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5 Testing

Transcript

The last stage of the entire design thinking process is the Testing Phase. Testing phase is very important. In this phase we will see how do we test and how do we report, the testing whatever has got evolved from the customer. Testing and Validation is very very important. What you have developed? What customer want and how is he rating, all these things come under the testing phase. If you don’t do testing or validation it is not a good product what you develop, and many times today we have challenges that we are not able to validate what you produce. In that situations the product development becomes a big challenge.

So, Testing is Try Your Solutions Out, is nothing but testing. Designer or evaluator rigorously tests the complete product using the best solution identified in the prototype phase. So, you create, you test and if the test fails you repeat, you recreate the modification and then you test. So, this figure is very important which tries to convey the testing phase. So it is also looks like the testing phase is going to lead you towards the next iterations. In design you should understand there is nothing called unique, nothing called the best solution, and the first solution is never the best solution, it always undergoes a reiteration so, that you try to develop the best product. So, design itself is an iterative process. Please keep all these things in your mind and when you start developing prototypes or when you start developing products keep it in mind that the first step is the towards the solution will lead towards an iteration and then you try to develop the next level where in which you will have an improved version.

So a designer or an evaluator rigorously tests the complete product using the best solution identified in the prototype phase. This is the final phase of the model but in an iterative process such as design thinking the results generated are often used to redefine one or more of the future problems. So now you see after finishing the testing it might lead to second stage you might even redefine the problem. Designers can then choose to return to the previous stages in the process to make further iterations, alterations and refinement to rule out the alternative solutions. So how do you conduct the tests? Let your customer compare alternatives. So for example if you have developed your prototype you are showing it to him you should also show it to him what are the other prototypes which are available in the market. So let him try other
and let him try your prototype and let him tell what is his feedback. So create multiple prototypes each with a change in variable so that your user can compare prototypes and tell you which they prefer? So here it can be two ways you yourself develop multiple variations and throw it in front of him or you try to have various other companies and your product in front of the customer and ask him to say please try and let me know your feedback. So let your user compare alternatives don’t show only one and ask him to talk about it you will be saying this is the best. Okay, next when you try to show don’t try to talk, don’t try to tell anything to the customer, you say here is a product please try that’s all. So it is show don’t tell to the customer let your user experience the prototype and when he experience he comes out with the open mind and it gives you a feedback. A wide over explaining how your prototype work or how it is supposed to solve your users problem. Don’t tell it. Allow the customer himself to enjoy and then he will come up with a feedback what is it. Ask users to talk through their experience while using the developed new product let him keep talking his experience. When I first tried to lift it I expected it should be very heavy or I thought it will be very light. Looking at the red color I thought it will be very difficult to use this. So these are all his experience now, I have put in front of you the color, place and impact on the psychology. The psychology tries to have an impact on the product which is developed. So when user are exploring and using the prototype ask them to tell what they are thinking. What are you thinking right now as you are doing this? So this question you should keep asking in the testing phase so that he gives his feedback to you, then observe. Observe how your user use either correctly or incorrectly, your prototype and try to resist the urge to correct them when they misinterpret how it is supposed to be used. Ask the following questions, always follow up with questions, even if you think you know what the user means. What do you mean when you say this? When you say wow it is very comfortable! Oh it is light. So when you say we should ask that what do you mean when you say it. Then how did that make you feel and most importantly why did you feel like that
whatever you say.

So these are some of the questions which you should ask to the customer in the testing phase. So in the testing phase you will have these four quarter’s to be filled. What do you like and naturally there will be another thing which you says what don’t you like? So this is another quarter which you have to fill you can ask the customer to fill or you can ask questions and you can fill, and more questions on this you have any more questions on the product whatever is it so that becomes one quarter and the last one is new idea based on your work. You have thrown a product in front of them, they are using it and while using it the customer himself generates a new idea and he says why can’t it be like that. So that is what is told about. Okay, so do you know which of these four columns will be more interesting to fill and which the customer will fastly fill. It is what don’t you like is the first quarter which a customer will be filling in a very quick manner. It is the psychology if you ask anybody to tell – tell five things good about you, they will think and say if they ask tell five things bad about it then you will quickly say so, you should be very clear you can have negative comments also more in the testing phase. As a designer please record it don’t get disappointed. So if you get disappointed you are missing out information. So you will try to fill all the four quarter’s and then try to analyze what is this customer fields which is part of the testing phase. So we have now gone through all the five stages of design thinking and this week will really would have been a hectic week because we have discussed all the five stages of design thinking.

So I would suggest if you could do a small exercise for yourself and you should have walked through all the stages then you will start understanding how each stage is easy or difficult. When you finish the testing phase keep in mind that might lead you to redefining or redoing the empathy study.

Thank you very much

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Design Thinking for Agricultural Implements Copyright © 2020 by Professor J Ramkumar and Dr Amandeep Singh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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