Week 3 To-Do’s
Readings
Each student must individually select at least one starred item and at least one other item from this week’s reading list to read/watch. More details are available on the Information page under Deliverable 1c.
Draft interview and questionnaire questions
First, using your personas as a guide, decide what type of participants you want to gather data from. Using the empathy maps, decide what you need/want to know. Come up with 3 high-level aspects you want to learn from potential users of your product. For each high-level aspect, come up with at least 3 specific points, and think about which ones you want to ask on questionnaires or in interviews.
Second, create at least 4 interview questions and at least 6 questionnaire questions. Note that demographic and background questions are essential but will not be counted towards the minimum question numbers above.
Your design document should contain the following (in clearly marked subsections):
- Demographic questions
- Interview questions (at least 4)
- Questionnaire questions (at least 6)
- A 250 - 500 word writeup explaining your rational for the chosen interview and questionnaire questions (you will want to complete this after finishing the mock-up interview).
The “artifacts” image is optional. If you prepare questions in a tool like Google Forms, you could paste a partial screencap as an artifact image.
Plan and mock your interview session
Do a mock interview session with 1 person from the class (but not in your team). Pretend this is the real thing and go through all the steps (e.g., explain, obtain consent, interview, wrap up with thank you letter). Check the Resources page for these documents. During the interview session, check the time often so that you don’t run over 15 minutes. Ask both interview and questionnaire questions. Take notes.
After the interviews, update the design document with a 250 - 500 word “writeup”:
- Summarize what you learned about your participant, including any surprises.
- Describe any changes to your interview/questionnaire questions and procedure based on what you found. You should update the previous subsection to make those changes to the questions.
The “artifacts” image is optional. One possible idea is if the participant shows you an artifact to explain a current process (e.g. an existing app, a non-digital process, etc.). With their permission (and using blurring or cropping to preserve anonymity), you could include a photo in your design document.
Interview at least 3 users
Find at least 3 people to interview who are not students in the class. You will follow a similar procedure in your mock interview session. Make sure you obtain their verbal consent responses, and store these responses in a spreadsheet. Keep your raw interview data private and viewable to your team only; DO NOT put the raw data (notes and images) in the design document. Make sure that the data is anonymized and stored in a password-protected computer, data server or cloud service. In the raw data or any report summarizing the data, interviewees should be referred to by their code names (e.g., P1, P2) instead of their real names.
For each interview, add a subsection to the design document (each 250 - 500 words):
- Title the subsection something like “Interview with P1”
- Summarize what the participant answered and what they said.
- Summarize the implications of the interview results:
- How does it support or conflict with your value proposition and (related) personas?
- Did you learn something new that could inform the design of your product?’
- Do the results help you empathize with your potential users?
The “artifacts” image is optional. One possible idea is the type of image described in the mock interview. Just be very careful about asking your participant for permission before taking any photos.
Team meeting and design document
Conduct this week’s team meeting or discussion in and/or out of class. Update your design document with the meeting minutes and the outcomes of this week’s activities (see above). More details are available on the Information page under Deliverable 2a.
Set up Miro (and Figma if not done yet)
You will need Miro next week. You should have signed up for an account for both Miro and Figma using your UWaterloo email, and apply for their Education plans:
Due next week
- Week 3 reading reflections (1c)
- Design document section #2 (2a)