As I do for generating ideas and concepts I also use my own experience with products or systems and this is frequently already a step in the right direction. But I need to learn more about what other people might think or experience and be able to apply this in our projects. In this competence I am in the awareness state. This is a competence where I can still learn a lot. In our project we made a big mistake to interview only people in our own community that do not even own a folding bike. This is something I will not do wrong ever again. The research on user focus and perspective can give me as a designer a different look in the project. This could lead to insights that I myself could not have thought of.
'Had you focused on the user first, before attempting to design a ‘finished’ product, the quality of your design work would have been better.' Coach: Janine Huizenga
In the project I did some user testing. The first real test was on the midterm demo day and we had to do a pitch for a group of six people from the green space. After the pitch they were allowed to interact with our prototype. This gave me and my group very valuable feedback from the users.
After the midterm demo day we started to experiment with the plastic balls. We made 3 different balls, one glossy on the outside and mate on the inside, one glossy on the inside and matte on the outside and one both sides matte. We asked people what they would think is the nicest to interact with and has the best aesthetics with lights and they almost unanimously chose the ball that is matte on both sides.
The final demo day was also a very good opportunity to get some more feedback from the users. In understand that we could not do anything about it after the demo day but still we got some valuable feedback from seeing people using our instrument.
Assignment DG590also gave me an opportunity to do user testing. I putted the cardboard ‘door’ that we made in the hallway on the fourth floor of the main building and looked what the people did and how they reacted. The next time I would like to do user testing outside the campus because I really doubted if the results are that valuable because people from campus and especially from the main building are sort of used to these kinds of situations.
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