Rocker Testing Process
In this exercise for User Experience Design, I chose to test a physical product to understand how different people might react to my idea.
The idea was adding rockers to the bottom of a typical school chair.
The questions I had in mind were the following— I have inserted the answers I found through observation:
Are people curious enough to approach me and ask if they can use the product?
- Many people stopped and asked to sit in the chair.
How do people respond to different placements of the rocker on the chair— farther forward, farther backward?
- I designed the rocker with holes on the top so that I could move it along the rocker and then use zip-ties to strap it tightly to the chair’s leg in the desired position. Thus I could use the “Rapid Iterative Testing Evaluation” style that the Undercover User Experience book describes.
- After each person tried the chair, they made recommendations on the rocker placement to enhance the experience and I shifted the rockers along for the next person.
- The result was a rocker that had about 1/7th of a tip in the front and the rest in the back.
How comfortable or wary are people given the current design of the rocker / chair connection?
- The first and third user were surprisingly comfortable from the beginning.
- The second user was wary at first, not sure “Can I get into it?” and then over the course of a minute grew more comfortable until he was rocking quickly.
What suggestions do you have?
- Spot for the feet to rest.
- Perhaps a longer overall rocker.
