Improving the Trial Court System Experience
Description
This was an individual qualitative research project. The goal of the project was to improve the experience of navigating the Massachusetts Trial Court System. The current problem faced was that the people who visited Massachusetts trial courts tended to feel stressed, but the reason for their stress was not known. By performing qualitative research, this study tried to find the reason behind people’s stress. The two questions selected for this research were, 1 - What are aspirational, anxiety-mitigating characteristics of complex experiences? 2. What are expectations for a positive engagement? However, since getting access to the courts and people who visit there would be difficult, an analogous space was considered.
An analogous space is a situation which is similar to the topic of the study, but is more accessible for research. This enables the researcher to ask questions such that the data obtained could also be applied to the initial topic of study. The analogous space considered was ‘Moving to a new country for education’. Since this is also a complex experience, it’s data directly applies to the complex experience of navigating the court system.
Note: The goal of the project is only to understand how people think, and what factors affect them. It is not to provide design solutions based on the results obtained.
Methodology
The entire research process consisted of 6 steps, 1 – Selecting the research questions and aligning them with the NCredible Framework (Kothandaraman & Ludin 2016), 2 – Establishing the Ideal and Adjusted Sample, Context and Dynamic of Study, 3 – Creating the Protocol, 4 – Conducting users interviews, 5 – Analyzing the Gathered Data, and 6 – Documenting the results. ‘Ideal’ in step 2 refers to methods that would provide the best results, and ‘Adjusted’ in step 2 refers to the methods that are realistic considering the various project parameters like budget, timeframe, etc. The detailed version of each step is included in the final report linked below.
The image on the right shows the NCredible Framework. It helps in categorizing the research questions in one of the four quadrants. Each quadrant represents one phase of the product cycle, which moves from Discovery to Exploratory to Definition to Validation. Along with the actual research, this framework also helps to explain the stakeholders in which quadrant the question lies so that they have a better idea of why one question has to be answered before another.
Research and Analysis
Once the data was obtained by conducting interviews, it had to be analyzed to find patterns. Finding patterns helped in understanding the general themes present in the data. It also helped in creating the personas to better illustrate the types of behavior that could be expected from users. Even though the themes were obtained from the data about moving to a new country, the factors causing stress remain the same even for navigating courts. Hence, this data directly provides answers to the two research questions. The themes identified were:
What Causes Stress
Uncertainty
A lot of things to consider
Not knowing what to do or what to expect
Having a mix of emotions - uncertain about what one is feeling
Expectations
Expectations with oneself - worrying that expectations will not get fulfilled
How People Deal with Stress
Talking to people
Taking advice or help from family or friends
Taking advice or help from someone who has been in the same situation
Keeping to self
Thinking about the worst possible outcome
Keeping a positive spirit and moving forward
What People Think a Positive Experience is
Finishing a task without any unnecessary difficulties or problems
Feeling a sense of satisfaction or accomplishment after doing something
Effort or time put into something not being wasted, i.e. result should be in proportion to the amount of effort or time put in
This image shows the experiences that people described in the interviews. They were given two cards to fill out two experiences of their choice (positive or stressful). For the experiences they mentioned, they were asked to describe what they were feeling and thinking to gain more insights about the reason stress is caused or the reason an experience seems positive.
Results
The first question was ‘What are aspirational, anxiety-mitigating characteristics of complex experiences?’. From the data, it has been identified that stress is caused by Uncertainty and Setting Expectations. Stress is caused by uncertainty because of not knowing what to do or getting confused because of having a lot of things to consider. In order to mitigate the stress caused by the court system, the entire process of navigating it for each type of case should be well defined and documented. If the people who visit the court know what exactly they have to do and where they have to go to perform those tasks, their stress will be mitigated to a considerable extent. The second question was ‘What are expectations for a positive engagement?’ The data states that people have a positive experience if they feel that they didn’t have to put in unnecessary effort or time into completing a task. This doesn’t mean that the task should be simple and can’t require effort. It means that if a task requires effort, the result should be in proportion to the effort or time required for the task. A more detailed analysis of all the factors is explained in the report linked below.
Next Steps
Now that the reasons for stress are understood, the next step would be to identify how to solve them. One of the reasons for stress is uncertainty. So the next step is to identify how this uncertainty can be resolved. One method could be to document the entire process and to make it accessible to people so that they know where in the process they currently are and what needs to be done next. To find such solutions, the next research question could be ‘How can documentation of the process be made accessible to people?’. All the six steps would have to be performed again to get the answer to this question.