User Research

The research findings that we developed was the first and more prominent example of how our design erred. Initially we likened to the idea of having an app that focused on allowing users to socialize on public transportation. We assumed that the lack of “useful activity” on public transportation was a problem for the general population, and that users would want to socialize in these locations. The research findings were done as a way to gauge if our assumptions were correct. The main medium we did our User Research was through observational and field research. In essence, the team would observe various user groups “in the wild;” meaning we would do our best to not interfere or be noticed by persons interacting in their environment (or more specifically on public transportation” our research findings showed that generally users:

• Did not believe that their time spent on public transportation was poor
• Did not want to socialize on a bus
• Would not use our app even if it existed

Design is not guesswork

Following the initial backlash on our idea, we sought to ask users of their various problems they had with public spaces. Based on feedback from this second round of research, we decided to tackle the problem of needing to physically go to various locations in order to verify the vacancy of them — an especially problematic task on our campus as it is well over a mile-radius.

We also identified two distinct user groups: primary users, who are students and campus visitors who may be trying to find a suitable spot to sit, and secondary users, who are campus staffs who can make use of more data to effectively organize resources in public spaces. We kept both user groups in mind in the design process. In particular, we had the campus staff in mind when we came up with the heat map visualization during design sketches, to provide them with more insights into when and how to allocate seating tables and such.

This second round of testing gave us a much clearer understanding of what the people at the University of Washington and was a fundamental example of a hard rule in design.