Prime Digital Academy
Physical Prototype Student Welcome Gift
CHALLENGE
Replace current welcome gift provided to Full-Stack students for first day of class on campus. The proposed solution must align with key students’ needs and Prime Academy values that exist to guide and direct Prime’s curriculum.
SOLUTION
A personal, solar-powered and sensory activated personal beverage warmer that is solar-powered, to prolong their beverage temperature. Having this beverage warmer affords students greater amounts of time to focus on in-class content and decreases disruptions and distractions from learning.
Methodology
• Heuristic Analysis
• AEIOU Participant Observation
• Prototyping
• Think-Aloud Protocol
Tools
• Sketchbook
• Materials for prototype
• Keynote
Client Deliverables
• Heuristic Analysis Report
• Think-Aloud Protocol Evaluation Plan
• Client Prototype Presentation
• Future Steps Outline
Prime Digital Academy
Prime Digital Academy is a school based in downtown Minneapolis that provides education programs for Full-Stack Engineering and User Experience Design to students in an immersive and accelerated format.
Prime is committed to students experience, wellbeing and journey while studying at Prime and beyond into their career. This is evident through the multitude of project areas and focuses that students are able to learn from through relevant and engaging curriculum.
Students are on campus for a 12 to 14 week period of time, depending on their program curriculum, once finished with their first remote 6 weeks of class that ramps up to transitioning to full time campus learning.
Having been asked by Prime to provide a new solution that would replace the current gift for their Full-Stack program students on their first day of class on campus. Full stack engineering students are focused on learning curriculum centered around building fully functional, modern web applications. These students spend hours at a time coding on their laptop or multiple monitors, typically sitting and working on screens for a majority of their day.
Currently, the gift provided to students is a water bottle which is teal color, matching Prime’s logo color. Unfortunately the water bottle production is discontinued and is not a relevant fit as a gift for these students. Ultimately the current gift falls short in attempting to improve the students needs and experience while attending Prime.
User
Primary User
Full-stack software engineering students - Students currently enrolled at Prime Digital Academy who are studying software development and coding. These students are provided a welcome gift upon the first day of class on campus, lacking a current solution tailored to their needs
Research
Assessing the issues and pain points of the current water bottle gift given to students
In order to find problems with the current gift and understand what frustrations and limits existed with it, I conducted a heuristics analysis on the water bottle gift that was given to students. I followed Jakob Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics and drafted a finding with the ranked heuristic violations that the water bottle indicated to display. The most severe heuristic violated was that there was no error prevention on the bottle since the material was glass. Students at Prime are working near thousands of dollars of technology equipment and cannot afford to have damage to this from a glass water bottle breaking and spilling.
Observing a typical day of full-stack students while at Prime
Understanding that a more appropriate solution for students that would not risk damage to property from spilling on equipment, I observed the Full Stack Students in their daily routines at Prime, hoping to come away with a clear need or frustration that students encountered so I could propose a better gift that fits these needs.
I noticed that many of the students continued to get up to go and refill hot beverages throughout the day to stay awake, alert and refreshed with coffee or tea. From these continuous interruptions in their daily routine I started to wonder what the appropriate solution would be to both solve the need for students to stay in class and engaged, but also provide them with something that addressed this need and could be used beyond their Prime experience.
Physical Prototype Solution
Understanding the need for a solution reducing time and effort spent warming beverages
After evaluating the observations, current problems and issues with the gift given to Prime students, with observations of their daily routines, I came up with what I felt would be an applicable and relevant gift. The students are continuously walking back and forth as stated earlier in the observational research conducted. Clearly there is a need for a beverage warmer solution that would allow the students to stay engaged and in the classroom, and would be applicable during their time at Prime and into their career.
Concluding that a beverage warmer would provide students with this solution, I sketched out the initial prototype for the concept and features it would have. The main features of solar power charging, sensory activated for power so that there was no hazard of it possibly being left on and creating damage, as well as a compact size allowing it to fit on students desks were key points I emphasized in the creation process.
I proceeded to construct a low fidelity physical prototype that mimicked a solar powered, sensory activated beverage warmer. This prototype was then used in test sessions with Full Stack students to understand their thoughts and feedback on the prototype and how it might fit their needs.
Evaluating students feedback on the prototype
I conducted Think-Aloud evaluations with Prime Full Stack students while they interacted and evaluated the prototype.
Guiding the sessions I presented the current Full-Stack program students with a few questions both on a personal level about their Prime Academy coursework and experience, as well as analyzing their interaction with the prototype.
Evaluation Session Goals
How do the students perceive and experience the prototype of the beverage warmer?
What impression does the prototype create as a welcome gift for students?
In what ways does the student population find beverage warmer to help or hinder experience at prime?
How do students comprehend and respond to the feature of solar-power charging on gift?
Feedback and Insights
Students noted the clear benefits and time reclaimed in class from our prototype evaluation sessions. One student noted that using the hot water warming machine in the kitchen is a loud and disruptive process that distracts others in the common space area. Often speakers are presenting from the field near the kitchen or alumni panels will be held here. Less noise and distraction is a clear win for everyone.
The largest hesitation of the prototype centered around the possibility of spilling a beverage on their equipment. Another student claimed that the room temperature variation is drastic enough to necessitate the use of the warmer and noted “I love this and would use it beyond Prime in my career!” The solar panel charging feature was recognized by all participants and should remain focal.
“This is really cool! I love the look and tactile nature of the top surface and would love to get this as a gift.”
-Ken, Prime Full-Stack Student
“I really like this, but I might need something on the surface to hold my drink in place so it doesn’t spill.”
-Amber, Prime Full-Stack Student
Next Steps and Recommendations
Quantitative data acquisition - apply research methods to obtain data like behavioral mapping of students travel distance/time spent
Focus group sessions - allows students to talk about it in group context and get feedback in more relevant scenarios
Design updates - critical to revise design to have a spill-proof feature and provide an affordance of cup or beverage holder with circular shape