User Testing Summary

Introduction

Our mockups were presented to our user, Marc, and we had a chance to observe Marc’s

interaction and preferences for the design. This meeting took place on May 17th at

3:30 PM in the user’s house. All team members attended in person to physically conduct the user testing and allow our user to give first-hand advice and feedback.

The goal of this meeting was to present the current state of our designs and gain feedback on the three designs shoe hooks, foot-rope brace, and the yoga belt. This meeting provided insight on

Marc’s thoughts regarding the product as well as provided a potential pathway for future improvements of the designs.

Our group also conducted performance testing of the mockups, with the shoe hooks, foot-rope brace, laundry bag, and the yoga belt at team meetings on May 8th at 12:00 PM and May 15th, at

12:00 PM in Lincoln on Northwestern’s Evanston campus.

Methodology

To conduct our testing, we planned a meeting with Marc to test our high fidelity mockups where he physically tests each idea. Our DTC group had him physically hold the mockup and try to test how easy it is for him to operate. Marc then gave us verbal feedback on his thoughts per idea, which would include what he liked, what he found hard to use, and what he thought can be improved. Our group had questions prepared to ask Marc that were meant to guide the conversation but not dominate it. We ensured our DTC group did not ask leading questions, but questions more geared towards getting Marc’s thoughts and input. We also had someone taking notes of meticulous details. After the meeting, we discussed ways to improve and pivot based on our user’s feedback. Our group also planned to conduct independent testing of the mockups via Proxy users which are people who are not actually our users but are close enough that they know what our user would want. This way we can spearhead the process of finalizing our prototype.

Results

Independent Testing:

In our independent testing session, we tested our four mockups: shoe hooks, a foot-rope brace, a laundry bag, and a yoga belt. Our team member Luke was our proxy user as his height is similar to our user’s height as well as his insights within the project give him an advantage of acting the same as Marc. To start with the shoe hooks, we found the clipping mechanism was an easy process if it’s clipped on the brace. The only concern for the shoe hooks was how much weight can hold before breaking. With this in mind, we observed how the shoe hooks were the most challenging mockup as they did not have support on the bottom of the feet, therefore requiring additional arm strength to pull the leg up. Therefore, we decided to move forward with this design to the user testing session.

Moving on to the foot-rope brace, we believed that this would be the best mock-up given its stability at the bottom of the foot as well as the rope to help our user lift his leg up. Based on Luke’s performance, we were able to observe that the support under the foot was helpful in lifting the leg up. Therefore, we decided to move forward with this design to the user testing session.

Thirdly, the laundry bag mockup was an idea we wanted to test to see if a bag will make the process more feasible in supporting the full leg instead of the foot. When our proxy user, Luke, tested it out, we found that it was extremely inconvenient as he could not even lift his leg off the floor. The process was overwhelming and difficult to proceed with the testing. Therefore, we decided to eliminate this idea from user testing.

Lastly, we tested the yoga belt and it showed great features of the holding mechanism. We observed how our proxy user used the multiple handles to adjust based on the height needed in relationship with arm strength. Overall, this mockup worked great, and was ready to join the user testing process.

User Testing:

Moving forward after the individual testing, we were ready to start the user testing with Marc. In our case, conducting this at his house was the best option to allow him to test the given conditions of his room with the bed rail, bed ladder, and a walker hand grip.

We started first with the foot-rope brace. Marc was able to place the support under his foot with a little effort from his hands lifting his leg up. The process seemed tedious with the handle mechanism from the ropes as he struggled to adjust the length of the rope. It took approximately 3 minutes to lift his leg to the bed. His facial expression while doing the process and after finally getting his leg up revealed how uneasy he was with this mockup.

Then, he tested the yoga belt which had multiple handle grips. As we observed, it was easier for Marc to grab onto the higher handlers at the top of the belt in the initial pulling phase, then he gradually reached down to the lower handles halfway through the belt as he continues to lift his leg from the floor to the bed. This design was the most convenient for the user during the user testing phase as our user mentioned, “This strap is easy to grip on and helped me get my leg over the bed faster.” When asked the user to rank this design on a scale from 1 (being the least difficult) and 10 (equal difficulty as using not using a leg lifter at all), Marc ranked the mockup an 8, showing a 20% improvement from his current process.

Moving on to the last mockup, Marc tested the shoe hooks mockup onto his brace. A clear advantage of going to Marc’s house is we got to see in person what his brace entails. Unfortunately, his brace only included one side hook on his ankle. We originally thought we could hook the straps onto the two sides of his ankles. Therefore, this design was completely eliminated when Marc could not even lift his leg one inch off the floor.

Overall Conclusions

With the positive feedback we received on the yoga belt mockup design, our team has decided to choose this as our design freeze and implement improvements. Marc gave us multiple feedback on this design that will allow us to pivot and start our prototype. The major changes we will implement focus on designing a handle grip that fits Marc’s hands comfortably and allows a secure and safe handle grip to optimize his grip strength and pulling mechanism. In addition, we will implement a rubber strap at the bottom of the belt to create friction between the belt and the brace. This way we can limit the chance of injury due to a slippery hold. Overall, user testing was a salient process that defined our final idea and helped us better plan our design.