From Couch to Table: Redefining Living Room Dining Experience — A UX Design case study
Heyyyy folks ,
Journey stared like .. one day our mentor Anudeep Ayyagari (Designer at Amazon) came told that we need make physical product by using UX design concepts. we were completely shocked and surprised , Is that really this works ??
To see that and make our UX concepts to next level we followed the rules made by our mentor and that's how we began !!!!
🗞️Introduction
we were divide in 10 peoples groups in our UXM design community for Design thinking project, There we learned a small small basic concepts with help of micro assignment and finally reached on this DESIGN THINKING PROJECT.
We were given a bunch of area in home to choose and design a product for that area . I choose the living room. Where, this was feeling cool and gamified. Stages are simple and they are like
- Choose your Target space/area in home
- Choose 5 peoples in group as a user
- Take a interview of users ✏️
- List all the possible problems❓ & their solutions
- Choose a single problem and solve it .
- Test 🧪 the final product with the user.
- Do final iterations and There you finished 🏅
🧗🏼♂️Preparation to take Interview
Interviews were given many times but taking it might find some challenges for a first time 😅. I had prepared the question on the basis that
- User will not feels like a interview and getting a tense or pressurize situation for a user , it was sounds like a normal conversation.
- Questions are also planed in manner that he should go to a descriptive manner and start shearing his/her experiences(All this helped me to get insides from them).
Bunch of these questions are looks like below
Picking up 5 members from group for interview and ding into their minds ⛏️🧠
After choosing a random group member by matching time slots , we managed the interviews, with the time constraint in mind (as interviews are typically allotted 30–45 minutes).
One thing i get to understand that we can not do the thing like make bunch of question and just stick with them. We need to modify it at the time of interview on the basis of responses coming from a user.
Interview data gathered and presented in front of you in below
📌 Pin all the problems
My questions make a magic to catchup the problems and stories' about their living room . But when I start interviewing them the problems and solutions both came from user side.
For this I have to segregate all of them in problems and solutions categories and then dig down to root problems.
The best learning and unlearning got from this activity
When we start dig down to the root problem some time we reached to the end of it but some time it go and go on !!! But the important thing is that we need to understand where to stop our thinking considering all the constrains under our mind.
I have gathered all the problems from all the users and I found that many problems are common and some are like when think on that the root problem is same for both of them. After all of this hustle we concluded the 8 problems and also written down the reasons behind why the problem is important to the users !!!
⏳Crazy 8 technique with the problems
Once I identified the problems, I used the “Crazy 8” technique to come up with solutions. The idea was to generate eight different ideas for each problem in just eight minutes, without any limitations on creativity. The goal of this technique was to encourage thinking outside the box, even if the solutions seemed impractical or unusual….
After doing the cray 8 with all the problems we have gathered data.
At time of ideating found that
While coming up with solutions for the problems, I noticed that some of the ideas for one problem were similar to the solutions for other problems.
Some ideas where not possible practically
Some solutions are already exist in the market
🏆Prioritization of top three ideas
Here we have make a prioritize 1st 2nd & 3rd ranking for ideas. And also here we have to justify why we had gave the raking and choose among all of other ideas.
Prioritization of ideas gave tech me how to sort among the multiple problems which one should be choose.
For that I have considered the aspects like solution should be scalable and also the problem on which we are working that should be faced by multiple users . On this basis rankings for solution was given.
🥇Working on the #1 Idea
The idea is to solve the problem of user that there is no any specific area or something where they can keep a plate and watch the movies of watch the mobile according to their comfort zone !!!!
To solve this issue I decided a make sofa in the way that can be helpful to user at time siting as well as dining also. For that I had one thought in mind that … Will make a 2 prototype and will show to user… take a rating from all of them and then decide the final one.
So I had made a protype as to solve this issue
// One where all the bottom setup of sofa will come in front of user where he/she can place a plate and easily eat
// Second where we can just move the handrest and bring in front of the user to place a plate to eat
🧪Let’s try the prototype with the userssss !!
I was imagining that , I will show the both prototypes to user and take a voting for which one I will continue but this was not happen at that time all my users were get confused and they voted but although they are giving suggestion, likes and dislike for both the prototypes…
So I Decided on the spot that need to go with the second one because of easy usage !!!
I was confident on my prototype that there will not get any any gaps to identify but after testing Boooommmm!! Got a many many point of views and more problems that are really good and need to be focused on
- Cost to Comfort ratio — If the user buying sofa for the comfort of seat on and eat then there should be a sufficient spacing to keep our plates on handwrit which is coming out side.
- Direction of rotation will be problem — If sofa will be joined with wall then there will the problem for the user to open.
and other problems also tell by user but I think that these should be relevant and need to be work on further.
🪄Iterating the prototype after getting feedback from user
In this prototype I have added the same hand rest moving but now in this this will came directly to front and then sides and also under considering the the side of the it , hand rest size can be increased.
So the main issues that I get from the user they all are solved from this prototype….
like this way the product gets ready!!!
The Learning , Unlearning and Moto of this DTP / Design thinking Project !!
⚡ This project is not just create the Perfect physical product but need to understand whole process of design thinking , i.e. I got stamped in mind all the stages of design thinking RESEARCH , EPATHIZE ,DEFINE, IDEATE , PROTOTYPE & TEST.
⚡USER ≠ ME /// In Starting , I was thing like “If I am suffering this problem then obviously this is problem is faced by many of people. this thing get changed after this project and got stamped with one
⚡You can’t solve every problem of users , Pick up one and try to solve it in best iteration every time.
⚡Never jump into a solution before ideation.
⚡Never blindly follow your user’s feedback because at the end you are the creator who has all the understanding related to business and constraint.
⚡There is always the possibility of making any product better.
