Checks

Overview

How to use

Set expectations up front

It is important that the user don’t take a check and end up feeling that they didn’t get anything out of it - or less than they expected. Therefore it is important to set expectations, and emphasise the purpose of the check, up front. You need to be clear about what the user will end up with, after taking the check. Whether that being a recommended product, providing insights for Coloplast to optimise their products and services, or simply giving the HCP’s a better foundation for the users next consultation.

 

Be transparent

Setting expectations up front is a way of ensuring transparency and establishing trust with your users. This transparency should be maintained as much as possible throughout the check. This means asking questions that relates to the purpose presented to the user in the beginning. And if questions may cause the users to think ‘why are you asking me this’ or ‘why is this relevant’, make sure to provide them with an explanation. Furthermore, you want to be transparent by giving an honest estimation of the checks length and time the user will need to set aside.

 

Be empathic

Don’t ask a question, that does not make sense, based on previous answers that the user has given. You want to make the user feel heard. We have probably all experienced the frustration of getting a question in a survey, where all you want to ask back is ‘why are you asking me this, i just said..’”. We want to avoid giving our users this experience. (E.g. you should not ask ‘what is your favourite thing about product a’ if the user just stated that they are unsatisfied with product a or maybe that they don’t even use products a’). Additionally you should not assume that the user can remember the context of the previous questions. Therefore always include the information needed on each step. Lastly we want to avoid the check feeling clinical and cold, but instead strive towards making it empathic and human.

 

Ask questions that the user is able to answer

This for example means making sure, that your scale includes all the sensible numbers, and only include one number once (not 1-5 and 5-10, as it is hard to answer if the answer is 5). It also means asking questions that the user actually knows the answer to - or otherwise emphasise that you are looking for an estimate. Additionally, you should consider if your scale means the same thing to everyone. E.g. ‘frequently’ can mean two completely different things to two different users.

 

What to use

Checks consists of different types of questions and answer types. Here is some guidance about when to use the different types and in what context they make best sense.

Behaviour

When designing the behaviour of your Checks, there are some things to consider and choices to make. We are listed some of the most important ones here.

 

Next button vs. automatic continue

We recommend using a next button, instead of automatic continue - and here is why. A next button allows the user to confirm that the answer they have given is correct and the one they want to stick to. In contrast, automatically jumping to the next question can potentially confuse the user and give a feeling of loosing control. Additionally, there are some scenarios where the automatic continue does not make sense, e.g. when a user is able to choose multiple answers and we don’t have a chance of knowing when the user is ‘done’. It is important to be consistent throughout the flow, and since automatic continue’ doesn’t always make sense, a next button is also better when it comes to keeping the consistency.

 

Disabled buttons

In general, try to avoid disabled buttons. Here is why. Disable buttons can often lead to users being confused about why they are not able to press the next button and continue. The disable button does not provide any clues or guidance. Instead you want to use error messages, that can help the user on how to fix the reason to why they are not able to continue in the flow. Read more about disabled buttons in forms here

 

Errors

Immediate and efficient error messages can help users to understand the issue and to find solutions. Begin by notifying users about what has happened, followed by guidance for next steps or potential solutions. Always present error states on the form, and use inline errors whenever possible. You can find more about errors in the forms errors section here

 

Abandoning a Check

We want to avoid that the user deletes all their answers unintentionally. Therefore you want to make sure, that the user is not able to delete their information, or abandon the check, in one single click. Not because it should’t be an option not to complete it, but it should be a choice the user has made on purpose. Therefore it is a good idea to include some kind of confirmation interaction, where the user is able to confirm that they want to abandon the Check.

 

Content guidelines

Here are some examples of common mistakes that could be made when designing Checks, presented as some do’s and dont’s.

 

Don’t ask yes/not format questions and provide a different answer type

The goal is to create a check, that the user can complete without any fuzz and as smooth as possible. Therefore it is important that the questions and answers matche. We want to avoid that the user has to read the question again, after seeing the answers, because the connection felt off or confusing. E.g. if you ask a yes/no question, the optional answers should be yes and no.

 

Avoid providing 1-10 scale answers, or similar, for questions difficult to answer precisely

It should be easy for the user to answer the questions they are asked. Providing a scale from 1 to 10 when asking about an average, can be difficult for the user to answer, as they might not know if the right answer is one or the other. When taking a Health Check, or anything health related, patients really want to answer correctly and accurately. Not being able to do so can cause insecurity. Instead categorise the answers into sections, in order to make it easier for the user to resonate with a single answer and feel more confident.

Articles

The UX of survey design - Medium
Disable buttons and feedback - Medium
Forms design - NN group