales
· Government Construction, Service Contract Bids
· Government Property Sales
· Special Government Funds
· Permit and License Applications
· Condemnation Orders (i.e., Eminent Domain)
· Criminal Property Forfeitures

Citizen Participation Notices

· Government Meetings and Hearings
· Meeting Minutes or Summaries
· Agency Proposals Legislation and Resolutions
· Financial Reports
· Proposed Budgets and Tax Rates Land and Water Use Property
· Tax Assessments
· State Employee Salaries
· Creation of Special Tax Districts
· Election Dates and Polling Places
· School District Reports Zoning, Annexation and Land Use
· Changes Capital Improvement Plans

This list helped me to understand who the audience is and how I could target my research participants as well as look for potential new audience to support Column’s partnership explorations.

TESTING, TESTING, 1, 2, 3

For my usability tests to gain insights on the Column Public Notice portal, I screened a group of participants based on whether or not they had prior knowledge of Public Notice. I did not want to exclude those who did not because I was interested in understanding the usability of the website from a general perspective sans prior knowledge. Mainly, the users without prior knowledge would allow me to understand if the UI alone is familiar and clear.

I selected three participants without prior knowledge:
Female, Age 26, USA
Male, Age 26, USA
Female, Age 23, USA.
Occupations: Investments Buyer, Musician, Research

I selected six participants with prior knowledge:
Female, Age 54, USA
Male, Age 59, USA
Female, Age 25, USA
Occupations: Real Estate Development, Attorney

The final three were unmoderated tests with prior knowledge:
Female, Age 33, UK
Female, Age 53, UK
Male, Age 55, USA
Occupations: Human Resources, Sales, and Construction

SCENARIOS AND TASKS

For the test group who had no prior knowledge of public notice, I assigned them the following scenarios and tasks:

Scenario One (Moderated tests)- You have never heard of Column and you’ve been referred there to post a Public Notice. You’ve never posted one before, and you are required to post one.

Tasks

• Sign up for an account as a Law Firm, Govt., or Individual
• Please go about posting a public notice

Goals

• Take someone trying to post a Notice through the process of registering
• Understand Column’s product and mission are clear
• Understand if they are able to post one without issue

For the test group who had prior knowledge:

Scenario Two (Moderated tests; Participants with prior Public Notice knowledge)- You are a (fill in their job if relevant, if not use general) and you are required by law to post a public notice in the local paper.

Tasks

• Find on the site what a Public Notice is
• Review the site and explain what Column does

Goals

• Review the landing page information to understand if it is helpful for gaining context about Column as a product and company
• Can a user understand Public Notice if they have no prior knowledge or context?
• Does someone who may or may not be posting a Public Notice understand what Column does as a product?

For the unmoderated test group with prior knowledge:

Scenario Three (Unmoderated Tests; Participants with prior knowledge)- You are a lawyer posting a notice of the probate on behalf of your client. You’ve been referred to Column as a service to post your notice.

Tasks

• Review the site and find out what Column does as a product.
• Please talk through a brief summary of what you believe Column is/does
• You must sign up and post your notice of the probate in the state of Colorado in “Sajan’s Weekly”, the local paper.
  You can use fake credentials, a fake email, and any fake info you might need to complete the process.

Goals

• Understand how people with prior knowledge of a public notice respond to the templates section
• Review how people with prior knowledge respond to the website as a whole and the Column product

RESULTS

After performing the tests, I watched back all my recordings and made notes of interesting comments and confusing elements for each participant. I compiled all of these into a positive and negative list.

I then broke down each finding, no matter how small, by categories on a spreadsheet and added in my notes as well as my suggestions for Column to improve.

Finally, I created a few simple user personas which were informed by my user tests in order to understand the user needs a bit better.

Mandy’s user journey was helpful for me to think through and understand where the process became difficult and why someone might run into a specific issue.

FINDINGS & INSIGHTS

Generally, the findings produced a slew of results consisting of both high and low priority issues. The main finding topics I boiled them down to were Clarity, Learnability, Transparency, and Audience. Then findings were classified by Landing Page, UI/Visual, Solutions/Learn More page, Registration, Site Feedback, Overall site, and Public Notice Creation Process.

By asking why, and understanding the deeper issues, I boiled my findings down to three main high level insights:

1. Users felt unsure of the company’s intentions.
   Because of wordiness and excess information about company, founders, missions, background, and marketing/sales of product all on the same website. Many felt like this information was an oversell which lead to users doubting the sole purpose and intention of the product, which is that Column is a company hoping to bridge the gap between local news and the users. In fact, due to lack of a clear problem statement, and how Column was solving it (i.e. the purpose) some users even felt like Column was creating its own public notice posting website, taking the public notices away from the newspapers themselves and contributing to censorship. Additionally, it is unclear if Column is a product or if it is a company. Is Column a public service company or is Column a public notice posting tool?
2. There is an opportunity to be more inclusive of audience.
   Column has made some assumptions about their users out of the gate. Users felt that their professions and roles were not properly represented and they had to compromise. Additionally, individuals felt excluded because they felt that having prior knowledge was required in order to use the product. The language used on the site was unclear to users with and without prior knowledge.
3. Users weren’t sure if they could rely on the site, leading to distrust.
   They felt the feedback they received (clear confirmation messages, direct language, up front information such as cost and what makes Column reputable) was unreliable. They felt unsure whether their notices were actually submitted. Users doubted the expertise of Column and whether they were formatted with the proper legal language. They weren’t sure why they should trust the site’s templated notices.

RECOMMENDATIONS

After listening to the users needs and considering the trends. My top level recommendations are:

1. Pare down the site: what is Column at the core?
   Is it a product or is it a company? How Is the public notice posting product separate from Column as a company? Or is it? By defining these boundaries, customers may understand Column’s mission as a company and their intentions as a product. State these two clearly and in layman’s terms on the front page. The public service mission to bolster local newspapers and give the public unbiased news needs to be clear, otherwise it could be a detriment and negate the company’s good-willed mission entirely.
2. Think about the users as people, not professionals.
   Assume the users know nothing. Even professionals struggle to understand certain concepts and products. Just because they are an expert in their field, does not mean they are an expert in public notices and the Column product.
3. State your sources; be transparent.
   The decision to create an unbiased public service company is very important work, especially when dealing with legal and government info. Who at Column is doing the fact checking? Why should the user believe that Column is reputable and knows their stuff? Column is clearly knowledgable, fair, and educated and that should be front and center!

The way I see it, is that Column is well-intentioned and abundantly passionate about the work that they do. Their mission and story is unique and accesses a niche that not many companies currently cater to. Bolstering print mediums with technologies that make it easier for users to access these mediums are important work, especially considering Public Notice. Working through this project has helped me to understand the importance of Public Notice and how they contribute to transparency and open, un-censored access to important information that the public should be aware of.

Column should ensure that they are always keeping their passionate mission at the core of everything they do, but they should also ensure that the users are at the forefront of their product so as to not only design for themselves and their goals, but also for their users and what they need. Users felt that the product was usable, learnable, and served a purpose. Many said they would absolutely use this product assuming it was done correctly. Many of the issues were not due to small UI mistakes, but to a lack of feedback, clear and transparent information up front, at the beginning of the process. As Column evolves I have no doubt that they will continue to gain more trust and notoriety through iteration, openness, and willingness to learn. After all, these are at the core of their values stated on their site.