Week 5: Final Presentation and Reflection
Finally, we reached the last week of the project. At this point, we were done with the prototypes for the UIs of the web application and the name badges. During our first meeting that week, we discussed each of our prototypes at length and discussed what we can do to improve the experience. We discussed ways we could conduct usability testing and how long it would take us to actually compile the results and if we would have time to make changes to it before the presentation. We discussed the ways we could conduct usability testing and on who we can actually approach with our product. We ended up using 'Maze', an online usability testing platform to help conduct the testing. For preparing for testing, we worked on how best we can communicate the context of the project for the users of the platform and sat together and formulated appropriate questions that the participants can answer after they finish using our products. Our testing results for the mobile app version looked like this:
After compiling the results of the testing, we realized something very crucial. In our pursuit of being inclusive to the gender non-conforming population, we unknowingly created a divide between the target audience and those who don't identify with being from the gender-expansive community. By ideating different solutions for encouraging inclusivity, we somehow did the opposite. This was a very key observation that we knew had to be addressed in future iterations of the project and during the presentation for the sponsors to be aware of.
The clear next step was to think about what our next step would be now that we have drawn conclusions from our testing. We needed to have a strategy to perhaps fix these issues in future iterations. We came up with two plans:
Plan A
- Conducting user research with non-LGBTQ audiences and learning about their needs and wants.
- Merge all the pain points and brainstorm new solutions.
Plan B
- Prototyping different formats for the name badge that are not wearable but have the same functionality.
- Do usability testing and compare.
- Choose the best prototype and increase its fidelity.
Following this step, we realized Plan B was the way to go.
And finally, we started preparing for our presentation. We decided on the slides on our own time and slowly over the week started creating a narrative to follow and started adding the content to the presentation slides. We even had a practice round during class where we tried to fit into practices in the time we had.
EVentually came presentation day, we were all very mentally prepared but it was very clear that on the very inside some of us were having butterflies in our stomach hahaha. Right before going in for the presentation, we tried to have a few practices in just so we all know what we are saying and when we are saying things. As usual, we had some last-minute changes to our presentation which made me feel more on the edge. And then we went into the presentation room and found out that we were the first ones to present.
We presented our work to the best of our ability and received some very valuable feedback from the four guest critics and Kathleen and learned that we still need to work on our storytelling techniques. But overall, the feedback was great and as a team, we feel good about the work we did over the last 6 weeks for the project.
Acknowledgments and Course Reflection
Overall it was an extremely rewarding experience working on this project and got to learn a lot about the gender-expansive community and their struggles within the medical structure. In addition to this, through the project, we were able to speak to some very strong voices like Juli and Dayna and got to have some amazing conversations with them. I would also like to thank our sponsors from NYU Langone who actually brought this project to light and entrusted us with actually ideating some solutions to this problem.
I want to especially thank Kathleen for being a very supportive instructor and for helping me whenever I needed it. She did a great job organizing the different projects throughout the semester and was very helpful in providing all kinds of resources to help us whether it be career or course material. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and got to learn a lot from my colleagues and Kathleen and really looking forward to what the future holds for me.
And last but not the least, I would love to thank my team, Team Awesome. They were amazing and I got to learn a lot from each and every one of them. We were very successfully able to create a very peaceful, nurturing, and productive environment throughout the course of the project, and am looking forward to working with them on future projects as well.
