CHALLENGE

Prime Digital Academy asked us to design a new welcome gift for incoming full stack students that conveyed a sense of welcoming and community.

SOLUTION

I prototyped and performed remote concept evaluation on a multipurpose desk lamp. Based on testing results I recommended providing additional light-covers and a support feature to increase user value.

CLIENT

Prime Digital Academy

DELIVERABLES

TOOLS AND METHODS

Pen and Paper

Craft Supplies

Keynote

 USER

MY ROLE

First Steps

Prime Academy had previously been giving its new Full Stack students a water bottle as a welcome gift. However, many students reportedly found this gift to be unusable and impractical. For the redesign, I wanted to ensure that future students would receive a gift that satisfies both their practical as well as personal needs.

I first approached the problem by performing a heuristic analysis on the water bottle do discover what went wrong.

Observational Research

Heuristic analysis showed that the water bottle failed because it violated three rules: user control and freedom, flexibility and efficiency of use, and error prevention. The new concept needed to be easy to use, provide students with freedom and flexibility of use, be something students would use often.

I next performed observational research of previous and current Full Stack students using the AEIOU method in order to get to know my users. I learned that they are driven, unique, and have diverse working environments.

Using affinity diagramming I found user commonalities. Main takeaways from this research showed that remote students had created their workspaces in a makeshift fashion, meaning they did not have high-quality or supportive chairs, they had limited desk space, and 2/3 mentioned the quality of light when describing their environments.

Concept Evaluation

The next step was top talk to users. I reached out to three current remote Full Stack Prime students and set up video-call interviews with each of them. The goal of these interview sessions were:

• To gain insight as to whether students profession and personal values were met with this concept.

• To obtain feedback as to the usability and practicality of the concept for students.

• To discover necessary improvements and alterations to the concept for moving forward.

Prototyping

I presented my three concepts to my design team, and we decided to move forward with the multipurpose plant and mood lamp. We found this to be the most meaningful solution as it is practical for students as well as source of comfort and personalization in their workspaces.

I made a low-fidelity prototype of this concept which I would later use during participant interviews and evaluations.

Feedback from these three interview sessions was positive. Students found the lamp to be usable for their activities, practical for their workspaces, and versatile to match individual students’ needs and interests.

Based on feedback from these sessions I also noted room for improvements.