3.1 Solution Evaluation
Your team will test your smart device prototype and product marketing website with people outside your team to evaluate whether the smart device and product website are useful, easy to use, and effective. Receiving constructive feedback will allow you to improve them before the public presentation.
You’ll need to recruit a total of 6-10 participants for this user testing:
You need 3-5 participants to individually evaluate the smart device and web app.
You need a different set of 3-5 participants to individually evaluate the product website.
As a reminder, here are instructions for conducting user testing.
You’ll also ask each participant to respond to a brief online survey after the user testing session. The surveys for the smart device and product website will be slightly different. These two surveys have already been created as Google Forms:
Create a new folder called “Solution Evaluations” in your team’s Google Drive folder.
Save one copy of each survey in that new folder. (Links to both surveys are below.)
When you’re ready to administer a survey to a participant, open the specific survey, and click the preview icon in the upper right, which will allow the participant to respond.
EVALUATION OF SMART DEVICE PROTOTYPE
The user testing of the smart device prototype will require each participant to complete 1-3 tasks by interacting with the smart device and its web app. Determine what these tasks will be based on what your functioning prototype can do.
You’ll need to start each testing session by briefly introducing the smart device (without giving away clues to the task steps). Depending on your specific device, you may need to trigger certain conditions for the participant (e.g., activating a motion sensor, opening a magnetic switch, etc.) to help simulate the context for the tasks.
Evaluation Findings: Use this template to summarize your findings from the user testing.
Post-Testing Survey: Have the participant respond to this survey after the user testing.
EVALUATION OF PRODUCT WEBSITE
The user testing of the product website will require each participant to find answers to specific content questions. Use these questions as the tasks for the product website:
What the does the product do?
Who is the product designed for?
What benefits does the product provide?
Evaluation Findings: Use this template to summarize your findings from the user testing.
Post-Testing Survey: Have the participant respond to this survey after the user testing.
ANALYZE SURVEY DATA
After all the participant evaluations are completed, you’ll analyze the data from each survey.
Open one of the surveys in your team’s Google Drive folder. At the top of the survey form, click on the "Responses" tab, which should default to showing the summary data for all responses.
For each survey question, the summary data will display a histogram (similar to bar chart) of the response distribution:
Responses categorized as 4 or 5 are positive because they indicate the participant either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.
Responses categorized as 3 are neutral because they indicate the participant neither agreed or disagreed with the statement.
Responses categorized as 1 or 2 are negative because they indicate the participant either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement.
After each chart, you’ll see the written responses submitted by the participants to explain their ratings. You can compare these explanations against your team’s findings from the user testing to see if the survey responses revealed any new issues that might need to be addressed. If so, add these new issues to your evaluation findings document.
Create a summary document for each survey that shows the histogram charts (in order) of your team’s survey data. If you hover over the upper right corner of a chart, you can click a copy icon, and then paste that chart into the document.
In the next assignment, you’ll use the evaluation results to make refinements to your smart device solution and product marketing website before the public presentation event.
❏ Deliverables
Submit all of the following:
Evaluation findings for smart device prototype
Evaluation findings for product marketing website
Summary of survey data for smart device prototype
Summary of survey data for product marketing website