Lesson video

Hello, thank you for joining me for your design and technology lesson.

My name is Ms. Conway, and I will be guiding you through your learning today.

So, today's lesson outcome is: I can gather user feedback to evaluate my manufactured prototype.

So, we're gathering some user feedback really just to help us in the evaluation of our final product.

And today's keywords are iterate, evaluation, and analysis.

We'll go through each of those in a little bit more detail as we work through the lesson.

So, we're going to start by looking at the gathering of user feedback.

Once a prototype is completed, further developments and iterations of it can still be made.

Now, to iterate is the process of refining and improving a design or a product.

No product is ever perfect, and further improvements can always be made.

I'd like to take a moment just to think about your favourite mobile phone and how many versions of it there has been over the years, or even how many versions you've had yourself.

Things can always be improved.

Now, those things might not actually be obvious at first, but there are always things that can be improved in a product.

Now, let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

What does it mean when we iterate? Is it A, start a design from scratch.

B, refine and improve a design.

Or C, finalise a design without changes.

Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer, it was B.

Refine and improve a design.

Well done if you got that right.

So, to iterate is when we are refining and improving a design or a product.

Now, designers constantly seek to develop their designs and their products, no matter what stage of the design process they are in.

And gathering user feedback on the prototype, or the product will help designers evaluate their prototype and consider future iterations.

Now, to evaluate is to check how good something is and how to make it better as well.

(mouse clicking) Let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

Why do designers gather feedback on their final prototype? Is it A, only to confirm that no changes are needed before launching the product.

B, to validate that their personal preferences align with user expectations.

Or C, no product is ever perfect, and further improvements can always be made.

Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about your answer.

Okay, and the correct answer, it was C.

So, designers gather feedback on the final prototype because no product is ever perfect, and further improvements can always be made.

Now, gathering feedback on the prototype can be carried out in various ways.

We're just gonna look at two ways today, and those two ways are conducting interviews but also observing the user.

We'll look at interview first.

An interview is a structured conversation when one person, the interviewer, asks questions to gather information from another person, the interviewee.

An interview is a form of primary research as the researcher collects the data or information directly from the source.

And to conduct an effective interview, it's really important to consider what information you would like to find out during it.

So, it's a good idea to have a little think before you actually go into an interview.

Identifying question topics will just help you construct really relevant interview questions.

And relevant questions are the ones that directly address the topic, which helps you focus on key areas in your investigations.

So, asking anything that isn't about how the product can be improved in some way really is a little pointless.

You don't wanna waste any time.

You wanna only ask those relevant questions.

So, you need to avoid asking non-relevant questions, as this will just lead to a more effective interview.

Now, there are two types of questions that can be used in interviews, and these are open-ended questions and closed questions.

Open-ended questions encourage a really detailed, thoughtful, and flexible response.

They're incredibly useful.

Closed questions prompt a short, specific response, such as a single word, a number, or a yes or no answer.

Let's just do a quick check for understanding on those types of questions that can be used in an interview.

So, open-ended questions allow for: A, a rigid response, B, a flexible response, or C, a concise response.

Pause the video just to take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer, open-ended questions allow for a flexible response.

So, these are the questions that are really useful to have when thinking and structuring an interview.

Now, another way to gather feedback from the client is to observe the user interacting with and using your prototype.

So, before interviewing or observing a user with a prototype, the designer must first decide what it is that they actually want to learn from going through this evaluation and from gathering this feedback.

And this helps them to then choose the best way to collect that feedback.

The main focuses of user feedback are typically aesthetics, function, and ergonomics.

Now, that's not an exhaustive list, but these are the most common ones of the information that we're looking for when we're getting some user feedback on a final prototype.

Now, Laura's decided that she really wants to focus on the following feedback: function and ergonomics.

She's happy that she's got the information about the aesthetics of the product in her previous feedback that she gathered while she was designing.

But really, she now wants to check if the product functions as it's meant to and are the ergonomics working in the way that they should as well.

So, with this in mind, Laura has decided she wants to carry out an observation of her user using her prototype to gather her user feedback.

So, she's decided that the observation is gonna be more helpful than the interview at this particular stage and for what she wants to find out.

So, it's worth, when you're doing this, just to think really carefully: what is it that I really want to find out? Which method is going to suit me, considering what it is I want to find out? Now, to carry out an observation of the user with her prototype, Laura needs to consider how to record her findings so she's prepared going into it.

Now, Laura has decided to actually record the observation as a video so she can look back at it later and doesn't miss anything.

She can watch it in a little bit more detail away from the situation.

Now, she has asked permission from the user to do this, and if you decide to record your user, again, please make sure you do ask permission.

Laura is also going to take a notebook and a pencil so she can make notes and add any potential sketches.

It may be that while she's sitting there, she gets an idea and wants to quickly sketch something, or she might just be making a sketch of something that's happening in front of her.

Okay, over to you to have a go now.

I'd like you, using the headings below, to decide what will be the most important user feedback you need to find out.

Is it the aesthetics? Is it about the function? Or is it about the ergonomics of your prototype? Is it one of them? Two of them? All of them? That's completely and utterly up to you.

Then, based on this decision, I'd like you then to decide whether you will use an interview, or an observation of your user interacting with the prototype to gather your feedback.

And lastly, I'd just like you then to explain and to justify your decisions.

To justify is just to make sure that the explanation is making sense and you've backed it with some actual information.

Right, pause the video here to have a go at this task, and good luck.

Okay, how did you get on? Now, your example may be similar to Laura's.

This is just for you to compare to.

So, she said, "I selected function and ergonomics." So, there's her first decision.

"I've decided to observe my user interacting with my prototype." There's her second decision.

She's going for an observation rather than an interview.

"I really want to know how well it functions and how easily my user interacts with it, rather than what they think of its appearance." So, there's her explanation of that.

And lastly, she goes on to then justify this.

"This is important, as a big part of my design brief and design specification was making my prototype accessible to wheelchair users, so I want to check this.

Your answer will be slightly different.

Just compare that to Laura's and think about: have I made my decision? Have I explained it? And then, have I justified it? (mouse clicking) Okay, we're now gonna look at iterations from user feedback.

So, once the feedback has actually been collected, this information needs to be analysed to make it useful.

Now, to analyse something is to examine it in detail.

Once data is analysed, decisions need to be made based upon this information.

Let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

Why must feedback be analysed? Is it A, to increase the amount of feedback received? B, to make it useful for the designer? Or C, to replace the designer's original idea? Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about your answer.

Okay, how did you get on? The correct answer was B.

So, feedback must be analysed to make it useful for the designer.

Now, Laura's recorded her observation of the user with her prototype as a mind map of the key points.

Let's just go through that mind map.

So, user couldn't reach the top step of the prototype.

This is something she found out by observing her user.

The pots had to be removed for watering.

(mouse clicking) It held enough pots though, and it was easy to access the herbs.

And it fitted onto the work surface that she intended for it to be used on.

She's also added that it has useful storage inside it for the potting tools.

But she also noticed it could be easily moved when cleaned, as it just wasn't too heavy.

So, that's a really good thing that she's managed to achieve there.

So, here she's got some interesting points.

She's got some things that have worked really well and some things that didn't quite work so well as well when she was observing her user with her prototype.

(mouse clicking) Now, because she's got all of that laid out as a mind map, Laura can now analyse this feedback easily to help her evaluate her prototype.

And what she's done is she's organised the points into what went well and also even better if.

So, she's used a little table to help her do this.

So, down on the left hand side, you can see these are her what went well comments, and on the right hand side are her even better if comments.

And she's just used those things that she's already put onto her little mind map, and she's just decided whether they were positives or things that could be improved.

Now, notice the difference here.

Under EBI or even better if, she hasn't written exactly what was on the mind map.

On the mind map, she had pointed out the things that weren't really quite working so well, but in an even better if, she stated how can she actually improve those things that weren't working so well.

So, there is a slight but significant difference in how she's recorded this and moved this on.

So, rather than just kind of saying this didn't work, she started to have a little think about so if it hasn't worked, what can I do to improve that? What changes can be made? Hence the words even better if.

(mouse clicking) Now, Laura has evaluated her product with her user feedback and has decided upon two possible further iterations based on her even better ifs.

Those improvements were, make the overall product shorter in height so that the top step can be reached from a wheelchair, and also use of waterproof material on top of the card so the parts can be watered without being removed each time.

So, she's got two ideas here to actually then work as iterations to her final product.

Right, over to you to have a go then.

I'd like you to write your own success criteria for gathering, analysing, evaluating, and deciding upon your own iterations.

Now, you can use the example of what Laura did to help guide you with this.

Once you've done that, you're going to then use that success criteria for the gathering, analysing, and evaluating of your own feedback to help inform your own future iterations.

Okay, good luck with this task.

Feel free to pause the video here to have a go at this.

Okay, how did you get on? So, your first task was to write your own success criteria for the gathering, analysing, evaluating, and deciding on further iterations.

Now, you were to use Laura's examples to help guide you of this.

But this is what you could have written: So, the first thing is to consider what information you actually want to learn from the user.

Next, you should decide on a method of gathering the feedback based on your decision.

So, if you remember, Laura decided she wanted to find out about the ergonomics and the function of her prototype.

So, she decided to use the observation of the user.

The next part of the success criteria then is to record your findings, and analyse the information correctly.

By analysing it, that then helps you to move on.

So, the next thing you needed to do was evaluate your findings by organising them into www and EBI.

(mouse clicking) And then, using that EBI, you can then plan out and carry out future improvements and iterations.

So, just compare that to your own success criteria that you have looked at.

Is it different? How does it compare? Have you missed anything? Your second task then was to then use that success criteria for the gathering of your own feedback to then also analyse and evaluate it and then move on, and give yourself ideas for future iterations.

So, hopefully, you use that correctly, and you have ticked every single part of that little success criteria as you've worked through that process.

Okay, so let's summarise today's lesson.

We've been looking at evaluating with user feedback, specifically with papers and boards.

Now, to iterate is the process of refining and improving a design.

And that can be done at any stage during the design process, even at the end, because no product is ever perfect, and further improvements can always be made.

Gathering user feedback on the prototype will help designers evaluate their prototype, and also consider future iterations that can be carried out.

And once that feedback has been collected, this information then needs to be analysed to be used as part of an evaluation.

Well done for all of your hard work this lesson.

Hopefully, by completing that evaluation, you've really got a good idea now of how your product could be improved and further iterations could be done for it.

Okay, I will see you soon.