What are some user-centered design tools and methods for MIS?

Interviews are the best place to start: just go talk to people who might use your system and ask what they want. Holding group sessions to get input also helps get a lot of good information. Surveys and questionnaires are a couple other easy ways to get initial direction on what to design.

User-centered design tools and methods are essential for creating effective Management Information Systems (MIS). Some tools include usability testing software like UsabilityHub and UserTesting, which help gather user feedback on system interfaces. User personas and journey maps aid in understanding user needs and experiences. Wireframing and prototyping tools such as Balsamiq and Axure enable designers to visualize system layouts. Additionally, methods like contextual inquiry, card sorting, and A/B testing help gather user insights and validate design decisions. Overall, these tools and methods empower MIS developers to prioritize user needs and create systems that are intuitive and user-friendly.

Figma is the best tool I’ve seen for wireframing and prototyping. I’ve heard other people use Adobe XD and Sketch. PowerPoint or Google Slides can also suffice to build a quick model for a designer to take and then build a real wireframe.

Split testing or A/B testing are likely the best techniques if you have enough user traffic. For MIS, it’s best to test in a sandbox environment if possible. There are also a lot of applications out there to help facilitate user testing and have them annotate errors aligned with a testing script.

Surveys and questionnaires using Google Forms, Microsoft Forms or SurveyMonkey is a quick way to get a lot of feedback. Focus groups and interviews will also bring up some good comments that are more in depth. Integrating this feedback into an iterative development process will help continuously ship a system that people actually want to use.

The ideal situation for user training is having groups of around 20 users meet in-person to view a demo and then go through a tutorial on a computer with a sandbox environment. However, this is rarely feasible and you’re more likely to be stuck with asynchronous training. I like to think of user training for larger systems like a marketing campaign focused on educating the users or potential users. It’s best to send out a link to online training, video recordings of demos, a detailed tutorial, and even a cheat sheet. The more material the better.

I totally agree with this. However, would like to add that before a project or a change is launched, the end users should be included and their feedback should be sought. The users on the ground are the ones who should be told why a change is proposed and how would it be of benefit to them. Just imposing a change would have push back as change always come with pain and the end users will push back if possible.

Two forces drive user adoption of a management information system (MIS): 1. Quality of the system 2. Internal marketing/educational campaign If the system is terrible, people will just revert back to email and Excel files. On the other hand, a good system with the right training is bound to have some success. The initial rollout of the system has to be managed like a marketing campaign with workshops, online training, videos, tutorial, cheat sheets, etc.

User-centered design tools can only go so far. The development team has to work closely with the users to get input at each phase of an iterative development cycle. Top tech companies have been successful because they incorporate users throughout the process and have product managers with a high level of empathy.