Remote
Project
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Need-Finding
is about inducing the
underlying need. The goal is to gather a sufficient
quantity and variety of data to understand both users and non-users, to
analyze the data and articulate your findings, and then to advocate for
your users' needs throughout the
design process. We seek to not "lead the witness" but
rather to keep them focused on educating us about the underlying issues that
form the core of a need. Here are some examples of survey, video, and
observational data gathered by teams for the remote project.
Benchmark data from competing products can also be valuable at this
stage. This activity lies at the intersection of marketing
research and anthropology. |
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Observing
>Listeners
in action 1<
>Listeners in action 2< |
Surveying >Survey
X< >Results
X< >Needs Survey
Y< |
Interviewing
>S8.avi< |
Benchmarking
>Benchmark<
>Bench Summary<
>Benchmark
Analysis< |
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 Needs-Analysis is
an attempt to specify
the needs that have been observed, and then creating an analytical
"hierarchy of needs" that helps the design team focus and prioritize
their efforts through subsequent phases. The needs-analysis is
constructed in a subjective manner, but it must become an objective set
of metrics (with units assigned) to help the team understand if and when
it has met its design goals. At this point the team is still
exploring in order to try to establish who might be their ideal "target"
user.
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Needs Hierarchy
>Hierarchy
X< |
Needs Metrics
>Metrics Y< |
Correlations
>Correlations
Y< |
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Product Specification gets
very
specific about articulating the range of allowable units (i.e., the
specification) that will be achieved in the final product. Once
these ranges are established it sets up a set of overlapping constraints
within which the team will design. Though this may seem
"constraining" at this early point in the process, the problem that the
team often has at this point is not what to design, but what
not to design. Clear objective specifications help the team as
they negotiate subjective tradeoffs that must be made in the ongoing
process. Teams often revisit the competitive benchmark information
(particularly cost, size, features, and complexity) at this point to
ground and validate their emerging "point of view." Note that in order
to do this in a meaningful way, the team will have had to establish
(either explicitly or implicitly) an intended market. |
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Product Specs
>Final
Specs< |
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