MS Teams Part 4. Final Evaluation
In closing, here is a critical analysis of the project, including the design process, project management and planning, and a critique of the final prototype.
The Process
The design thinking process was a great process and ideology to use as the basis of the project, as it was malleable in nature and allowed for steps to be repeated to gain new ideas and more creative solutions.
User research was the most time-consuming step but it was worth it, as the research provided the most valuable information about the users themselves that would end up informing design decisions. The aim was to keep the user and their needs at the forefront, and the user research was what gave an understanding to what exactly those needs were.
Working remotely made the ideation, prototyping, and testing stages difficult as a group. While prototyping, it was difficult to share the physical paper designs without the help of recordings. During testing, there was a limitation to users readily available for testing in the current lockdown, and remote testing doesn’t always necessarily offer the same value of feedback as in-person testing. One would intuitively assume that digital wireframes would be easier and better tools than paper prototypes, but this project showed that testing the paper prototypes was much easier than testing the digital wireframes, and also provided more valuable feedback.
Had there been more time, freedom of movement, and a budget allotment, a wider pool of users, with a wider range of technology competence, ages, and experience with the app would have been tested to have more well-rounded user feedback.
Project Management
Working as group went very well, especially considering everything was done remotely. During the user research stage of the project, research methods were split up between members so that more varieties of research methods could be utilised.
Miro proved to be a great tool for collating the user research and working collaboratively on task analyses and various user maps.
Digitising the remaining prototypes in Figma after the initial paper prototype allowed for easier collaboration. All in all, every group member carried their weight equally, making the group work seamless and enjoyable.
Final Prototype
The fluid nature of the design thinking process means that the process can be repeated, and prototypes tested, edited, improved, and tested again, indefinitely and infinitely (Dam & Siang, 2020). There is always room for improvement.
Although there are surely many more iterations and updates to the current prototype that can be done, the final prototype is one to be proud of, one that combines the most innovative and creative solutions from the paper prototypes and streamlines the meeting scheduling process for the end user, making it easier and quicker to schedule meetings than the current app functionality.
Reflection
Overall, my biggest takeaways from the project were the difference in testing paper prototypes vs digital wireframes, and the importance of thorough user research and the value in making sure to keep the user at the center of all design decisions.
After our overall success testing out our paper prototypes on family and friends, we were somewhat surprised at how much more difficult it was to test our digital wireframe.
With paper prototypes, test subjects are never under the impression that the prototype will actually function, which means they don’t expect every page to be created or every button to lead to something, and are overall a lot more flexible with its functionality and willing to provide critique.
With digital wireframes, because it looked pretty much like an actual phone screen, users tested expected a lot more from it.
Additionally, keeping users at the forefront of our process helped justify design decisions and ensure that our ideas were intuitive and useful to the end user. This could not have been possible without the extensive user research that was conducted during the early stages of this assignment.
The value of paper prototypes and the quality of the critiques/feedback from testing them as part of the design process is one that I will carry into other projects in the future.
