Adobe Engages UserTesting to Help Transform Photoshop Feature

The challenge

Last October, Adobe set out to deliver on a frequently-requested image extraction feature for its Photoshop users. The team built and launched the feature, feeling great about answering a high-priority ask.

After the launch, however, usage data and forum posts revealed that customers were struggling to figure out how to use it.

The team realized that the feature needed some work, but they wanted to make sure they got it right this time around. They resolved to solve for UX issues while they designed and built to ensure customer expectations were met while improving the efficiency of their 10-week development cycle.

Divya Manian, the Product Manager at Adobe in charge of the revamp, knew getting feedback from users would be crucial to developing a feature Photoshop users would love—and use.

Her team recruited experienced Photoshop customers from online forums and met with them weekly for feedback. The insights they uncovered were helpful, but they didn’t tell the whole story. They needed to reach users at all levels of proficiency.

That’s when Divya reached out to UserTesting.

The solution

Through the UserTesting platform, Adobe expanded their reach beyond the forums and quickly found new Photoshop users with a wide variety of skill and experience  to get feedback from.

Divya’s team was able to share mockups followed by interactive prototypes with users throughout the development cycle, resulting in valuable real-time feedback that enabled the team to iterate quickly and efficiently.

Our decisions on which features to drop or scope into smaller chunks were all guided by talking to our customers. - Divya Manian, Product Manager at Adobe

The result

The combination of feedback proved invaluable and actionable the name of the feature was changed to ‘Export Options’, the interface was improved, menus were consolidated, options were added.

The final result was an improved feature, cleared of performance bottlenecks and more intuitive and helpful for both expert and novice users alike.

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