Test Plan for Examining Collaborative Ideation Sessions

Transcription

1 Test Plan for Examining Collaborative Ideation Sessions A Study Using the Post-it Plus ios app By: Casey Bettridge Prepared for: REAP, Research Sprint 1 Thursday, November, 5, 2015

2 Table of Contents Introduction Problem Statement and Test Objectives Methodology User Profile Test Procedure Deliverables

3 Introduction The Post-it Note remains a symbol of collaborative brainstorming offering a playful, low-risk medium to show ideas in a nonlinear way. Users can take their abstract concepts and contain it to a single square of paper. Though bright and easy to use, this method of collaboration requires someone to manually document the outcome of a brainstorming session, or take a picture to annotate, edit and share later. These methods of capture also pose some difficulties to communicate to stakeholders not present what valuable knowledge was learned. My initial project idea aimed to digitize the Post-it note to extend the effective and spontaneous nature of the medium, while capturing the end result for quick and easy sharing with stakeholders. This involved taking a photo of an individual idea square before the person stuck it on a board. The image of the square would be saved using software. With a wall fitted with a Kinect camera, the user would take their square and physically place it on the wall. The kinect camera would sense the x,y location of the user s placement and store this data along with the photo taken of the square. A desktop application could then display an onscreen interface of a grid. Using the location data from the kinect, and the photo of the Post-it, the application would then place the photo at the correct location, replicating the actual square s placement on the physical wall. Seeking out similar products led me to the interactive whiteboard (IWB) market. Reviewing a couple of interactive whiteboard designs plus guidance from my supervisor encouraged me to simplify my configuration to lower the set-up barrier of my initial proposal. How could I make my idea include elements that were inexpensive or readily available? By leaving out the Kinect camera, using traditional Post-it notes instead of my proposed idea squares, and taking advantage of the high-quality cameras that most people carry within their pockets via cellphones, I came to a new configuration. The traditional Post-it process would be preserved, with users writing ideas on sticky notes and placing them on a wall. An application on a phone would then take a picture of the notes and single out and enhance the text on the recognized stickies. The Post-its would then be digitized and rearrangeable, with the possibility to add notes even after the engagement has ended. The single most important question I went into researching was the availability of software to interpret the written text on the post it to regular type. Though some optical character recognition (OCR) software programs exist, there are few that have high accuracy and even less that are open source. It then came to my attention that 3M, the company that makes Post-it notes had collaborated with Evernote, the note taking app. Together they offer a feature 1 which allows users to photograph a Post-it and upload it to an Evernote notebook. Evernote has OCR capabilities to allow you to search your handwritten notes for content. It occurred to me that 3M might have created an app similar to my idea. After a quick search, I found just that - the Post-it Plus app, created by 3M 2. Downloading and playing with the app, I discovered some features that I hadn t thought of - adding digital notes, changing the background of note colour, and grid arrangement functions. I contacted my supervisor to get advice about what to do now. She told me not to be discouraged by an existing app, but rather to take it as a sign that there is value in my idea. My next step would be to look for an

4 opportunity that the app didn t offer, or a way to improve a tool to assist designers in capturing and sharing knowledge gained from Post-it sessions. Problem Statement and Test Objectives In order to find an opportunity to help designers, it's essential to have a deep understanding of how they work. The Post-it Plus app is one solution to the problem that I am examining - simplifying a designer s workflow by minimizing the need to double capture insights, and looking at ways that ideation sessions can be captured and communicated to team members who work with insights later, but are not actually present at the session. By understanding how the Post-it app was useful or frustrating to its users, opportunities to rethink a capture tool could be discovered. In these early stages of thinking of how to design my product, my initial study will have three objectives: First, to understand the appropriateness of the Post-it app in a designer's workflow. This includes familiarizing participants with the app and observing use for delights and frustrations. Second, to gain insight into the designer s process. The first objective is on one level scrutinizing the features of an existing app. The second objective is on another level thinking of broader ways to design a product or application that will fit into everyday use. The third and last objective is to gain insight into the knowledge transfer process. Aside from a tool to assist in the design workflow, what are opportunities to assist or improve in the postsession work and communication? Some ideas such as note progression, or collaboration features will be addressed. 3

5 Fig 1. Three objectives for this study 4

6 Methodology Introduction Designers fit into many domains, each with their separate tools and working styles. In order to discover an application that can assist design practitioners who use stickies for ideation, there must be a deep understanding of the use of Post-it notes and the users who engage with them. To make sense of the myriad of opinions and preferences, the research conducted employs a soft systems methodology. Soft systems methodology (SSM) is a creative, iterative, flexible way of researching real world problems 3. It is an action-oriented approach, developed to study a complex situation and then act purposefully to improve it. SSM is based on the premise that the people involved will adopt many different worldviews different ways of perceiving the situation based on internalized assumptions formed from previous experience. SSM promotes structured thought and discussion by making these worldviews explicit. The discussion enables us to answer questions about the situation and propose changes that all parties involved will be able to accept. It also fits well into the research sprint theme, encouraging agile iteration. Engagement The number of participants is estimated to be around six. The study will consist of a one-hour session conducted face-to-face in the designer s office or professional environment. There will be both structured scenarios and an open interview session. This will familiarize the users with the app enough that they can begin to think about and express ways in which the app could or could not fit into their existing workflow. It will also get them thinking about how they use their Post-its, and will also be an opportunity for me to observe an ideation session. Over the course of one hour, users will engage in 2 scenarios, followed by a question period. The scenarios will each take approximately 15 minutes, split up into two parts. The first part will be brainstorming using Post-its. The second part will be using the Post-it plus app to capture the resulting Post-it board, followed by a few tasks within the app to familiarize the designers with the app s capabilities. The final question period will allow the designers to reflect on the session. Using a semistructured approach, users can offer insights by responding with long answers. The resources used include a variety of 3x3 Post-it notepads, felt tip markers, chairs to sit in, desks to write initial ideas on, and walls to create Post-it boards. Each participant will bring their ios device with the Post-it Plus app installed. User Profile 3 Checkland, P., Poulter, J. (2006), Learning for Action: A Short Definitive Account of Soft Systems Methodology, and Its Use Practitioners, Teachers and Students, Chichester, UK: Wiley. 5

7 To recruit designers who are avid Post-it users, I identified one subgroup. There are many types of designers, however the exercises where stickies are used are common to designers working under different titles. These exercises include unstructured and structured brainstorming, clustering, product wireframing, scheduling, collaborative engagement, and more. Data types could include ideas, actions, events, stakeholders, places, preferences, opinions, interface elements, opportunities, weaknesses. The data structures that organize these items into a system could be clusters, lists, columns, maps, timelines, schedules, groups, matrices, wireframes, none, and more. Designers were recruited with different experience levels and expertise. A general description of the user characteristics is as follows: professional designer working within an agency must be able to speak and read english age mix of female and male must use Post-its as top or second choice for ideation sessions must collaborate with other designers or clients in their work must not have prior experience with Post-it Plus app must feel confident operating ios applications 6

8 Test Procedure The test will begin with an overview briefing, followed by two scenarios described below, and a concluding interview session. Overview/Briefing (5 minutes) The moderator will welcome the participants and thank them for their involvement. A disclaimer will be read aloud, informing them of the audio recording taking place and the anonymous use of their input. Scenario 1 (15 minutes) This exercise will help us generate content to use the Post-it plus app, so don t think too deeply about the content at this point. Task 1 - (10 mins) Take a Post-it note and brainstorm: What are the advantages of using Post-its during engagement (5 mins) Ex: Good for collaboration Non-linear Fun What are the limitations of using Post-its during engagement (5 mins) Ex: Difficult to capture afterwards Loss of adhesiveness overtime Space Task 2 - Use the app (5 mins) Open the app to capture the Post-its by creating a board The app has a function to allow you to add a digital Post-it by drawing with your finger. Find and use this function to draw a star and drag it next to your favourite advantage of using Post-its Send the resulting board to your Scenario 2 (15 minutes) Think of a specific situation where you have used Post-its in the past for collaboration, or one where you will be using them in the future (Figure 2 guides you to answer the first three questions given the example situation provided). 7

9 Task 1 - Build situation details (10 mins) 1. Describe the task involving the use of Post-Its. How would you title the task? Frame it as a question (see Figure 2 for example). This could be: Project insights - What are the strengths?, weaknesses?, opportunities?, etc. Customer journeys - What are the steps involved in obtaining a particular service? Scheduling tasks - What are the stages of a particular project? Discussing product features, wireframing - What will the interface look like? 2. Next to or below this, describe the type of the data that was contained on the Post-its (see figure 2 for example). This could be: Location Characteristics Ideas Preferences 3. Describe the format or structure that was used for the data (see Figure 2 for example). This could be: List Cluster Storyboard Map Timeline Groups Other 4. Next, describe how you would capture what was brought out of this engagement. This could be: Take a photo Take notes Type up post-its Other 5. Next, describe what would happen to the Post-its after the session. This could be: Keep Post-its Throw out Give to client Other 8

10 Fig 2. Scenario 2: Example Post-it responses to steps 1-3 (top) given a sample situation (bottom) 9

11 Task 2 - Use the app (5 mins) Open the app to capture the Post-its by creating a board The app has an option to let you rearrange the Post-it notes to be in grid format. Find this function and put your board into grid format the resulting board to yourself Interview Questions (15 minutes) 1. The app includes functions to share boards with other team members that also have the app downloaded. As you ve seen, the app allows you to capture Post-it squares, add notes, move notes around manually, organize notes into grid formats. When the Post-its are captured, the contrast is increased, the text is enhanced, and the background image is removed. After reviewing what this app can do, would you use this app? Questions to encourage discussion a. Are there specific features you found useful or redundant? b. Are you satisfied with your current personal method of capture? c. What if it could recognize handwriting and convert it to text? 2. Do you think some insights that come out from ideation sessions aren t captured and passed onto the next person who works with the data? Are some insights lost in translation? From facilitator/person present at ideation to person who has to deal with insights, do you think there is information loss? Questions to encourage discussion a. Do you think this has to do with the nonlinear nature of Post-it notes? b. Are the Post-it notes the means to the insights? c. It is the job of the designers to transform that experience into information used by other team members? d. Can you see a tool being useful to assist you in this? Deliverables The audio recordings will be analysed along with the resulting Post-it boards and notes from the engagement. These findings will be consolidated into a report, which will inform the future direction of research. 10