CloudFormation Composer

CloudFormation Lab Study

At the start of my internship at AWS, I shadowed a researcher to understand how the team conducted research and managed available resources. I was then assigned my first solo project: testing a new visual interface for an AWS service — a first-of-its-kind initiative for the company. This involved close coordination with a third-party contractor developing the tool, as well as collaboration with the AWS service’s internal development team.

Objective:

• 🎯 Understand how users interact with the visual tool for creating CloudFormation templates.
• 🎯 Identify software bugs and coordinate fixes with development teams.

Process:

• ⚙️ Recruited experienced CloudFormation users via an internal participant database.
• ⚙️ Collaborated with a designer and developer to design a research plan focused on key tool elements requiring feedback.
• ⚙️ Conducted seven lab studies, with the developer present during initial sessions to apply hot-fixes for critical issues affecting usability.
• ⚙️ Analysed findings and produced a detailed report to inform ongoing development.

Challenges:

• 🧩 When equipment failed during the first lab session, I quickly improvised a workaround using a spare room setup, allowing the study to proceed smoothly.
• 🧩 Frequent early-stage bugs required close collaboration with developers between sessions to implement fixes or adapt the study protocol as needed.

Results/Conclusion:

The primary outcome of the study was a comprehensive research report outlining several key findings. Most notably, the research revealed that the tool had been designed with the wrong audience in mind. While it was initially intended for highly experienced users, the study showed it was better suited to novice users — leading to a shift in the product’s direction and target audience.