This week was all about our user group. At the first, we read about the“Cultural Probes” from Gaver, culture probe it’s a way of gathering information about people and how to get to know the people (users) in whom you know nothing about them and their personality. A cultural probe is a kind of icebreaker that helps us get familiar with the user in a better way. In class on Tuesday, we brainstormed our user groups and what questions we might ask them. Also, we brainstormed some of the items that may be included in the cultural probe kit. At first, we were throwing random ideas than we had to chose ideas that are interesting and fun. We didn’t want our user to be board when using the items, as we didn’t want them to feel they’re doing homework! As Dr.Fox said “Don’t give them work. Give them something enjoyable!”.We decided to imagine our self using the kit. Personally, I get bored when I have to do something that requires more effort such as reading and writing. I felt it was tough picking the items, as we wanted to be fun.
Our user group that we chose to work with is the “Delta Sigma Pi”. They are a professional academic organization for all business students at the UW Bothell. We tried to create the kits relating it to the group we had. If we look to the user group, they are all college students which mean they don’t have a lot of time to spend on things that are not enjoyable.We created at least 7 kits for 7 members from the group.Each kit has five items ; a map with sticker in which users can outline the places they wish to visit, a week calendar with emotional sticker to describe their day, An envelope with 3 questions; Within this envelope, there would be three different unique questions for the users to answer, A drawing to finish and Psychological Word Finder; A Puzzle to Find the first three words they see. I felt these activities were simple and enjoyable to do. Also, we have a candy for each day to keep the group motivated. I hope by this kit we get a useful response from our user group.
As we all decided what to include in our kit, we went to the store to get all the materials we needed to create the kit. On Friday, we met at 11 am to assemble the kits. It was interesting to see my group cooperating with each other to make the kit looks good. We stayed a long time assembling the kit and at the end we all were satisfied with the overall look of the kit. as we will distribute our kit to the user group this weekend, we hope to get it back in a week. Throughout this process I feel what’s the meaning of ” designing with empathy ” as we read in last week. As we the designers were just trying to pay attention to the user feelings toward our product! I feel all of the activities we had throughout the beginning of the quarter are attached to each other!
Here are photo’s of the overall look of the kits
