On October 22nd, I had the opportunity to attend a UXPA event in Cleveland. Progressive Insurance hosted the event at their Studio 96 in Mayfield Village.
The talk focused on PET (Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust) and using this interview technique to uncover customer motivations. The Progressive staff, Jeff Janis and Ann Culp were joined by a Human Factors International (HFI) instructor, Noah Schaffer, in delivering the presentation. Progressive staff recently completed training in PET from HFI and used the technique on a recent project. The results were shared during their talk.
From my point of view, the focus from Noah Schaffer was on technique, how it is employed, and how one analyzed and reports on the resulting data. He did a good job of summarizing the key points of PET that he typically teaches in a multi-day course.
Jeff Janis and Ann Culp walked us through how they applied what they learned on a recent project. They used the technique to focus on what feelings their designs evoked. The primary take away from their study was that customers were apprehensive about moving ahead with a purchase online without additional information. Given my experience with user experience in the insurance industry, I would concur that this is a common finding from user research I’ve been a part of.