This is Me
PROJECT OVERVIEW
This project examines the perceptions of people of the product or service with specific characteristics. As such I’ve researched there is a need for students who study industrial design to have their own identity or brand language in the process of design. A comprehensive literature review reveals there are gaps in this field and "How Might We design the product or service which convey characteristic of people". Therefore I’ve implemented a mixed-method research approach to evaluate the experiences of people with who interact with products or service which translate one's personal characteristic to the product and used in public spaces.
THE PROCESS
Timeline: 6 Weeks
Research Tools: User Research, Observation, Mood-Board/Words, Create the Persona, User Journey Map,
THE SOLUTION
THE CHALLENGE
the problem is most of the industrial designer student at the very beginning in their school struggling with design a product which conveys their characters. they want their design showcases personal characteristic.
I design the product or service which convey characteristic of people". Therefore I’ve implemented a mixed-method research approach to evaluate the experiences of people with who interact with products or service which translate one's personal characteristic to the product and used in public spaces.
Research and Discovery
SURVEY AND INTERVIEW
In the beginner of the project, I started to create my persona who supposed to be the person which my whole design process is based on her/his personal characters. therefore, I shared the survey with my personas' close friends and people who know her really well in daily life.
I also conduct the interview with my persona's family who have had the experience to live with her.
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Semi-structured interviews (N=15)
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Contextual inquiry
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Secondary Research
I analyzed the results and found that 60% of participants are agreed on that user have these prominent characters.
OBSERVATION/ MOOD-BOARD
After I got a clear understanding of my user characteristics based on the observation on her daily life, to assist in visualizing her characters I started to create the Moodboard of her favorites and then try to develop a visual library according to her characters.
MOOD-WORDS
To have a better understanding of the meaning of persona's characters, I started to use the "Metaphor" and the "Irony" method to expand those meaning in the way to help me get the semantic meaning of each character.
This part entails a lot of study about Semiotics. (reference: This means this, this means that: a user's guide to semiotics Sean Hall 2012)
KIND
EMOTIONAL
HONEST
FRANKLY
CURIOUS
Material
Delicate form
Geometric
Simple
Fragile
Surface quality
Memory
Straight line
Straight surface
Polished surface
Mirror
Exposed
Make a question
Not clear
Systematic
System base
Contrast
Part alignment
Smell
Round Shape
Material
Specific Message
Interaction
Simple
Contrast
Bold
Dramatic
Co-linear
Co-planar
Fasteners
Ideation
MY SOLUTION
According to the information and feedbacks that I collected in the Discovery & Research step, I decided to design a series of furniture. the reason I decide to choose furniture as my final product was, I found furniture as good examples of a product with different touch points which could help me for evaluation of the interaction between user and furniture.
In this step, I started analyzing the orders of the characteristic of my persona when he/she interact with people. I tested with 10 different people who know my Persona.
I analyzed the results and found that the order of characters of my Persona which perceived by people who interact with her.
Here is this Order:
EMOTIONAL+ CREATIVE+ HONEST+KIND+ FRANKLY = PERSONA
JOURNEY MAP
So, I started to analyze the whole step of the user journey map when he/she interact with furniture and found out which step stimulates my persona's characteristics.
INTERACT WITH
PERSONA'S
CHARACTER
GET UP AND
ALALYSE
TOUCH POINTS
INTERACT WITH
PRODUCT
SEE DETAILS AND VISIBLE ELEMENT CLOSELY
COLOR, TEXTURE,
MATERIAL
JUDGE AND
ANALYSE
SEE OVERALL GESTALT
SEE DETAILS AND VISIBLE ELEMENT CLOSELY
TOUCH THE PRODUCT
SIT
BACKREST,
SEAT,
CUSHION
SEE OVERALL GESTALT
FRANKLY
EMOTIONAL
CREATIVE
HONEST
KIND
ROUGH SKETCHES
In this step, according to the semantic meaning of each character that I have got from my mood-words, I started to sketch and transfer those meaning in a visual manner and since I have chosen "furniture" as my final product I sketch all those meaning in the furniture format.
FINAL IDEATION
In final ideation, by synthesis two scenarios of "interaction with the product" and "interaction with the persona" I came up with 8 concepts which was based on how much similar with the interaction with the persona in real life.
I tested this step with 10 people.
Prototyping and Testing
I created several rounds of Low-Fidelity prototypes, usability testing and iterating after each round, before forming an interactive High- fidelity prototype in real scale.
LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
CARD SORTING
I asked 11 Participants to place each step in order based on the most similar interaction when a user interacts with the persona in real life.
According to the result of the card sorting these two following ideas were selected based on the similarity of interaction between user and persona.
Idea 1
Idea 2
USABILITY TESTING & RESULT
I tested my idea with strangers who do not know my persona. by putting the pictures of each step of the interaction between the user and the furniture in the wall, I simulated an environment which can help my participants get a better understanding of the flow of interaction.
I asked them to follow each step of the interactions. Along with these interactions, they were free to ask any question regarding each step. Also, I asked them to keep interacting and during the test think out loud.
Usability testing the prototype
Conclusion
According to my participant's opinions, designing the whole experience with the real people with real character in the product format was really appealing and at the same time, it could be vague at some point. according to lots of studies in this field and literature review always there is a gap for How might we design the product with a specific character and also how famous designer get their own sense of style in design (personal brand) which make sure that they are consistent with the style. This is a general problem but in this project, I used this opportunity to test it. this concept could be helpful and useful for the college student that gives them a specific toolkit or platform to how they can have their own design identity to design consistently. Although in this era of design we have to consider to keep valuing our user's need when we are designing for a specific project in the company or as an individual.
