Reflection of Ezi-Worm
Looking back through this summer project and the process from research to development of the probe, Ezi-Worm, it has been continuously re-iterated after every user testing. Quite frankly, this is what it means to design a product. Each design and development process has never been seen as a failure but rather as motive to improve.
In all honesty though, there were times where we wanted to ditch the whole concept and just come up with an entirely new one, purely because there were too many factors to be taken into consideration. For example, how can we educate the users on what they can and can’t feed the worms? We felt the urge to fulfil every possible need, to the point that it was going beyond the scope of our project and straying away from the focus of the concept — the reason why we had come up with this concept in the first place, our motive for design. The struggle that I’m sure every designer will always face with every new concept.
After pulling through and re-aligning our focus, it was important to be reminded of the human values that we had initially decided upon — a user’s willingness to contribute and the feeling of inclusiveness. Another human value which could come into context could be “to give and to gain”, where the intended target group would be able to better understand the concept of technology and various different forms it takes; that it is not all about smartphones, tablets and PC’s.
Highlight of the Design Process
User Research. There were challenges presented to us when it came to user research, where very limited number of interviewees were willing to listen to our ideas, share their feedback and their experiences with community gardens or even gardening in general. After all, having limited interviewees offer multiple in-depth responses is more useful than having multiple interviewees limit their responses. Although there weren’t a large variety of feedbacks given, there was one common struggle that all interviewees were faced when it comes to gardening — physical constraints due to disabilities.
“Having limited interviewees offer multiple in-depth responses is more useful than having multiple interviewees limit their responses.” — IxD Mentors at UQ
In addition to our focus towards connecting communities and sustainability, accessibility became of key importance to our design thinking and process. Our determination was to create a probe that is able to cater to those with the willingness to contribute their time and effort to a garden but have become physically unable to do so, as well as for those who are willing to support and contribute from the sidelines. In doing so, this may result in creating a community between people who may not be directly involved with the physical aspect of gardening but rather keen on contributing.
The result of user research (interview) has really helped us form a better understanding of the needs of the intended user group, which gave us an insight into the direction Ezi-Worm would be better off taking. “Research, design, develop, test and re-iterate” is a generic design process that I can honestly testify to be the realest and most accurate process out there.
Advice for Fellow Concept Creators
For myself personally, I don’t believe you should ever stop user researching regardless of what stage you are at of your concept, whether it be development or testing. Of course, you should always have a strong understanding of your intended user group, however, that will continue to expand as you go through each iteration and/or version of your product. You should never lock your decision on one specific user group, because as a result it closes off many opportunities to grow your concept.
By being openly investigating your intended user group/s, you are constantly learning more and more about their relevant life experiences, circumstances, difficulties and strengths. This will allow your concept to be shaped either to be more useful for a larger variation of people or be narrowed down, for example, the intended user group with so and so experiences, or the intended user group facing certain difficulties etc.
Previous Projects
Based on my previous experience as a designer or concept creator, I have become so set on a specific user group and the concept that has been created for that group, that it was hard for to accept any possible improvements recommended to be made with the aim of transforming it to be more of an open interaction. Being closed off on the idea of user exploring, subsequently resulted in a limitation of interactions between users and the product, if a certain interaction was not being fulfilled then essentially that was it, you have now lost the user’s interest in your product.
So that’s a wrap on the summer project called Ezi-Worm. A project that has definitely taught me so much more about the smaller details of User Experience/Human-Computer Interaction Design. Special mention to my team members — Jasmin (Jiahuan) Li and Somi (Huijie) Fan for making this project a fun and memorable one, as well as the teaching staff and my fellow peers of this summer course.
