Final Reflection — HCDE 451
Final Reflection
In Fall Quarter of 2021, I participated in a class on UX prototyping where we engaged with many types of physical and digital prototyping techniques, applying our new skills in structured prototyping exercises. I found this class very useful, especially after a year of online classes. It was refreshing and rejuvenating to engage with physical materials and get live critiques. Online classes felt disconnected and isolating, and I’m grateful I was able to take this class especially in person.
Learning
Different prototyping methods are useful in different contexts. How useful and worthwhile they depend on who you are trying to communicate to or convince, and what you’re testing for. Model prototyping with 3D lo-fi materials was a great place to start when we were looking to get the general feel for a tool’s shape, size, and visual design without overly designing the product. It was a feasibility and usability test to see if the general idea of the product made sense. It was very insightful to see how much we could get across with easy-to-access materials and a lower skill barrier. Higher fidelity prototyping, like 3D printing, is more time-consuming and requires more skill but is easier to convince stakeholders with. It’s a bit easier to complete desirability and usability testing with a higher fidelity prototype as it seems more like a complete project that someone could visualize in their daily routines. I conducted desirability testing with my medicine tracker, which I used 3D printing to create, they were interested in how complete and polished it was. It was essentially a finished product in that state and they asked if I could make them a version to fit their bottles.
Accomplishment
I think that given the time constraints and my inexperience with nearly all of these prototyping methods prior to this class, that I was successful in creating my prototypes. Some of the prototypes I created, like my laser cut object and video prototype, were less effective but I got valuable insights into how those prototyping methods worked and have clear ideas for how to iterate on them further. I am especially proud of my laser cut project as I decided to enter the project without looking into common building techniques just to explore and be inspired by what I had seen from objects. I was able to create a relatively stable, albeit complicated, phone stand, which I considered a success. Overall, if I were to start other prototyping projects, I would definitely give myself more time to sketch and create a lot of different prototypes so that I could see different ideas and versions of the same project.
Regarding the final project, I think the wireframes and 3D model were pretty robust and feasible. I developed a water tracking system for a user’s pet that would monitor their water intake and give analysis based on it. The model of the water bowl matched the form of classic water bowls, and it was clear how it differed. The interactive prototype had a clear flow and was pretty fleshed out, and I was excited about how much I was able to produce. I wish I could have spent more time on the project so I could make the wireframes medium-fidelity, but that wasn’t feasible given the other responsibilities and tasks I had to complete. To improve the project, I would increase the fidelity on the wireframes to make it more realistic for desirability testing, and I would paint the model to make it even more clear where the sensors were. I would also make the 3D model larger as the one I created was smaller than expected.
Contribution
I participated in one group project, which was the behavioral prototype. I helped with sketches and idea development, and I created the graphics used for the Facebook page to make it a believable bot. I also helped make the bot function when users would go “off script” and create their own sentences, by providing quick synonym lists. I wrote part of the prototype description and analysis for the process blog. It was challenging to center on one idea when everyone in the group was giving great ideas for our project. We had some difficulties finding users that were able to meet with us to test our prototype but we were able to figure it out by doing testing on Zoom.
In the course in general, I made some contributions when we were learning how to use the different prototyping softwares. I was able to help some of my peers figure out the 3D software OnShape, as that was something I figured out after struggling with for a while.
