User Experience Design: Testing Gardens

I introduced an initial prototype of a garden search application, where the content is generated by my Mother’s database of gardens, those gardens’ features, location, hours, etc.

Biggest issues or questions pointed out by my testers:

  • Need for photos
  • Question of photos on website v. mobile use?
  • Geolocation
  • Automatic sorting based on days, hours of that moment of search
  • Ease of email / share of garden on social networks
  • Ability to save favorites, create collection

Data Rep Cupcake Testing Process

The series of videos of cupcake testing are for my Data Representation final preparation. I ran a “Taste Test” for my Data Representation planned final.

For my final, I plan to bake the increments of the Happiness Index into cupcakes. Each cupcake represents a different country. Its sweetness is mapped to that country’s position on the Happiness Index.

I did a test run and baked cupcakes with three variants of sweetness.

My users could taste the differences and understood the concept.

It will be a little more light-spirited and less obvious when I bake countries that only have minute, granular differences in sugar. I plan to use a dry-weight scale so that I can be precise. 

Then, I will display the cupcakes in a clear display case in the position of the spot in the Index— making a physical graph of the Happiness Index. 

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.

On the Rocker 3 (by pixie3612)

Source: youtube.com

On the Rocker 1 (by pixie3612)

Source: youtube.com

Attaching rockers (by pixie3612)

Source: youtube.com

Cupcakes Data Representation:

For my final in data representation, I am going to map the recently released Happiness Index (World Happiness Report) to cupcakes.

This video (and the next two) shows an initial test of how/whether people can taste differences in sugar.

Sweet!

Source: youtube.com

Proposal for a music application for the IRC. How can we celebrate the cultures the IRC nourishes and protects? And in the process, learn more about the countries whose music we love  IRC International Music App Donate a song Share a song: after you get it, you can send it to a friend as a gift on facebook or other networks Add more to your donation beyond initial song fee Learn more about the IRC’s work in the specific country of your song
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Proposal for a music application for the IRC.

  • How can we celebrate the cultures the IRC nourishes and protects?
  • And in the process, learn more about the countries whose music we love 

IRC International Music App

  • Donate a song
  • Share a song: after you get it, you can send it to a friend as a gift on facebook or other networks
  • Add more to your donation beyond initial song fee
  • Learn more about the IRC’s work in the specific country of your song
First mockup for IRC mobile app.  Things to improve: Donating moment / buttons Ability to find out more info about these regions Things I am pleased with: Inherently useful for a mobile phone  Want to play music. Want to give to a good cause. Want to play international music! Katherine’s brief included the directive that I hope to get further on: “Ensure the experience is responsive to the user’s needs, interests and expectations.”
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First mockup for IRC mobile app. 

Things to improve:

Donating moment / buttons

Ability to find out more info about these regions

Things I am pleased with:

Inherently useful for a mobile phone 

Want to play music. Want to give to a good cause. Want to play international music!

Katherine’s brief included the directive that I hope to get further on:

“Ensure the experience is responsive to the user’s needs, interests and expectations.”