Product Design Case Study
Students at Prime Digital Academy, an intensive full-stack engineering and UX program in Downtown Minneapolis.
Methods Used
Participant Observation I Heuristic Analysis I Directed Story Telling I Usability Testing I Findings Report I Off-site Prototyping
Goal
To evaluate the current gift and design a more meaningful and usable welcome gift for the students.
Current State
Using a variety of research methods and building tools I designed a prototype of a possible solution to improve the way students organized their home brought lunches in the refrigerator. I designed easy stacking food container for lunch time with customized features.
Challenge
The Full Stack Developer program can be stressful at times and lunch break should be free of stress for these students. It was most apparent that wasn’t the case when it hit twelve-o-clock. There were lines for people to get their food out of the overflowing refrigerator.
If this gift was going to be meaningful and and usable it should improve the lives of the students at Prime. During the lunch break I noticed that the students had some issues with the way the refrigerator was organized. Lines formed and the students would have to dig before they finally could retrieve their lunches.
Research
After conducting a series of participant observations, comparing the existing product to Jacob Nielson’s Ten Usability Heuristics, conducting usability testing sessions, I put together a findings report of my research. The food container was found to be useful in usability testing, but not necessarily personal. Many students brought containers that were customized to their eating habits. In further studies I would evaluate if it’s best to proceed with an organizable food container.
Beginning
Mid-state: Rapid Prototyping
Future state: Includes new found features
If we proceeded with this project the new version of this would look something like the image on the right: The Prime Bento Box
These images are from our prototyping session at Leonardo’s Basement. My team and I got to use a variety of tools to create a rapid prototype of our design.
MOVING FORWARD
Prime Bento Box would include some of the features that were proved to be important during testing:
Organized compartments that are tightly sealed
Small and large compartments
Leak proof
Microwave safe
Easy to wash
Includes an outside case to keep containers neatly organized
Comes with reusable silverware
Personal and easy to store and carry
Deliverables:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9f7zx0ouyp4tmrf/AADBYDw0B0t_2ZM915ycSA1ba?dl=0