Glare Testing Plan: BofA Mobile Dashboard
Here's a full Glare-structured testing plan built against the specific design problem you've named — too many equally weighted actions.
Step 1 — The Hunch (your starting signal)
Before testing anything, write down the team's instinct in one sentence. Based on what you described:
"We believe that presenting six dashboard tiles with equal visual weight causes users to hesitate or tap the wrong thing first, because there's no clear hierarchy guiding their attention."
This is your falsifiable hunch — it can be proven wrong, which means it's worth testing.
Step 2 — Anchor to a User Need + Business Goal
User need: Users need to get to their most important account action quickly, without scanning the whole screen to figure out what matters.
Business goal: Reduce friction to high-value interactions (bill pay, transfers, spending review) — these drive engagement and reduce support calls.
Step 3 — Pick One UX Metric to Anchor the Test
Given the equal-weight problem, the right metric here is comprehension — specifically: do users know what to do first?
Secondary metric: task completion time (performance) — if hierarchy is unclear, time-to-first-tap will be slower than expected.
Step 4 — Three Research Questions to Test
Using the People / Process / Product / Problem question types:
TypeQuestionProductCan users identify their highest-priority action within 5 seconds of landing on this screen?ProcessWhat's the first thing a user taps, and does it match what they said they came to do?ProblemWhere do users pause or hesitate before taking action?
All three are evaluative — you have a design and need to know if it works.
Step 5 — Test Structure
Method: First-click + timed task test
Participants: 6–8 existing BofA app users (target: people who check the app at least weekly)
Stimulus: The current dashboard as-is (no changes yet)
Tasks to give participants:
"You just got paid. Where do you go first?"
"You want to check if you're over budget this month. What do you tap?"
"Someone owes you money. What do you do?"
What to capture:
First tap for each task
Time to first tap
Confidence rating after each task (1–5)
Step 6 — What a Strong Signal Looks Like
After the test, you're looking for a signal, not just data. The signal forms when:
A metric (e.g., first-click accuracy < 60%) ties to a design choice (equal tile weighting) + a user need (fast, confident navigation) + a business goal (increase engagement with bill pay / transfers)
If first-click accuracy is low and hesitation is visible, the signal reads: "Equal tile weight is creating decision paralysis for users with a clear intent." That's the brief for your next design direction.
Step 7 — What You're Deciding
This test should resolve one decision:
Should the dashboard introduce visual hierarchy (e.g., a primary action row, or personalized tile ordering) to reduce time-to-first-action?
Once you have findings, you'll be in Focus territory — comparing the current design against a hierarchy-first iteration using the same three tasks.