Welcome Gift Redesign

Prime Digital Academy is a learning community dedicated to helping non-traditional candidates start careers in technology. Prime programs teach full-stack software engineering and user experience design through accelerated, immersive, project-based learning.

UX Researcher, UX Designer

Danielle Byers, Kendall Van Horne

Participant Observation, AEIOU Framework, Heuristic Analysis, Design Critique, Low-fidelity Sketch, High-fidelity Sketch, Prototyping, Think-aloud Protocol, Public Speaking

Google Slides, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Otter.io, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

Participant Observation

To tackle the problem, I needed to conduct some discovery research to understand the users’ needs in order to design a gift that would be useful and personable. To do this, I conducted a participant observation using the AEIOU framework to gain insight into the environment of the full stack students.

Objective: Carefully observed videos of 12 full-stack students’ at-home workspace

Task: Took notes of various activities that the space was used for, key elements of the environment, the interactions in the space, any objects used or placed in the workspace, and user(s) present in the workspace.

Key observations:

• Many unorganized cables

• Small desk space

• Various desk decorations (ie. Plants, little figurines, souvenirs, etc.)

• Notebooks, pens, pencil, highlighter, post-its

• Keyboard, mouse, headphones, additional monitor(s)

• Uncomfortable chairs

• Mugs, cups, and coasters

• Pet beds

From these observations, the common themes I discovered are that most objects in the workspace are practicality, organization, and efficiency. This helped direct me in the path of designing a gift that would be practical, organizational, and efficient for the full-stack students.

Heuristic Analysis

Next, I needed to understand the usability level of the water bottle gift to gain insights into why full-stack students expressed dislike towards the gift. I conducted a heuristic analysis of the water bottle using Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics to evaluate the pain points about the gift.

Objective: Evaluated the usability of the water bottle

Tasks:

• Kendall, Danielle, and I came up with five tasks to test the usability of the water bottle. See image

• I observed, took photos, took notes, asked questions during the evaluation, and gathered all the notes into a shared document

• Danielle completed the tasks using the think-aloud protocol to describe her experience and feelings going through the tasks

• Kendall observed, took notes, and asked questions during the evaluation as well

After the usability test, I created a rating scale to rank the heuristic violations of the water bottle based on the observations made during the test.

Greatest pain points from the evaluation:

• The drinkability of the water bottle violated the heuristic for error prevention and user control and freedom. The participant was initially confused with where to place her lips on the mouthpiece and challenges with drinking from the water bottle.

• Tracking water consumption was difficult to do because the water bottle was made of stainless steel and the exterior was coated in white. The participant attempted to gauge the water amount by feel but realized that the water bottle was still full after opening the water bottle.

• Inability to conveniently clean the water bottle because there are so many components and small crevices with the mouthpiece. Moreover, the water bottle indicated handwash only.

The pain points from the heuristic evaluation helped reiterated the user expectations to have something that is useful with minimal to no workaround. It also brought about the users’ expectation to have something that is functional and convenient.

Low-Fidelity Sketch

Based on the research findings, I know that users want a product that is useful, functional, and convenient. Therefore, I created three low-fidelity sketches that would connect with the users’ needs and Prime’s values, a cable organizer, a programmer theme stationery, a small prime computer lamp. Through a design critique from my team, I chose to proceed with prototyping the Prime Cable Organizer as my redesign gift for Prime Digital Academy.

Prototype

It’s time to make the physical prototype! 🎉 In order to create a physical prototype, Leonardo’s Basement graciously welcomed me to use their space and equipment to build my cable organizer prototype. I was unsure how this pan out because I had never heard of or been to Leonardo’s basement. I was initially a bit overwhelmed with figuring out where to start at Leonardo’s basement because there was an endless amount of tools and craft scraps.  Once I started roaming around, I was able to tap into my creativity with the tools and objects available to me. The experience overall was very fun! It was nice to step out of the digital world and do hands-on prototyping. See the final prototype below.

Usability Test

I have done my research to get an understanding of the user needs, created my cable organizer, now I needed to test it to see if it works. To conduct my usability testing, I came up with the following evaluation objectives:

1. To better understand whether the redesigned gift meets the users’ needs and the organizational needs.

2. Gain insights into how welcoming, functional, usable, minimal, and portable the redesigned gift is.

3. Identify potential pain points regarding the redesigned gift.

Three current Prime full-stack students participated in my think-aloud usability testing for the Prime Cable Organizer. All three tests were conducted in person in the span of 15-minute sessions recorded using Otter.io to transcribe the conversation.

Key Findings:

• 3/3 participants immediately knew that the prototype was a cable organizer

• 3/3 participants indicated that they do not own a cable organizer and would find it useful

• 2/3 participants indicated that they would make use of the cable organizer as a gift

• 2/3 participants indicated that they would not carry the organizer with them because they would prefer to not have to remove and put back in the cables

Overall, I determined that the prototype met the goal with a few areas of improvement. The Prime Cable Organizer would be a valuable contender for the new Prime full-stack program welcome gift.

Pitch to Prime Stakeholders

I was graciously given an opportunity to pitch my idea to the founder of Prime Digital Academy, Mark Hurlburt. I synthesized all my research and usability findings into a slide deck and pitched it in a five-minute persuasive presentation. I appealed to the pathos, logos, and ethos of my audience in order to best communicate the value of the product I designed.

CONCLUSION

The problem was that the water bottle gift was unusable and impersonal. Based on the research findings and usability findings, the Prime Cable Organizer achieved the user’s need with a gift that is usable. There are areas of opportunities, but overall, the Prime Cable Organizer would be a valuable contender for the new Prime full-stack program welcome gift.

NEXT STEP

In regard to areas of opportunities for the cable organizer, participants suggested the following to improve the usability and functionality of the product.

1. Improve the opening tactile function with a magnetic mechanism

2. Improve organizational ability by color-coding the cable slots

3. Improve usability by Increasing the size of the cable slot opening so the cables can be inserted and removed without getting stuck.

4. Increase the weight of the box with a slightly heavier material

I would take these recommendations into consideration and make modifications to the Prime Cable Organizer. After the modification, I would conduct another usability test to gain more user feedback.

Reflection and Key Takeaway

At the beginning of the project, I did not fully grasp why I was conducting a particular research method. In reflecting, I learned that I needed to understand the user environment, their needs, their values, and their experiences before I could design a user-centric product. I had a lot of fun diving into the physical prototyping and using my hands to make something. For my usability testing experience, I feel like I still need to work on asking the right questions to get more insights and feedback from participants. I noticed that I have a tendency to want to stick to the script even when the participant had already answered my question from another question, so that felt like an inefficient use of time. Overall, I do feel like I have gained more confidence with conducting verbal interviews and asking questions.