Portfolio: Interactive & Transactional Systems

Ideation Session to Identify Problems and Solutions with a New Remote Control Device

...and Discovering Consumers’ ideas about an ideal product

• Definition of Ideation & Brainstorming

• Brainstorming and ideation are commonly used names for a set of processes which companies use to generate creative ideas for new products, services, or process improvements.

• Generally a group process
• Dozens of variations on how to generate ideas

• The ‘Universal’ Rules of Ideation

• Quantity is paramount
  • More is better – generate as many ideas as possible in the allotted time.
• Out-of-the-box’ thinking is encouraged.
  • Pragmatic concerns are not appropriate in the idea-generation phase (being ‘out-of-the- box’ is encouraged)
  • Criticism is forbidden during idea generation!
• ‘Piggy-Backing’ is OK
  • Participants are encouraged to build on other participant’s ideas (often called ‘piggybacking’).
• No discussion of ideas (AT ALL) until there are no more ideas
  • Discussion of the merit of ideas during idea generation slows things down to the point of frustration for everyone, including the Facilitators.
• Capture all of the ideas in some manner
  • Various methods are employed.
  • The demo shows how ideas are captured in ‘mind-maps’.

• The Remote Control Device

Click on the thumbnail image for a full-size view.

 

• 5 Top-Priority Problems

Click on the video window below to see the beginnings of a mind map.

Click on the mind-map thumbnails below to see full-size views

• Problems: Battery Related

 

• Remotes often have no power, even with fresh batteries
  • Batteries often not 'seated' correctly
  • Batteries easily 'unseated' when unit is jostled on dropped
• When a unit is dropped hard, the battery door comes off
  • This is a general durability problem
  • Result: Batteries often fall out
  • Customers often put the batteries in backwards (e.g. children)

 

• Solution Ideas: Battery-Related

• Keeping batteries seated
  • Fill space between the batteries and the battery door with a shock-absorbing material
• Keeping the battery door from coming off easily when dropped
  • Too much 'play' in battery door latch
  • Filling space between batteries and door will decrease 'play' in the latch

 

• Problems: Button-Related
  • Hard to find the button you want
  • Poor Grouping
    • Buttons not grouped into intuitive categories
  • Too Many Buttons
    • Seems to have too many buttons (more than needed for the typical use scenario)
  • Buttons are too small
  • Abbreviations
    • Labels are also small and often abbreviated (Users don't understand the abbreviations)
  • Buttons are too close together
    • A real problem for Users with larger hands

 

• Solution Ideas: Button-Related

• Logical Groupings
  • User study to group buttons more logically
  • Use color coding where it would help
• Increase size of buttons
• Increase distance between buttons
• Distribute buttons between back and front of the remote
• Reduce number of functions
• 'Virtual' Buttons (touch screen) approach

 

• Problems: Mysterious (Just Doesn't Work Sometimes!)

• Does not work in many offices
• Sometimes, just plain doesn't work regardless of location (even when other problems are not present)

 

• Solution Ideas: Mysterious Problems

• May not work in office due to florescent lighting (same # of cycles as IR pulse)
  • Change IR pulse to something other than 60 hz
• Adopt RF rather than IR approach
  • Will require an RF to IR converter on the set-top box
• Maybe Installation Technicians are not setting up the remote codes
  • This should be researched in 'ride-along' with Installers study

 

• Typing Text: Problems & Solutions

• Problems
  • Almost impossible to enter text using chording technique

• Typing Text: Solution Ideas

• T9 chording algorithm (used on phones and PDAs)
• Mini-keyboard on back of remote
• 'Roll-up' keyboard
• Voice recognition

• Aiming: Problems & Solutions

 

• Problems
  • Has to be aimed 'just right' in order to work
• Solution Ideas
  • Change shape of IR dispersion pattern (the 'cone' shape)
  • Use RF instead of IR

 

• The Whole Mindmap With all the details

 

• Ranking and Sorting Solution Ideas

• Some Ideas are Better Than Others
  • There are many ways to classify and rank solution ideas.
  • Among the many methods is an online prioritizing exercise...see the video clip below.

SunTrust Small Business Banking

The parent firm, which I own, Wiederholt & Rickert Partners, LLC (DBA WARP3Insights), was engaged by the Small Business Banking Group at SunTrust to study how to fix what they saw as problems with the S1's Small Business Banking product as it existed at the time. Brad Wiederhold, Dr. Jesse Zolna (now with Sachs Research in NYC) and Dr. Don Rickert conducted a multifaceted study involving small business owners in order to discover actionable insights into how the product should be modified to meet SunTrust's (and its customers') needs. The goals of the engagement can be summarized as:

1. Determine which aspects of the new release of Business Banking (from S1) were useful, usable and desirable (i.e. had value and appeal)
2. Document aspects of the system that fell short on these essential criteria
3. Provide actionable insights to drive design customization or even re-design of the product by the vendor (note: this was the actual result, as unbelievable as it may seem!)

•

The main facets of the study were:

• Discovery ('Ethnography Lite')

• Participants were small business owners recruited from among early adopters of the product
  • Paid $100 for from half to a whole day (note: the participants worked during our presence...that was the idea.)
  • Few participants allowed electronic recording of any kind (typical when money is involved)
  • One WARP3 Insights Researcher conducted depth interviews when potential insights appeared likely
  • One WARP3 Insights Researcher took careful notes
    • Particularly important given the lack of video or audio recordings
  • One SunTrust Staff Member observed

• Distillation of Observations 

• A painstaking process involving ideation among the researchers and the client (SunTrust) and represented as mind maps (big scenario diagrams) for each participant, which included context, issues, problems, etc.

• A consolidation of themes applying all participants into a single mind map (a kind  of   meta-scenario--a REALLY big scenario diagram) 

• Persona and Scenario Creation

• These begin to emerge during the observation distillation process.
• WARP3 Insights created Persona descriptions of each type small business owner identified during the observation phase and typical scenarios having to do with online banking usage

• Usability Review

• Detailed review involving 23 areas of usability using proprietary checklists of several hundred items

• Graphical Prototyping of Suggested Improvements, covering usefulness, usability and appeal issues

• A Lengthy 'Highlights' Video

• Contained re-enactments by the researchers of observed issues
• Re-enactments were necessary due to the absence of participant video

• Report in the form of a PowerPoint Presentation
  • About 100 issues and potential solutions were identified.

• Result: Apparently, most of the recommendations were ultimately implemented based on the state of the current version of Small Business Banking.

• Problem: The client shared materials with the Small Business Banking vendor (S1), which they were NOT supposed to share, resulting an uncomfortable future relationship between WARP3Insights and S1 (but S1 did make the necessary changes in the product!)

• This is mentioned a lesson to others. The lesson is to be careful what you give to a client.
• Assume that anything you give to the client will be used in whatever manner the client chooses, regardless of prior agreements.