Lesson video

Hello.

Thank you for joining me for your design and technology lesson.

My name is Mrs. Conway, and I will be guiding you through your learning today.

So today's lesson outcome is I can conduct market testing and analyze the feedback to inform an evaluation.

And these are our keywords.

Evaluate, user, target market, and market testing.

So the first thing we're going to look at is user testing.

Once a prototype is completed, it is important to evaluate your prototype and design.

To evaluate is to judge how a product meets the chosen criteria.

To do this effectively, the design needs to gather other people's opinions rather than just their own.

Now gathering feedback from the user and the target market is essential to ensure that the product meets the needs of the user as well as being commercially viable.

And this is called market testing.

Now, market testing is trying out a product with the target market and the users to see how well it works and whether they like it.

The target market, if you remember, is the specific group of people a product is designed and sold for.

Let's just do a quick check for understanding on that then.

Gathering feedback from the user and the target market is called? A, mass production.

B, prototype assembly.

or C, market testing.

Pause the video here, just take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer was C.

So gathering feedback from the user and the target market is called market testing.

As part of the market testing, the designer needs to go back to their original user to check if they have met their wants and needs.

This is called user testing.

The user is who you were designing the product specifically for.

Now, Andeep's user was his sister, who was an undergraduate student at university.

Andeep's just explaining here, "My sister is an undergraduate student at university, so I chose her as my user.

She's in the middle of her first year of university." So Andeep's user, my sister who currently lives in halls of residence at university.

He also established his sister's needs as well.

Her initial needs were saving space as her room is small, organizing her art supplies for her course, and the ability to transport her art materials.

Her initial wants was something that looks cool.

Now, Andeep used this information and developed this design brief based on his user's needs and wants.

Design a storage solution for arts and crafts supplies that is compact and and transportable.

The product needs to help save space.

The solution must appeal to university aged students and be able to be manufactured at an affordable price for students.

He picked out these key points from this.

He needed to design something that had storage for arts and craft supplies, was compact, transportable, space saving, aesthetically appealing to university aged students, and affordable.

Okay, quick question again.

In the design process, who is the user? Are they A, the person the product is designed for, B, the manufacturer who makes the product, or C, the shop owner who sells the product? Pause the video here just to think about your answer.

And the correct answer it was A, so in the design process the user is the person the product is designed for.

Now the design brief, like the one we just looked at from Andeep, acts as a checklist to be able to review and evaluate the prototype against.

Andeep can take that checklist and his final prototype and check if he's achieved the aims and objectives decided upon based on his user's wants and needs.

These were them.

Let's just remind ourselves again.

He needed to check that he had storage for arts and crafts supplies, he designed and made something that was compact, that was transportable, that was space saving, that was aesthetically appealing to university aged students, and also affordable.

Now Andeep has organized this into a table.

So down on the left hand side he has listed those key points that are acting as a checklist.

He's then said whether he has met them or not met them with a simple tick or cross, but he's then gone on to explain how he has either met it or not met it.

So for example, under storage for arts and craft supplies, he says that he has met that, he has explained the storage unit was large enough for all of my users art supplies and still had space for new products.

His next point was compact.

Again, he's decided he has met that point and explains it fit onto the desks, both in her dorm room and in the workshop at university.

The next one was transportable.

He said that he's not met that and again, he has explained, "It wasn't as easy to transport as it could have been as it was a little heavier than she would've liked." He's gone on to each of the other points, space saving, aesthetically appealing to university aged students, and affordable.

And once again, he's stated for these ones he has met them and has gone on to explain in a little bit more detail.

Okay, it's going to be over to you now to have a go at a task.

Using your original design brief, I'd like you to create a checklist of your users' wants and needs to evaluate the prototype against, just like we did with Andeep's.

I'd then like you to review your checklist to state whether you think you have either met your requirements of your user, and then explain why or why you have not met them.

Pause the video here to have a go at these two tasks and good luck.

Your first task was using your original design brief, you were asked to create a checklist of your user's wants and needs to evaluate your prototype against.

Let's look at Laura as an example.

Laura designed and made a storage bag for toiletries to allow students to hang up on the back of their bathroom door.

Laura created a checklist for her prototype.

It needs to hold all of my users toiletries, needs to be strong enough to hang up, transportable, space saving, aesthetically appealing to university aged students, and affordable.

There are some common ones with Andeep there, but considering they had the same target market that's not surprising.

Have a look at yours.

Do you have all the key points that you established from your design brief? The second thing I asked you to do then was take each of those points from that checklist and decide whether or not you have either met them or not met them and explain that.

Here you can see some examples from Laura.

She's decided that it needs to hold all of my users' toiletries and she's decided that she has met that criteria.

She's explained, "The bag fit all of my user's toiletries in it, and they were all organized into different sections." She also felt that she'd met the point of strong enough to hang up.

"It hung up and was sturdy, even when filled completely." That's an easy one to test.

And transportable.

She's again agreed that she has met that point.

"It was easy to pack down into a bag that could be carried without anything falling out of it." Have a look at yours.

Have you explained each of your points whether you've either met them or not met them really clearly.

The next thing we're going to look at then is target market testing.

Now, in addition to ensuring that your prototype meets the user's needs, designers also need to ensure that it's commercially viable and will sell to a wider audience, not just your user.

Now the wider audience is the target market.

Now feedback from the target market can be gathered as part of an interview or by observing the target market With the prototype.

In commercial design, this can be carried out as part of a focus group.

A focus group is a small group of people of your target market who are brought together to discuss ideas and designs or test prototypes.

Quick check for understanding then.

I'd like you to have a go filling in the missing word here: a focus group is a small group of your blank who are brought together to discuss ideas and designs or test prototypes.

Pause the video here to have a go at this question.

Did you get the missing word? It was target market.

So a focus group is a small group of your target market who are brought together to discuss ideas and designs or test prototypes.

Well done if you got that right.

Now before observing the target market with a prototype, the designer must first decide what they want to learn.

This helps 'em choose the best way to collect feedback.

The main focuses of user feedback are typically: aesthetics, functionality, and ergonomics.

Andeep has decided that he needs to focus on the following feedback: function and ergonomics.

With this in mind, Andeep has decided he wants to carry out target market testing, which will involve his target market testing his prototype by using it.

And to carry out target market testing, Andeep needs to consider how to record his findings so he's prepared.

Andeep has decided to record the observation as a video so we can look back at it later, which is quite a clever idea and you might want to do something similar.

He has asked permission from the target market to do this.

That is important.

If you're recording someone, you must ask permission to allow you to do that.

Andeep if he's also going to take a notebook and pencil so he can make notes and add any potential sketches.

Really great idea.

Andeep is really organized for this observation.

Okay, quick check for understanding then.

What things do you need to consider before carrying out target market testing? Is it A, what is the favorite color of your focus group? B, how will your focus group get to the location? C, what do you want to learn or find out? Or D, how will you record your findings? Pause the video here.

Just take a moment to think about your answer.

You had two possible correct answers there.

So the kind of things you want to consider before carrying out target market testing are C, what do you want to learn or find out, and D, how will you record your findings? Now Andeep recorded his observation of his target market testing as a mind map of the key points.

So the first thing he witnessed or observed was every one of my target market could fit all of the art supplies in the box.

He also observed that the box was strong enough to hold and carry everyone's art supplies.

He also observed that the handle was comfortable for carrying around but not for long periods of time.

They also liked the look of the design and thought it looked good in their rooms and when carrying it.

Some of the target markets said they would've preferred it to be made out of a polymer.

It's gonna be up to you now to carry out your own target market testing of your prototype.

Now you'll need to consider what it is that you need to learn and also how you will record your target market interacting with your prototype.

Pause the video here to have a go at this task.

Right, how did you get on? Hopefully all of your observations went really well.

Let's look an example here from Laura.

Laura designed and made a storage bag for toiletries to allow students to hang up on the back of their bathroom door, and she's carried out target market testing and recorded her findings.

Laura decided to record this as a mind map, a lot like Andeep did.

So she observed that only one of her target market couldn't fit all of their toiletries into the bag.

The bag was strong enough to hold and hang everyone's toiletries.

It had the right size pockets for their belongings.

They liked the look of the design and thought it looked good hanging up.

And a couple of the target markets struggled with the zip and would've preferred Velcro.

Hopefully you've got some really good recordings and observations from your target market testing.

Have a think about how you're going to actually present those findings.

Is it going to be similar to what Laura has done as a mind map here? Lastly then we're going to look at evaluations informing future design decisions.

So once the feedback has been collected, this information needs to be evaluated to make it useful.

Once data is evaluated, decisions can be made on future design decisions.

Andeep needs to collate his feedback from his user testing and his target market testing.

So if you remember, he's already completed this.

This was him checking against his requirements of whether or not he has either met them or not met them.

He also recorded his observations of his target market testing as a mind map.

And if you remember, these were his key points that he found out.

You should have the same information, you should have your checking if you've met your design criteria, as well as your target market testing results.

Now Andeep, can now evaluate this feedback to help him consider future design decisions.

He's organized the feedback into what went well and even better if.

Again, he's done this as a table.

So under his what went well, he has got the storage was large enough for the user and target market supplies, the aesthetics of the prototype are well liked, and it was strong enough to store and transport all of the supplies.

Under his EBI, he's explained the prototype could be lighter to make it easier to transport once full, and the handle could be made to be more comfortable or an easy way to carry it could be found.

These are really good ideas from Andeep.

Quick check for understanding on that then.

What do you need to evaluate and make future design decisions on your prototype? Is it A, target market testing, B, packaging design, C, market research, or D user testing? There's two options here.

Pause the video here just to think about what those could be.

And the correct answers with the target market testing and the user testing.

Now, Andeep has evaluated his prototype with his user feedback and has decided two possible future design decisions.

Those were his EBIs that he put into the table.

The prototype could be made out of an alternative material to make it lighter to carry once it is full, and the prototype could also do with a more comfortable and ergonomic way to carry it.

It's going to be over to you again now to have a go at another couple of tasks.

So firstly, I'd like you to collate your user testing and your target market testing so as to be able to complete the table below.

This table are WWWs, what went well, and your EBI, your even better if points.

So organize your research and decide which things have gone really well and what things could be improved.

Then I'd like you to use that completed table to consider two or three future design decisions that you could implement into your product.

Okay, pause the video here to have a go at these tasks and good luck.

Let's have a look at Laura's examples for these last two tasks.

So Laura has completed her table below, based on her user testing and her target market testing.

Her WWW points or what went well are they liked the design of the bag and thought it looked good hanging in their bathroom, the bag was strong enough to hold most of the people's toiletries, and it had the right size and amount of compartments.

Her EBI points were the zipper could be changed to be Velcro or an alternative closing method, and she also said, I could look at making it slightly bigger to make sure it holds enough for more people.

Now, based on that table, Laura has then come up with two or three future design decisions.

She's explained, "I'm going to look at alternative closing methods for the bag, and I will also look at making it slightly larger with a possible extra compartment." These two tasks all look different for you, but just check that you have completed enough WWW points and EBI points to be able to then inform some future design decisions for yourself.

So let's summarize today's lesson.

Today we've been looking at the evaluation of market and user testing.

And once approach type is completed, evaluating your prototype and design is important.

To do this effectively, the designer needs to gather other people's opinions rather than just their own.

Gathering feedback from the original user and the target market is essential to ensure the prototype meets the needs of the user, as well as it being commercially viable.

And lastly, market testing is trying out a prototype with your target market to see how well it works and whether they like it.

Well done for all of your hard work today.

Thank you so much for joining me for the lesson, and I will see you soon.