Domains & Technologies

Devices– Our Approach

Benefits to count on:

• System-wide solution
• User acceptance
• Minimal customer rejection and turn-backs
• Marketing leverage ("Users told us what they wanted.")
• Competitive superiority
• Buyer loyalty to brand as well as product

Verify the need.

While ideas are cheap, the right idea is worth a million or more. (Got an Internet business IPO yet?) Look past small "fixes" to your problem and rethink the whole system. While vested corporate interests may reject your idea ("our customers like what we give them"), get allies who can help you quantify and document user interest and dollar savings. Remember "non-customers" of the current product didn't buy for a reason. You may have their answer. Talk to non-customers, too.

Speculate the answer and push it!

Some folks still prefer a manual Rolodex or paper phone lists. Others love gadgets if they offer some work relief. The Palm Pilot was a glorified electronic Rolodex. Now it's a gateway to the Internet. We find that if the need appears, the glimmer of an answer appears, too. We grab that thought. The rest is R&D. Our final design may be very different than that glimmer. But we start somewhere, otherwise we can't talk to others.

What size people will use your device?

Well, we're talking about devices – things people use. The science of anthropometry describes the sizes of body parts (finger width, length, arm and leg length, etc.) as well as human motion preferences. If you are 6 foot 5 inches, you fall into the 99th percentile on height. Most car makers AVOID building for you. They save money by aiming for the "average Joe or Joanne". We take human size differences and motion preferences into account. We help define your market. Why did the IBM chicklet keyboard fail? Bad anthropometry! The keys didn't "feel" right (too small keys and short travel for extended hours of use).

Determine the task and environment.

We learn the current situation. We talk to people who may need your device to help them with their work or life. This is called "contextual inquiry." We hear issues. Plus, with your (and our) inquiring and demanding intellect we both uncover numerous problems. Main trick? We pick the right scope. We don't think too small. We don't think too big. We try to help you make money with current resources, then improve for the next version. Plus, we don't forget to do a competitive analysis. We help you beat the competition on features or ease-of-use. (We try to do both!)

Redesign the task.

We use insights from our data analysis. We keep the user interaction simple by using existing population stereotypes and metaphors where possible. While consumers need a better interface for setting VCR recording time, at least the VCR play, fast forward and rewind buttons have a large public following. We consider changing strong population stereotypes only if we can show an exponential (10 Xs) savings of time and effort. We ask if your device can...

• Consolidate several tasks?
• Automate complex stuff?
• Save time, money, effort?
• Remove the burden of tedious or repeated tasks?

• Avoid becoming stale too soon?

Paper prototype, test, and iterate.

Why not prototype the inexpensive way? For initial designs, paper drawings or computer drawings on a printout can offer testable stimuli. Or we can build a cardboard mock-up. We use it to help collect data on new ideas that come up with your prototype. We record and use different "scenarios" that represent user situations. We observe where subjects get stuck or hesitate. We iterate. Create.

Verify marketing & legal stuff.

We get and keep their buy-in, plus create your mutual plan for packaging, instructions, and warnings. If necessary, we let them participate in focus groups. But one-on-one usability testing is better. We get better comments that escape the edits of a dominant personality or the "group think" of focus groups.

We help you plan for version 2, ad infinitum. Now you have a vested interest and will probably become like the corporate gatekeepers you snuck past. But continue to question authority. We'll help.