Zocdoc Usability Study

Summer 2023

UI/UX

UX Research

Usability Testing

Master's Project

Team Project

Expirence Overview

Conducted an in-depth usability study on Zocdoc’s mobile app with a team of six, evaluating whether the app successfully helps users find local doctors and delivers a strong user experience.
Co-created a comprehensive test script, identifying key features to evaluate and designing realistic user tasks to reflect common healthcare appointment scenarios.
Recruited and interviewed 18 participants (3 per team member), recording each session to ensure rich, shareable qualitative data for team-wide analysis.
Synthesized user feedback into a detailed findings report that included task success rates, common usability pain points, and design recommendations for improvement.
Practiced unbiased task framing and moderation techniques to reduce leading behavior and gather authentic insights into user navigation and decision-making.
Reviewed and analyzed hours of user testing footage to extract actionable insights, learning to identify patterns across diverse user sessions.
Delivered a final presentation summarizing research goals, methodology, outcomes, and key usability recommendations in a structured PDF report.
Gained hands-on experience in UX research collaboration, user empathy, and the importance of diverse perspectives in identifying usability issues.

My Role

I was on a team of six, made up of myself and five other classmates. We each took equal roles in all of the responsibilities of the project, including creating a test script, conducting the usability tests, and sharing results.

Process

Build a Test Script

To begin the process and ensure we were all on the same page, my group members and I collaborated on a script we would use when we conducted the test. During this meeting, we discussed the major features of the app that we wanted to test and, as a result, created tasks that would prompt our participants to use those features.

Recruit Participants

Because this was just a homework assignment, we didn't spend any money recruiting participants and asked friends and family members who hadn't used the app before to participate. In an actual study, we would have sent emails and found incentives in the form of cash or otherwise to get participants within our target customer demographic.

Conduct the Testing

We each interviewed 3 people for a total of 18 usability tests. To share our data with our group, we recorded each session and shared the video for each of us to review and analyze in our final report.

Analyze and Report Results

Following the testing sessions, we reviewed each other's recordings and built a report to showcase our findings. This report included information about the study, task success rates, primary issues that needed to be addressed, and some recommendations. A link to this report can be found below under "Results."

Challenges

Defining Tasks that Give Good Insights

When building a usability study like the one conducted in this test, making sure your tasks are formulated thoughtfully and without leading the user is essential. It can harm your findings if the tasks don't put the participants in a mindset similar to how they would approach the application in their daily lives. This project was a good exercise in helping me understand what questions guide a user to do something a specific way, and what questions prompt a more exploratory and natural approach.

Finding Actionable Insights From the Data

By the end of the testing, we had hours of video to sift through to understand the most significant pain points users experienced when using the app. Watching these videos was tedious but necessary to ensure the efforts to perform the tests brought the best insights on improving the app. Because of our data, we found several notable improvements that could improve the app. This was an excellent learning experience to understand how to glean insights from a lot of data.

Deliverables

The final report was presented as a pdf presentation. Although Zocdoc didn't hire us to do this testing for them, it was enjoyable to go through this exercise to learn more about usability testing and the information that can be learned from a well-structured research study. A link to download my final presentation can be found here:

Zocdoc Usability Study Report.pdf

Reflection and Takeaways

I enjoyed working with my team members and interacting with participants during this project. Conducting these tests with different moderators and with various participants produced insights that wouldn't have otherwise been discovered. This shows the importance of different perspectives in the realm of UX research and is something I will keep in mind in the future.

If you want to put me to work solving the biggest pain points for your business, reach out to me here, and let's talk!