From Complexity to Clarity

Improving Usability for HP's Workforce Experience Platform

Overview

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Context & Background

Workforce Experience Platform (WXP) helps IT teams monitor device health, resolve issues at scale, and improve workforce productivity.

During beta testing with HP partners and customers, I partnered with another Senior UX Researcher to evaluate usability, value, and release readiness.

Defining the Problem Space

To start, I directed a problem-framing workshop with stakeholders and helped uncover the following areas:

The Challenge

Early feedback revealed non-intuitive complexities with WXP and hesitation to transition from the legacy analytics platform. It was important to understand:

  • Can users quickly understand and navigate WXP during initial exposure?

  • Where are they experiencing the most friction?

  • Do they perceive WXP as valuable enough to adopt?

Objectives

  1. Evaluate usability.

  2. Identify key pain points or areas of friction.

  3. Assess perceived value and measure likelihood to adopt.

  4. Generate actionable insights to inform product iteration pre-launch.

How Research Uncovered What Mattered Most

Methodology

This research involved a mixed-methods approach to capture both behavior and perception.

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10 Week Timeline for 2 Research Waves & Iteration

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Target Audience

I partnered with HP's Go-to-Market team to recruit 15 IT participants (9 customers and 6 partners) representing IT Decision Makers, IT Admins, IT Service Desk Managers, and IT Partner Support.

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Connecting the Dots

I used Marvin AI and Miro to streamline qualitative analysis, enabling faster coding, thematic clustering, and insight generation.

Quantitative findings were analyzed in Microsoft Excel and to validate patterns and provide additional context to the research outcomes.

*Note: Due to confidentiality and data privacy requirements, only selected findings are presented below.

I used Marvin AI and Miro to streamline qualitative analysis, enabling faster coding, thematic clustering, and insight generation.

Quantitative findings were analyzed in Microsoft Excel and to validate patterns and provide additional context to the research outcomes.

*Note: Due to confidentiality and data privacy requirements, only selected findings are presented below.

Key Themes Shaping IT Work

Below are top recurring themes from research interviews expressed by multiple participants.

Reactive Prioritization
Reactive Prioritization

Prioritization feels limited, and fragmented insights make it difficult to proactively identify what requires attention first, leading to more reactive workflows and slower decision-making.

Prioritization feels limited, and fragmented insights make it difficult to proactively identify what requires attention first, leading to more reactive workflows and slower decision-making.

Workflow Inefficiency
Workflow Inefficiency

IT professionals rely on multiple tools to monitor, diagnose, and remediate device issues, often having to switch between systems to complete a single task.

IT professionals rely on multiple tools to monitor, diagnose, and remediate device issues, often having to switch between systems to complete a single task.

Manual Analysis
Manual Analysis

Interpreting telemetry and analytics data can take a lot of manual effort, making it difficult to quickly determine the root cause and actions to take for remediation.

Interpreting telemetry and analytics data can take a lot of manual effort, making it difficult to quickly determine the root cause and actions to take for remediation.

Lack of Automation
Lack of Automation

Today’s process for both monitoring and remediation workflows feels disconnected, requiring IT professionals to switch between tools or having to manually resolve issues.

Today’s process for both monitoring and remediation workflows feels disconnected, requiring IT professionals to switch between tools or having to manually resolve issues.

Key Insights That Drove Decisions

Experience Score Widget - Insight #1

Experience Score Widget - Insight #1

Uncertainty about score

Participants expected the Experience Score to explain both its calculation and the factors influencing it. Without that context, they lacked the confidence to interpret the score or determine how to improve it.

Participants expected the Experience Score to explain both its calculation and the factors influencing it. Without that context, they lacked the confidence to interpret the score or determine how to improve it.

Recommendation

Redesign the score hierarchy to:

  • Increase visibility of contributing metrics

  • Explain how the score is calculated

  • Clarify what the score impacts

Redesign the score hierarchy to:

  • Increase visibility of contributing metrics

  • Explain how the score is calculated

  • Clarify what the score impacts

💬 Research Quote

“We see the score, 89. Okay, what’s behind it? How was it developed? There should be some information that says how it’s done...”

HP Partner • Participant 7

HP Partner • Participant 7

Recommended Actions Widget - Insight #2

Recommended Actions Widget - Insight #2

Unclear Prioritization

Unclear symbols and visual cues made it difficult for users to distinguish priority actions, leaving them uncertain where to focus first.

Unclear symbols and visual cues made it difficult for users to distinguish priority actions, leaving them uncertain where to focus first.

Recommendation

Use accessible color differentiation and stronger prioritization signals to help users quickly distinguish priority actions. Pair these with clear labels and hierarchy so IT users can confidently determine where to focus first.

Use accessible color differentiation and stronger prioritization signals to help users quickly distinguish priority actions. Pair these with clear labels and hierarchy so IT users can confidently determine where to focus first.

💬 Research Quote

“I don’t know what the +3 score improvement means... If you improve that, [then] it’s going to increase the employee experience by three points? That’s what I think, but not sure...”

HP Customer • Participant 4

HP Customer • Participant 4

"The best products don't focus on features, they focus on clarity."

-Jon Bolt

"The best products don't focus on features, they focus on clarity."

-Jon Bolt

"The best products don't focus on features, they focus on clarity."

-Jon Bolt

Improving Usability Upon Iteration

Following initial feedback, I partnered with product and visual designers to iterate on solutions and assess impact using pre- and post-change metrics: time on task, task success rate, SEQ, SUS, and NPS.

Following initial feedback, I partnered with product and visual designers to iterate on solutions and assess impact using pre- and post-change metrics: time on task, task success rate, SEQ, SUS, and NPS.

Experience Score Widget

Before Redesign:
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  • Total time on task average: 51 seconds


  • Task success: 3 out of 15 participants completed the task successfully with no error


  • Task difficulty average rating: 3 (i.e., somewhat difficult)

After Redesign:
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  • Total time on task average: 12 seconds


  • Task success: 12 out of 15 participants completed the task successfully with no error


  • Task difficulty average rating: 5 (i.e., somewhat easy)

Recommended Actions Widget

Before Redesign:
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  • Total time on task average: 22 seconds


  • Task success: 5 out of 15 participants completed the task successfully with no error


  • Task difficulty average rating: 3 (i.e., somewhat difficult)

After Redesign:
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  • Total time on task average: 12 seconds


  • Task success: 12 out of 15 participants completed the task successfully with no error


  • Task difficulty average rating: 6 (i.e., easy)

Measuring the Impact

User-informed design iterations led to measurable improvements in usability and satisfaction, validating the effectiveness of the redesigned experience.

User-informed design iterations led to measurable improvements in usability and satisfaction, validating the effectiveness of the redesigned experience.

System Usability Scale (SUS)
System Usability Scale (SUS)

+23 points increase in SUS • 70 → 93

70

Before

93

After

Before Redesign

After Redesign

Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Net Promoter Score (NPS)

+53 points increase in NPS• 27 → 80

2

0

Detractors

7

3

Passives

6

12

Promoters

Before Redesign

After Redesign

Industry & Personal Takeaways

Industry Impact

This study marked the first live usability feedback session with both HP partners and customers in years, shifting product decisions from assumptions to evidence. It also played a key role in helping our team win a 2025 UX Design Award from the International Design Center Berlin. The research process further strengthened collaboration between UX, Product, and Go-to-Market teams, opening a clearer path forward for uncovering opportunities to enhance the experience.

This study marked the first live usability feedback session with both HP partners and customers in years, shifting product decisions from assumptions to evidence. It also played a key role in helping our team win a 2025 UX Design Award from the International Design Center Berlin. The research process further strengthened collaboration between UX, Product, and Go-to-Market teams, opening a clearer path forward for uncovering opportunities to enhance the experience.

Read information on the UX Design Award here!

Personal Growth

This project further strengthened my ability to lead end-to-end research under tight timelines, from stakeholder alignment and facilitation to synthesis and presentation. It also sharpened my ability to manage competing priorities while keeping the research grounded and on schedule.

This project further strengthened my ability to lead end-to-end research under tight timelines, from stakeholder alignment and facilitation to synthesis and presentation. It also sharpened my ability to manage competing priorities while keeping the research grounded and on schedule.

Interested in how I can help teams turn insights into impact?

Let’s connect!

Email

Interested in how I can help teams turn insights into impact?

Let’s connect!

Email

Interested in how I can help teams turn insights into impact?

Let’s connect!

Email