TIMELINEWinter 2023
USERSCX analysts
Myself, content designer
Ally, product manager
Lauren, product manager
TEAMHow might I align XM Discover’s voice to Qualtrics standards?
Qualtrics had acquired Clarabridge — a small SaaS company specializing in conversational analytics, where users could analyze customer feedback from social media comments, emails, surveys, etc. It was reborn as XM Discover at Qualtrics, where I became the lead (and only) content designer supporting it.
I initially supported its designers and product managers with ad-hoc work; I got acquainted with their product, while they got acquainted with a content designer for the first time.
But I quickly identified an opportunity: from inconsistent language to outdated designs, the content quality needed to be improved.
XM DISCOVER? CLARABRIDGE...?Though I’d primarily worked on Text iQ (another text analytics tool at Qualtrics), Discover was a different beast — from learning new terminology, its users, and areas to improve. The very beginning stages involved documenting its terminology, plus differentiating between customer-generated and default content.
FROM THE GROUND UP
Text iQ
XM Discover Studio
Apart from identifying gaps and future opportunities, I sought to:
Align the voice, tone, and content to Qualtrics standards
Improve the overall user experience across XM Discover
Ease the content process with my new partners (more on this later)
GOALSThe PMs had put together consumer test plans in XM Discover Studio, outlining test scope and instructions for 5 user flows.
GETTING STARTEDLoginSelf-explanatory
Self-explanatory
Navigation and sidebarDashboard ExplorerStudio homepage, where users can view and manage their dashboards and books
Dashboard: A dynamic reporting project where users can make detailed data visualizations
Book: A tabbed dashboard that users can switch between without needing to return to the homepage
Dashboards and BooksWhere users can find customer feedback or documents associated with a certain attribute
Document ExplorerI tested each of these, noted quality issues, and made recommendations. Here are a few from the login + navigation and sidebar:
QUALITY GAP #1: READABILITYReadability was by far the highest priority, with a 91.5% frequency (overlapping other issues).
Capitalizing every word makes each word seem more important than it is. You have to stop and process each word in the sentence, which can be especially distracting for CTAs, labels, and larger headings. Sentence case is the industry standard.
Title case
When instructing users to an action, bold the UI elements.
e.g. Your email address or password is incorrect. If you don’t remember your password, try Forgot your password? to reset it.
Non-bolded UI elements
Why? It’s concise and easier to read.QUALITY GAP #2: VOICEVoice was the second highest priority, with a 13.5% frequency.
The Qualtrics voice is more informal. This sentence could be more concise, conversational, and encouraging.
e.g. To avoid overlap between accounts, double-check and replace the following content.
Too formal
The content should flow naturally, like a conversation.
e.g. Save as image -> Save as an image
Robotic
Why? It’s casual and conversational.QUALITY GAP #3: CLARITYConcerns with clarity didn’t appear as often (4.3% frequency), but it’s easily fixable.
Some content is implied and not stated. It’s best to be super clear to avoid ambiguity issues. Here, “180 days” are implied in “Last 180,” but metrics should always include units and labels.
e.g. Last 180 -> Last 180 days
Ambiguity
There’s some redundant content that could be made simpler, like these buttons for Document Explorer.
e.g. Previous Document + Next Document -> Previous + Next
Lack of simplicity
Why? It becomes clearer and simple.Like clarity, accessibility had a low frequency (3.5%), but it’s still important to ensure Discover meets accessibility guidelines.
QUALITY GAP #4: ACCESSIBILITYA lack of tooltips is better overall, as they’re not always discoverable and readable. Screen readers might not be able to read the icons if their names are hidden.
Hidden icon names in tooltips
And some of these icons aren’t commonly used, so it’s hard to tell what they mean at a first glance. The two wing-like symbols on the far right are supposed to represent Hard Effort and Easy Effort.
Overall, the icons need to be improved.
Why? It becomes discoverable and readable.EMERGING OPPORTUNITY #1: COHESIONSome suggestions for keeping cohesion, using Change Password as an example.
The message isn’t unified, as it blends in with the other columns.
Changing one’s password may need to be its own tab. This message should be separate from the other columns, with Change Password functioning as a header above the body.
e.g. How to change your password
Create a unique password that has:
• At least 10 characters
• An uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, and a number
• A special character: ~!@#$%^&*()-_+=.,<>?/|;:{}[]
Change Password
Why? It’s more unified and cohesive.EMERGING OPPORTUNITY #2: ERRORSSome suggestions for error messages, using one from Dashboard and Books.
A user may get this error when trying to access Dashboard and Books with an invalid link. This error message could be improved by explaining what happened and offering a solution.
e.g. This dashboard doesn’t exist
Check if your URL is correct. If you still can’t find the dashboard you’re looking for, try accessing it from Dashboard Explorer.
ERROR: Bad request
Why? It provides an explanation and a possible solution.Backing up my rationale with research, I worked with the PMs to:
Fix the highest priorities first — by resolving specific issues and implementing recommendations with engineering
Identify global issues — to align them with current standards or create new ones
Keep a keen eye on grammar and punctuation — to improve readability
Clarify any content concerns — by creating office hours and a content task tracker, both specifically for this team
I executed quality recommendations, provided higher support, and was deeply involved in future projects.
SO, HOW DID WE IMPLEMENT THIS?XM Discover is now XM for CX, but here’s how my recommendations were implemented across the CX platform.
RESULTSPages for home, metrics, and recommended actions within Location Assist, a workspace for frontline staff to act on location insights.
Location Assist
Location Assist — onboarding tourAn onboarding tour introducing new users to Location Assist.
Errors from across Location directory, a data management source for users to manage their location data.
Location directory — errors
IMPACTFrom one of my PM partners,
Sarah has been a welcome presence on the Discover PM and UX teams and brings with her a unique expertise which we have been lacking for so long.
These content audits are invaluable to the team and we can rest easy knowing that Sarah has accurately catalogued our plan forward toward remediation.
“
From my UX research partner,
Her content [audit] on XMDisc was so good I shared it with multiple others. It wasn’t just a thorough review, but also taught tone & reasoning for the content approach for all of Qualtrics & elevated my own work.
“
In November 2024, Forrester praised the “business-user friendly” UI of XM for CX.