Tuesday 30 December 2014

Design Iterations - User Testing

User Testing 


As a part of the iterative design process, it is important that there is some user testing. This is to ensure that the product that is begin made is following the correct route and satisfying the needs of the brief. User testing is also important due to the fact that as mentioned in previous blog posts people simply do not act in the way designers think that they would, so where it is important to conduct research on an environment, such as Weymouth House, it is also incredibly important to conduct testing on the product itself. This is because people may not interact with the installation in the way that they are expected. 

Because of this I have conducted user testing on my installation. In my user testing a got a few people to test my installation. In doing this I was first watching to see if they would interact with the installation in the way that I expected and then quizzed them on what they thought on all aspects of the project, such as the design and the interaction element.



From the user testing I gained some very valuable feedback. The first was that people did interact with the installation the way that I had expected, which is a good because it means that people do firstly know how to use my installation. I also gained some feedback on the design aspect of the project. From the feedback it is clear that there will need to be something else within the installation because as someone said “it gets a bit boring”. I have previously mentioned that I would be creating a particle system to go with the installation and based of this feedback I believe that it will be very necessary as it does seem that there does need to be some other element to the installation. The particle system is also likely to make the installation more eye catching which will be needed because as seen through the poster brief and the information that I gained from that about the space, is that for something to get noticed it does need to be eye catching. 


Another piece of feedback that I received was that everyone was overly fond of the design of the main circle. One person stated “I don’t like the moving stuff in the circle”. The design of the installation is something that I have been recently looking at because I have not been particularly pleased with the design of the installation, and the fact that some people have also mentioned the design means that I will have to look at changing the design. The final piece of feedback that I received was that there should be more than one circle so that more people can use it at once. 

Overall this user testing has been very beneficial for many reasons. The first being is that people do interact with the installation in the way it has been designed to, which is a very big positive. The testing has also been beneficial because it has allowed me to identify areas of the installation that does need improving, such as the introduction of another visual aspect and the overall design of the main object. In the next few days I will begin to use this feedback and make changes to the installation. 

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