Case Study of Every Day Object
The everyday object was a water bottle, the stakeholders were Prime Academy owner’s and staff, and the users were Prime Digital Academy Full-Stack Developer students.
From identifying the goal, to creating a prototype, to evaluating what I had done so far, below is that process in more detail.
IDENTIFY
Goal:
“The staff at Prime are interested in getting some new swag for their students. One thing they thought might be cool is a water bottle specifically designed for full-stack development students at Prime. They have hired you to purpose a new design specific for their users.
You want to propose a meaningful & usable solution for a new water bottle for Prime. Your process will be to evaluate existing water bottles, observe the people and culture at Prime, prototype a solution, and test that solution with users. At the end of the week, you will propose your final design concept to Prime stakeholders (anyone who has an interest in what you’re making).”
Observations:
Fly-on-the-Wall observation of activities, environment, interactions, objects, and students lead to 3 common takeaways: 1) Majority of students had water bottles 2) Majority of students personalized computers and water bottle with stickers 3) The environment of Prime is playful and colorful.
PROTOTYPE
After observation and analysis I created a design concept. The initial idea was to have an interchangeable outer case. Upon discussion and critique with peers, I found the key concept was customizable, and so I decided to try a magnetic material for fridge magnets.
EVALUATE
Before moving in to the Usability Test phase, I decided on 3 specific goals: 1) Customizable [Do they notice it is customizable? What are their concerns about customizing this water bottle?] 2) Stable [Do they notice the stability feature? Is it meaningful to them?] 3) Shape of lid [Is it appealing? Can they use the lid?]
What are the non-school related essentials you have with you when you come to Prime?
If you could only have one of those items with you, what item would you choose & why?
[Introduce prototype]
I’m going to ask you to look at this prototype and tell me what you think. Feel free to pick it up, hold it, look at it and do a little narrative.
[Introduce concept]
I want to give you a little more insight about this prototype: The purpose of this design is to be a customizable water bottle.
Show me how you would customize this water bottle?
Imagine you are really thirsty and your water bottle is empty. Show me what you would do with this water bottle.
Pretend this water bottle needs to be cleaned. Show me how you would clean it.
This is a detailed Research & Redesign report intended for the Prime Digital Academy stakeholders. It introduced my recommended next steps and rationale for moving forward with this design:
Katie’s Personal Notes in regards to this assignment:
What was challenging? Absorbing so many new principles and methods while putting them into practice is a fabulous way to immerse myself in this field, but I found it challenging to truly understand each method I was using along the way. I hope more understanding comes with more practice.
What did you learn? I learned that there is a lot of work that can go into even the simplest of designs. To make something truly usable and meaningful means lots of hard work on the part of those involved in the Identify, Prototype, and Evaluate cycle.
What might you do differently next time? I’m sure the more I learn about the UX Process the more specific things I will find in this project that I would like to change. Currently I am thinking about the Evaluation Presentation I practiced for Prime stakeholders. I would like to have created a more convincing and persuasive story to share with them. I would have focused less on information and more on the story of the users and the design.
KRHolmes 