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breaking language barriers

The New School · UX research · fall 2023

breaking language barriers at the One Stop

international students who don't speak English as a first language have to sort out health insurance over the phone, in real time. we designed a study to find where The New School's One Stop phone line fails them.

students at The New School
students at The New School
roleUX researcher
methodsobservation · two-part survey · GOMS analysis
teamthree graduate students
whereThe New School, One Stop student service center
timelinefall 2023
delivereda 17-page study proposal, at the end of this page
the problem

a phone call gives callers nothing to reread. insurance terms arrive in English, live, and the menu decides where you end up.

the work

with two classmates, i designed a three-method study: watch real calls, survey people before and after, and break the call into steps. i wrote the recruitment, ethics, and analysis plans.

the outcome

a study the center can run with 20 students, and three changes it can make right away.

the user group01

1 in 3students at The New School is international. 3,750+ people from 100+ countries.

57%of international students are confused by US health insurance
20%avoid or stop medical care because of that confusion

on the phone, all of this happens in English, live, with no screen to reread.

chapter 01the studyone session, start to finish
a session02
01sign upa poster on the school's social accounts and email. a $50 gift card to thank people.
02before the calla short survey: background, languages, and what they'd ask about the health plan.
03the calla real insurance question to the One Stop line, weekday afternoons, with observers in another room.
04after the calleight questions on a 1 to 5 scale, plus open questions.
05the breakdowna teammate breaks the call into steps, shown below.
observer notes03

observers watch the call live from another room, and it is recorded. no one sits in with the caller. they note:

  • facial expressions and other non-verbal cues, read with cultural context
  • how fast callers react to each phone option
  • pauses when they are asked to dial a number
  • which options they pick
  • anyone hanging up out of frustration
  • patterns across all the callers
where English gets in the way04

a teammate who is an international student called the line with a real question and wrote down every step. most steps are routine. the three highlighted ones depend on English. this kind of step-by-step breakdown is called a GOMS analysis.

  1. 01
    prepare your questionstranslate them into English and write them down.
  2. 02
    find the numbersearch the school website for the right line.
  3. 03
    dialpick up the phone and enter the number.
  4. 04
    listen to the menuwait through the greetings and hold music, then get ready to ask.
  5. 05
    askread your questions from your notes, one at a time.
  6. 06
    understand the answerlisten and take notes, live, in English.

what we expected: the harder English is for a caller, the more likely they get stuck at the last step and have to ask for the answer by email instead.

after the call05

each caller rates eight things from 1 to 5:

  1. how satisfied were you with the call?
  2. did you feel relief afterward?
  3. how confident were you about calling?
  4. how easy was the information to follow?
  5. how much do you trust what you were told?
  6. how comfortable were you speaking English on the phone?
  7. did the call meet what you needed?
  8. how likely are you to call again?

then open questions about language on the call and how their cultural background shaped it. answers are grouped by theme.

ground rules06
01who20 students whose first language isn't English: undergraduate and graduate, different genders and home countries.
02what we measurewhether the phone options make sense, whether wait times are said out loud, and how directly the menu gets you to the right person.
03consenta plain-language form in several languages. recordings are never shared, names are removed, and anyone can stop at any time.
04whenweekdays from 1 to 3 pm, inside the line's open hours.
chapter 02recommendationsfor the center
three recommendations07
01international student staffhire international students and staff for the line, and say so on the website, so callers worried about their English feel safer.
02feedback every semesterask international students how the line works for them once a semester, and change it based on what they say.
03one way of doing ita handbook for staff, so every international caller gets the same clear, friendly help.
the report

the full proposal

17 pages · fall 2023 · user group, methods, the GOMS draft, recommendations, the consent form, and the survey

download the PDF ↓open in a new tab ↗
the full proposal, first page
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