Outshine Customer Feedback Platform- Sprint 2

User Interviews: Planning, Affinity Diagrams, and Summary

Step 1-User Interviews

Users were selected based on criteria of our market user-

• Age- Adult working age 28-55 years-old

• Background- retail management experience, possible education in retail management

• Possible occupations- management level or owner in a small retail/boutique store environment. Retail purchaser. Retail service trainer or training development.

• Tech Savviness- should know their way around a management application. Familiarity with tablet devices.

• Motivations- increase profits by improving service to the customer (i.e. customer service skills, employee training, making purchasing decisions based on customer’s expressed needs/desires).

Testing Plan

For this round of testing, we focused on the desirability of four style tiles- one for each member of the team. Due to the coronavirus, necessary limitations were placed on our testing and, as such, was completed online over Zoom. Each team member was responsible for testing two users following a script for consistency. Tools used included Zoom and Otter.ai, and later Miro for the affinity mapping.

We focused on three Dos for the best feedback:

Do: Let the participant know the brief of the project so they are not coming in blindly to the interview

Do: Focus on open-ended questions for opportunistic feedback

Do: Try to facilitate open monologuing: Have them explain their thoughts thoroughly

Testing began with an overview of the project brief, and then we asked the users questions about themselves. We then presented each of the style tiles and asked questions regarding the color palette, font, card layout, and overall feeling of the style tile.

Affinity Mapping and Summary

Once testing was complete, we gathered the data obtained and created an affinity map on Miro. We began by grouping the answers together by user, as shown in the picture below. Then, as a team, we began sorting through the data and sorted it by patterns.

Round 1 Affinity Mapping on Miro

For the summary, we looked at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for each of the style tiles. Some of the overall positive phrases we heard for some of the style tiles are that they were "modern and minimalistic", "trustworthy", "calm, inviting, safe, organized." Some weaknesses included "serious, boring", "looks unfinished", "too many font types", "colors and font feel bland." Overall, there wasn't one single style tile that stood out, and each could have used further refining but, due to time restraints, many of us felt like we had to move forward with what we had.

Learnings and Application

One of the major patterns that stood out regarding my own personal design was that it didn't test well. It was deemed "boring" and looked like an "outdated Instagram design." I will admit, this feedback stung at first, but I regarded it as crucial to my next steps. Had I proceeded to design with this particular style tile in mind, my project would not have been as good. I saw the importance of removing personal biases as a designer and using feedback to determine the next steps.

It was because of this feedback, I chose to design with the clean classic style tile instead of the coffee shop, earthy motif.