Reflection - Week 5

At last we landed in the subject of design research and prototyping, a very diverse area with multiple ways to follow. As I previously wrote I had a bit of experience of this, this is part of what I want to work with in the future. My first "real" experience of this (real as in my first account with design research and prototyping in KTH) came when I started my bachelor in HCI and could dive into the world of user testing and design. It is fun and interesting to gain new knowledge about how people interact with each other and or with computers and different designs but it is never quite so simple as you would want it to be.

When I and my bachelor partner created the vocabulary exercise program for kids at age 10 we had a number of tests involved. First we had an idea we wanted to make real, when gathering research to do this we had to change the idea a bit. We put the idea and research together and brainstormed forth what kinds of functions and aspects we would include in our final prototype (because we wouldn't have time to do a full fledged program including all aspects of learning a language). We decided on vocabulary exercise and made a paper prototype to show the responsible teachers in our first focus group/interview. The told us about how they traditionally teach English and what kinds of functions they would want to include in a vocabulary exercise prototype. After this we showed them the paper prototype so they could try to interact with it and see the basic functions. The big win with using a paper prototype as a first step is that it is easy to make, you only concentrate on the basic functions rather than tiny detailed questions about the design. Often if you do a too elaborate prototype as a first the critics don't feel right to question the functionality as it seams so "finished".

Afterwards we did a new prototype with graphics and the functions available on the internet to test on three groups of children. We compared how they did at a test where they practised in the traditional way and one where they practised through our prototype. After this we had interviews with the teachers to gain the children's experience and so forth. All in all We used mixed methods when it came to evaluating the prototype. The important thing is that you consider the cons and pros of using different types of tests and research, what do you want to know? How can you best gain this information. Ok I didn't really have the space to write about this more thoroughly but I hope you all get some idea of that it is good to use an iterative design process sometimes and that paper prototypes are a great way to, from the start, get on the right track.