PDI Studio 5

When we continued our “Finish the Thought” testing at the Uncle Sam’s bus stop we tried to blend in and not make it known that the prototypes were ours.  We hoped that this would get the most accurate and real reactions. Here is what we saw.

• Some people would look for a moment and read it, looking slightly inquisitive or confused, but would then continue walking past.
• When someone did stop to write something down on our sticky notes, she said “pay it forward, it does feel good.”
  • this same, seemingly happy and chipper, woman tried to have her friend also take part and write something down on the board.
    • Appeared happy and joking with each other when interacting the board. The board seemed to make their time at the bus stop enjoyable- either from reading other past responses or in leaving their own.
    • Helped prove our idea that if someone saw one person interacting with the board, then that same observer might feel more comfortable interacting with it in the future on their own.
• Some people saw it as “something to do with your time”
  • This was one of our main intentions with this project.  This point appeared to be clear to this user which was reassuring.
• It appeared to be mostly women that were fully interacting with the prototypes and writing things down.
• The prototypes that included more obvious prompts and asked the users to write things down appeared to be more popular, but we are unsure if that was influenced by the placement of the prototypes since they have not yet been connected as they will be on the final creation.
• Comments that were added during this testing period are circled in red:
  • I wish I could change
    • “credit report MKS” 
    • “The President ‘Elect'”
    • “the way I live  my ‘keepers”

• Please leave a beautiful thought
  • “pay it forward-it really does feel good-kitties” 
  • “there’s a surplus of avocados (heart symbol) “
  • “sunshine, loolypops, + rainbows” 

• Troy fill in with sticky notes
  • “home” 
  • “historical” 
  • “FUN”
  • “:)”
• Interactive strings

Overall Interpretation of user testing at Uncle Sam’s bus stop: 

These small prototypes seemed to be a success of our hypotheses and seemed to help put people in a good mood. The prototypes also gave people something to talk about or started conversations between new people about the answers written. We were pleased to see this communication as opposed to alienation at the bus stop from one other. We connected it with the literature on alienation, specifically to The Alienation of Modern Man by Fritz Pappenheim, where alienation is discussed combining both works of Marx and Tonnies.  The literature on alienation explains the increase of alienation due to factors such as technology, politics and social structure. This is seen at places like bus stops where instead of interacting with one another, people engage with technology or remain silent because they do not want to speak with those who are unfamiliar to them. Being able to beat this increasing trend of alienation using our product, by getting those at the bus stop to communicate with one another, made this round of testing a success.

This testing also helped show the success of our hypothesis that the small tests or fill in the blank opportunities provided bus stop users with a positive activity to fill their time. The test also showed that the device could act as a small sort of forum. For example, some people are unhappy with the results of the recent presidential election and they expressed those feelings on our prototype. Our project gave people a small outlet to start discussions with other people or let their own thoughts out. Overall the testing helped show us that our ideas and hypotheses seemed accurate so far and that we are moving in the right direction but that there is still more room for further testing and improvement.