Different from the patients who can take time to assemble their devices in their daily lives, sales representatives face a much more time-limited scenario in their presentations and pitches, which requires them to utilize their time more efficiently, and hopefully without hiccups. Hearing from the field, most of the reps had experiences of some sort of delay or failure in the earlier practices for the new products. It usually takes just a couple of rounds for them to get a hold of it. And our inhaler, which has a longer learning curve due to its multiple steps of assembly, will naturally require longer time than usual. Thus our goal is to have these hurdles of learning resolved as much as possible during the onboarding, by providing a thorough training package with targeted exercises.

Pain Points

• The training is online and the actual package of the device might not be accessible for reps.

• Lack of practice will lead to unfamiliar with the device when presenting

• Reps have limited time to learn how and are less engaged to revisit the training docs

• It’s frustrating for reps to fail repetitively due to lack of guiding, or not being able to practice at all

Exploration

Objectives

The main objectives for the tool are also outlined to help define what mechanics to include and how to measure success:

• Supporting the education of the perceived complexity of the device

• Motivating users to increase speed

• Helping users to increase accuracy

• Engaging users to pursue better results through continuous practice

Metrics

The success of the tool will be measured in the following aspects

• Improvement of understanding of assembly practice without the actual device

• Improvement of rep’s completion time and accuracy

• Increase of revisit and practice

• Increase of communication and interaction with peers and instructors

Diving into the main objectives of the product, an outline of the tasks is defined as below, from the ones most relevant to the main goal to the less relevant functionalities.

User Flow (detailed)

Wire Flow (early iteration)

Refining Wireframes (samples)

Design Comps (samples)

Testing (sample)

Every design journey has its own challenges, this one is no exception. The first and utmost question kept being addressed is: Is the tool really helping reps to get as close as can be achieved with real-device training?

The Fine Line between Reality and Digital Experience

To help the reps get familiar with the device even without access to the actual set, 3D modeling is adopted, allowing them to visualize the device and kick start the near-reality experience. It is not only applied to this particular tool but also globally to other marketing and training materials and related products. It was a bigger strategy to move from the 2D line-drawn style of the instructional graphics to 3D models and live videos to explain the use of the device.

But in this tool, they will get to explore and “touch” the device, although not, in reality, should have an impact on their real-life practice. With WebGL implemented, it became possible.

In this scenario, it was carefully considered to which level of reality should be carried to the design solution. Here is one of the early explorations to have the default game screen with components off-grid in random order, which is close to when they are taken out of the box and laid on the table in reality. When the correct piece is selected, the layout would switch to the view with the piece in focus, and other pieces surrounding it for the next step.

It seems like a reasonable solution since the end goal of the tool is to help reps learn how to assemble the device in reality. But after further research and testing, there are a few points missing from this solution.

• Causing confusion of where to start with the clear indication missing

• Users tend to linger to the components with the bigger size/brighter color, while they might not be relevant to their next move

• The increasing chance of miss-clicking adds up user frustration, especially for smaller components

• Discouraging users to move forward for the lack of hints

The Noise

Thus a different approach is adopted, with a more controllable, less distractive component tray, to help users better identify, interact, and memorize. But adding disruptors still makes sense to make it more challenging in the learning process, to avoid muscle memory only to the training tool but not the correct pieces. Instead of presenting disorganized assets, we introduced the noise in reality in different ways.

1. The assets would shuffle after a step is done. It’s added to make sure users thoroughly understand the steps and can identify the parts they are interacting with.

2. Adding unrelated pieces to the component tray. These additional items are from the same package with the device that could be a distraction.

The Clarity

Although some noises are added to mirror reality, it is also important to offer necessary clarification in the flow to support the learning process of the users.

Breaking each task into smaller steps, with clear copy on the labels and descriptions

The whole process includes quite a few steps. The complexity of the information would affect viewers’ acceptance and engagement if presented in an unfiltered, monotonous format. To help to memorize the lengthy steps, the big task was broken into smaller ones, in this case, naturally done by assembling small parts into different sections, then connect them together in the last step. An indicator of finished steps would be displayed to inform completion of the process.

Creating hierarchy for supportive messages to feed users in different levels

2. Overlaying hints: The subtle clue to provide immediate feedback of behavior and gestures. It helps to avoid swamping users with too much information or interrupting the flow with unnecessary reading.

Interaction hints for rotation

Pattern for assets tray

Measuring Scales And How To Improve Stickiness

The Two Scales Used To Measure Proficiency

There are two major scales to measure the proficiency of the users: speed and accuracy.

Speed is the visible measurement. A timer is shown on the screen to inform how fast the users assemble the device. A counting down is added before the timer starts to get users ready and help to time more accurately. To align with reality practice, interruption of the gameplay would abort the current assembly (replaying tutorials, checking profile page, etc.).

Accuracy is a relatively hidden scale. With WebGL implemented, the area users can interact with is set specifically. It would increase the chance of miss-clicking, but provide more detailed training on how and where to interact properly. Any mistakes made would cost time for another try, which adds to the total time of the gameplay, and is reflected in the end result.

The light-hearted challenge can improve retention

To improve user engagement, the challenge is added to the experience.

1. Self-challenge

After every game, the result would be presented on the completion screen. The best score would be recorded and shown in the dashboard. Three types of badges are granted based on the results: ranking, best score, time played. To earn higher-level badges, users would have to keep challenging for better results.

Completion of game

Dashboard

The Assembly Challenge tool designed for the rep training was a great success and became a star piece of the package. It was launched in 2018 and quickly gained popularity and love from the client’s team. To my surprise, it was used as a showcase of the device internally to stakeholders not limited to the reps team, which proved it went beyond its original purpose and goal.

Due to the limitation of information allowed to be shared with us, more detailed feedback and direct follow-up with the end-user were not accessible. It would be great if there’s an opportunity to learn more from the users in the field, but alas, such is agency life. :D