We distributed a student survey to get a feel for how the general population feels about our product and its need-space. We aimed to accumulate any insights we could gain, but this test was mostly to establish a large sample of quantitative data around our product. To do this survey, we used a Google form. This allowed for a familiar format; familiar both for us to design the survey as well as for users to fill out. Additionally, an online survey allows for quick dissemination of the survey itself. This allowed us to get a wide variety of need-finding data. For this part of the need finding study, we focused on making sure we had not only a good distribution of field of study, but also of class year. This was very important to us, especially as class lecture sizes typically get smaller as students get older.
“Because I don't want to ask a "stupid" question in front of 200 people. Also I don't want to waste everyone's time if everyone already knows the answer to the question.”
“Many times, the teacher is just powering through a lesson and doesn't have time”
“Social anxiety, fear of sounding dumb”
“Don’t want to derail lecture”
“Because the question is regarding something the professor mentioned a little while back and now they’ve moved on to something else, assuming everyone understood the previous topic”
To gain perspective on the professor interaction aspect of our application, we observed professors during lecture time. This was important work in order for us to gain a feel of how best to integrate our platform into pre-existing rituals and routines. Following these observations, we also spoke with professors to gauge their reactions to our proposals.
During this need finding process, it became abundantly clear that a separate UI kept open on a professor's computer during lecture time would not be an acceptable choice. Professors were not relying heavily on their screens and even if they did, it was explicitly for referencing speaker notes and slides.
We therefore concluded that our initial concept of a professor-UI to alert instructors as highly-rated questions came in would be distracting and under-utilized. In two follow-up discussions after our lecture observations, professors confirmed that this feature would not be as desirable as we wished.