Three… To… One… Prototype!
Sprint 3: PLUTO
Three to One, that’s been over primary challenge over the last sprint:
How do we take the best features and concepts from 3 prototypes, throw in a healthy dose of insightful advice from former astronauts and other subject matter experts, and create a single new prototype, all while leaving behind the shortcomings of the original 3 prototypes?
That’s a tall order, and let me tell you, our team has been feeling it! However, we are making some progress on this. Here’s how.
User Testing Results
Our first step was to review the outcome of our user testing sessions. Here are some of the high-level findings from those sessions:
- The time and attention of crew members is highly valuable, and keep potential tedious tasks or operations to a minimum. Think options to select from, not text entry.
- The ability to customize a digital workspace can be both an asset and a liability. Crew members may need to pick up where another left off.
- Crew members will need to anticipate and understand downstream effects of actions they are considering. Helping the crew to consider the impact of their decisions will help them avoid unintended consequences that could very well mean the difference between life and death.
- Crew members value a workspace that allows them to think through ideas before sharing with those in the mission control center. Such a private workspace may embolden crew members to explore options they might not otherwise consider.
Rose-Bud-Thorn
Step two, a retrospective proxy Rose-Bud-Thorn exercise; in other words, we categorized the comments made by our test participants according to the following scheme and added them to the various prototype screens where the comment was given.
- Rose = something positive, that’s working well (green notes below)
- Bud = an area of opportunity or idea yet to be explored (blue notes below)
- Thorn = something negative, that isn’t working well (red notes below)
This helped us identify the critical strengths and weaknesses of our 3 prototypes. It also helped us to compare and contrast the various comments of the experts we tested with.
We took those results and did a quick idea generation exercise to explore ways of addressing these comments. Some of these explorations where only subtle changes, while others were more radical.
Journey Map
Step three: our quick idea generation exercise revealed to us just how difficult it is to “Frankenstein” our 3 prototypes into 1 new prototype, and we realized we needed to get back to evaluating things at the level of a customer journey map. This helped us to place the workflows and features into the context of actual events crew members might be facing. This context gave us a framework for sequencing what needs arise during which parts of the experience. We are still in the process of working through this, but I think this approach has been a great way for us to regain perspective, and carefully consider how our solution should enhance the very challenging experiences astronauts will face during deep space missions.
We will continue to refine how each feature and screen will aid astronauts throughout this journey map in the coming week. Our hope is that through this process we will gain greater clarity on the form and functions of our final prototype.
Staying Positive
Oh, and step four, stay positive! Despite the challenges of this project, Team Talos has managed to keep up a positive attitude. We are so lucky to have a bunch of funny, eclectic, and goodhearted people on our team!
Star Trek or Star Wars… or both?
We are also in the process of finding the perfect anomaly scenario to incorporate with our final rounds of user testing. We have been advised to stick to something fictional by both our faculty advisors and our collaborators at NASA. It seems real world scenarios need to be super accurate in order to keep testers from looking too closely at the validity of the anomalies involved. We want to present details that can be accepted, even if in a suspense-of-belief fictional sort of way, but at the same time not be distracting from the primary task of evaluating a prototype’s potential.
We’re currently in the process of deciding whether we should steal fictional technobabble from Star Trek, Star Wars, or maybe both. Wow, that might be sacrilegious to some. We’ll have to consider that thoroughly! Do you have any good recommendations for us? Feel free to leave a comment below!
Media Recommendation
Did you know we’re sending another rover to Mars? The Perseverance rover is schedule to launch around the end of this upcoming July or beginning of August. I included some videos that delve into this fascinating next step of exploring the Red Planet.
