Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mrs. Dhami.

Thank you for joining me for your Design & Technology lesson today.

Now, the big question for today is how can we use testing effectively throughout our iterative design journey to make successful design decisions so that we come out with a successful design solution? We're going to explore this using lots of different techniques, so hard hats on, let's get cracking.

Our outcome for today is we will be able to gather and analyze feedback to identify strengths and weaknesses in our designs.

We do have some ground rules for our lesson today.

We need to listen to others.

It is okay to disagree with each other, but we should listen properly before making assumptions or deciding how to respond.

When disagreeing, challenge the statement and not the person.

We need to respect each other's privacy.

We can discuss examples, but do not use names or descriptions that identify anyone, including ourselves.

We must have no judgment.

We can explore beliefs and misunderstandings about a topic without the fear of being judged.

And lastly, we can choose our level of participation.

Everyone has the right to choose not to answer a question or join a discussion.

We never put anybody on the spot.

We have four keywords for our lesson today.

Testing, which is when we try out a design to check its performance.

Feedback, which is information from primary users or stakeholders about how well something works.

Design requirements are something which is needed or wanted to make a product successful.

And lastly, design decisions, which are a deliberate choice to meet a requirement or solve a problem.

And hopefully, you'll make lots of design decisions today.

We have two learning cycles today.

First of all, why do we test prototypes? And then moving on to collecting and analyzing feedback.

So let's get started with why do we test prototypes? Let's remind ourselves, the theme of this unit is inclusive design, focusing in on mental health and wellbeing.

So testing is important throughout the whole iterative journey.

So for example, during design ideas, iterative design development, during manufacture, and also after manufacture.

Now, in this particular unit, testing will focus highly on inclusivity, so keep that word close to everything you think about today.

Testing is required throughout the iterative journey to ensure that successful design decisions are made and a successful design solution is developed.

Let's take a closer look at this through a little diagram.

So here we have our testing and feedback, and this feeds straight into the design decisions that we make.

Now, this doesn't just happen once; testing continually happens.

So we test and we get feedback, we make design decisions.

We then test and feed back with the new design decisions to then make more design decisions! And that process goes round and round.

And there is not a limit on how many times you do that.

The more you do it, though, the more successful the design solution tends to be.

So what will testing identify? Well, testing and feedback identify strengths that must be emphasized and really sold with the design solution.

But it will also identify design problems, which are the opportunities to be solved.

And both of these link into and feed into the design decisions that are made to improve the product.

And like I said on the last slide, this doesn't happen just once; it happens multiple times.

And the more times it does, the more likely the design solution will be successful.

Time for a quick check-in.

Testing is only to prove that a design works.

Is this statement true or is it false? Have a think.

Come back to me when you've made a decision with a reason why.

Well done if you got false.

And why is that? Testing is equally about finding design problems and learning what doesn't work.

Failures provide insight and strengths that can be emphasized.

Feedback is essential to identify both the strengths and the design problems. Designers in their real world expect to find design problems in their prototypes so that they can keep iterating/refining to produce a more successful product, service, or environment.

Now, lots of the students in my classroom worry if they don't quite get something right.

And I always encourage them, it's all about the iteration.

We are refining it, we are making it better and better until we get a successful product.

So please, just like I say to my students, don't be disheartened.

Those design problems will lead you to a really successful design solution in the end.

Keep being resilient and keep going.

Now, you may or may not be aware that you are using the National Oak Academy resources for your lesson today.

Now, the National Oak Academy resources are designed to be used by teachers and pupils, but what you might not know is that they were originally designed for use during the COVID pandemic lockdown.

And this picture on the left shows how those resources looked like and how the website looked like during lockdown.

Now, take a little look at the next picture.

This is how the National Oak Academy website now looks.

So the result of testing provided feedback for effective inclusive redesign of the product, which included colors, fonts, and lesson sequencing.

Looks very different, and looks a lot better in my personal opinion.

But this was all based on testing and feedback.

Time for a quick check-in.

Testing identifies, A, positives, B, a primary user, C, design problems, or D, stakeholders.

Have a think.

Come back to me when you've made your decision.

Well done if you got A and C.

Testing identifies positives and also design problems too.

On to Task A.

Part 1, I'd like you to fill in the blanks on the diagram about iterative design.

Part 2, I'd like you to say why is the testing of prototypes important? Good luck, come back to me when you have got some great answers.

Welcome back.

Hopefully you found out that in the first box on the left, it should say testing and feedback, and then in the middle box, it should say design decisions.

So testing and feedback feeds directly into design decisions, which can happen multiple times, which then the more times that happens, the more likely a successful design solution is produced.

Part 2, testing prototypes ensures that all design problems are identified so that design decisions can be made for a successful design solution.

Well done with all of your hard work on Task A.

On to learning cycle 2: collecting and analyzing feedback.

Testing is effective when measured against the design brief and the design requirements.

So Laura's got her design brief here and her design requirements ready to do her testing.

So let's have a little look at Laura's design brief.

Hers says this: Design an informative educational website that will allow staff and pupils to easily access and navigate the national curriculum at school or home.

So what did Laura do? Laura used her design requirements to identify what she needed to test.

Let's zoom into some of those requirements.

The first one says: The website should be easy to navigate.

So what's she gonna do for testing? Laura decides, "I'm going to ask a range of pupils aged 13 to 16 and teachers to find a particular resource.

I'm gonna time how long it takes to find the resource and ask for feedback from both groups." Her next design requirement says: The materials should be easy to access visually.

So what're you gonna do, Laura? She says, "I'm gonna ask a range of stakeholders including graphic designers, accessibility experts, and literacy experts to review the use of fonts and colors specifically for inclusivity." Great ideas for testing there, Laura.

Time for a quick check-in.

Testing is effective when measured against something and something.

Have a little think, pause the video, come back to me when you've found two things to slot in.

Let's bring this back together and find out testing is effective when measured against design requirements and design brief.

Well done if you got that correct.

We are now going to explore a few techniques for testing throughout your iterative journey in this unit.

Now, you are not limited to the techniques we share.

You might think of other ways, and that's perfectly fine too.

Some will be right for your design requirements and design brief, but others will not.

Now, as you start testing, you may identify strengths, weaknesses, and it may spark off some design decisions at any point.

So please remember to record them through annotations, through notes, or in charts.

If you don't, you're likely to forget them, so please record them as you go through and test.

A great way to test is to ask your primary users, your stakeholders, or your experts for their opinions, a little bit like what Laura has just identified.

So how could you do that? You could get users to review your design ideas.

You could interview a few users.

You could create some polls.

You could observe any of these people looking at your design ideas and getting some feedback from them.

Or you could get a whole range of primary users, stakeholders, and experts together to create a focus group where together they discuss what you have created and give feedback as they go through.

So why are these ideas good? Well, it's great for gaining opinions, identifying inclusivity and accessibility considerations, and moral or social considerations too.

Just remember, if you do gain feedback from these different groups, record the strengths, record the weaknesses, and record any design decisions that might be sparked off from this feedback.

You might have already created some prototypes.

Now, I love prototypes 'cause prototypes are often physical, unless they're things like coding on computers.

But quite often, they are physical, so they're something you can actually pick up.

And it could be something as simple as a prototype out of plasticine.

Now, prototypes are great because they are good for trying out solutions.

They're good because you can also give them to your primary users, your stakeholders, your experts, and get their feedback too.

And it's also a good chance for you to identify any ergonomic or inclusivity considerations too.

Just remember, you know what I'm gonna say, record the strengths, record the weaknesses, and record any design decisions which are then sparked off.

Testing can be something simple like visual inspections too.

Now, visual inspections could be for actual drawn ideas, but it could also be for prototypes too.

Now, visual inspections are great because they identify early flaws in your developments.

They also provide aesthetic checks and provide instant feedback.

Just remember, record those strengths, those weaknesses, and any design decisions that have been sparked off.

You might like to do some testing by measuring.

What do I mean by this? Well, you could measure to see whether your prototype fits into a certain space, a certain area, or perhaps a pocket.

You might test the switching points of an electronic circuit.

Or perhaps if your product or your design solution needs to hold a certain volume of liquid, you could pour that in and see if it actually does.

So, measurements are great at providing objective data, and it avoids any guesswork by giving you realistic real data and real answers.

Just remember, record the strengths, record the weaknesses, and any design decisions it might make you make.

Sofia decided to analyze the feedback from the original National Oak Academy website and identify their design decisions for redesign.

Now, Sofia says, "What do you think the feedback was?" It's a bit like spot the difference for this one.

What do you think the feedback was that made the website change from the image on the left to the image on the right? Pause the video, speak to the person next to you, have a class discussion, or tell me what you think.

Pause the video and come back ready for the next slide once you are done.

I'm sure you probably all came up with some wonderful feedback and some wonderful design decisions.

Let's take a little look and see if some of your ideas match mine.

So strengths with the feedback.

The website provides support for pupils unable to access a physical school.

They reduce anxiety for pupils studying at home.

And they provide expert written resources that can be used for both teachers and pupils.

Lots of positives there.

So what were the design decisions? Well, to continue providing high-quality, expert written resources, but to also develop a separate accessible pupil platform alongside the teacher platform.

So the way you might look at it as a pupil is different to the way that a teacher would look at the website, and that works really, really well.

Let's take a little look at the design problems identified through the feedback.

Well, people said the wide range of colors is often quite distracting and that there was difficulty with navigating two resources, so finding the particular resource you might want.

So what were the design decisions? Well, first of all, the color palette was reduced, so less colors were used.

And the redesign of the website structure included a separate pupil platform.

Let's take a little look at these two images.

On the left, we have the original National Oak Academy website, and you can see all those bright colors.

It is quite distracting, whereas the second image is what it looks like now.

Doesn't it look far more sophisticated? Those streamlined colors make it look much better, and navigating is a lot simpler with those beautiful little icons representing the subjects.

People also said that the logo looks too simple and aimed only at a young audience.

So what they did was they changed the original Oak symbol from this one on the left to that one on the right that we now see at the bottom of all of our slides.

And I think you'd probably agree with me, it looks a lot more sophisticated and appeals to all ages, which is really important because Oak produce resources not only for secondary schools, but for infant schools, junior schools, and secondaries too, right the way through from early years through to Key Stage 4.

Time for a quick check-in.

To ensure the reliability of your testing, you could, A, stick to one method of testing, B, gather feedback from a range of primary user or stakeholders, C, test using similar conditions as to the intended use, or D, repeat experiments and record results.

Have a think, pause the video, read back through the answers, make your decision, and come back to me.

Well done if you got B, C, and D.

To ensure the reliability of your testing, you could gather feedback from a range of primary users and stakeholders so that you're not just basing it on one.

You could test using similar conditions as to the intended use.

And you could repeat experiments and record your results.

If you are struggling with a stressor or a barrier or any of the things that we have brought up with today, you should speak to any of the following: a trusted adult, a teacher, your school SENDCO, or a DSL, Designated Safeguarding Lead.

Please don't keep it to yourself.

On to Task B.

Part 1, I'd like you to identify two testing techniques suitable for collecting feedback for your wellbeing prototype.

You could start by looking at your design requirements.

Part 2, conduct testing using two different techniques for your wellbeing prototype.

And lastly, analyze the feedback from your testing.

You could consider strengths, weaknesses, and potential design decisions.

Good luck, come back to me when you've done some great testing.

Izzy used her design requirements for her pomodoro timer light.

So the first design requirement said the design solution should help pupils focus on revision and not feel overwhelmed.

Testing: she decided to speak to her primary user, Alex, and her stakeholders.

The next design requirement: the design solution must be able to fit on both a bedside cabinet and a desk.

So Izzy decided she would place the prototype on both and find out is there still space for all the revision material required? Part 2, Izzy showed her low-fidelity model to Alex and asked for his opinions and asked him to place the prototype on his desk and bedside cabinet.

What did Alex say? He said, "I love the way this fits on my bedside table as well as my desk, giving me a choice to move location for my revision while still having space for my revision materials.

I am not keen on the aesthetics.

The design is very old fashioned and blocky, and the shade takes up too much space." Oh, I can think of lots of design decisions already.

Thank you for your feedback, Alex.

Izzy analyzed her feedback from Alex.

So the strengths: fits on a desk or bedside table easily with room for revision materials.

There's a timer that keeps pupils focused on the task in a manageable amount of time.

So design decisions: do not increase the size of the product, and keep the timer to keep pupils focused.

Let's take a little look at the weaknesses.

The weaknesses tended to focus around aesthetics.

So what are the design decisions? Izzy decided that she is going to improve the blocky design of the base and blend it with the stem to make it look more modern.

She's also decided to remove the shade and integrate the light within the stem to create a more streamlined aesthetic.

I look forward to seeing how this design develops.

Well done, Izzy.

This brings us to the end of our lesson today.

Let's summarize what we have found out.

Testing is required throughout the iterative journey to ensure that successful design decisions are made and a successful design solution is developed.

There are a variety of methods to test prototypes, including primary user, stakeholder, and expert feedback, functionality testing, and also visual inspections.

Whilst testing and through analyzing feedback, design decisions may be identified.

Remember to record them.

If you have been affected by any of the topics today, please check out NHS Live Well or the NHS website.

Thank you for all of your hard work today.

Take good care, and I hope to see you in a lesson soon.

Take good care.

Bye-bye-bye!.