Sketch Model
Interview at campinteractive Organization
Market Research
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This blog provides a forum for students, instructors and others to share information and ideas about the Spring Thesis Program at Parsons the New School for Design in New York City.
1 comment:
Hi Chika,
You have done so much great work here! Congratulations on having an excellent project idea, and for beginning to develop it thoroughly. While the product you propose is very simple and low (seemingly) tech, it is actually a very sophisticated response to your analysis of a real market opportunity. Your thought process in reaching the conclusions that are driving your design is really clear and, in my opinion, correct: urban camping is great idea, and given the right approach to marketing and promoting your product, it could be a big seller. The world may be entering a new period of diminished expectations for luxury life-styles, and backyard vacations (also known as "staycations") may be here to stay. But this should be understood as an opportunity for new thinking and new businesses, instead of as a completely negative development.
Now that we both agree that your idea is great, you must really work to understand how users will interact with it, how it can be made to withstand the abuse that kids will give it, and how you can make it cheap enough to be profitable for a manufacturer to produce, distribute and promote. This is where user testing comes in. You can design experiments to help improve your knowledge about all of these areas. I would like you propose three experiments that you believe could be effective and provide valid and meaningful data. For example: you could return to the group of 13 year olds who you interviewed last semester and show them the prototype and ask them to figure out how to use it without telling them what it is. See if they can guess the purpose, then ask them to select an object that they would like to use as the first item in their "shadow diary". Just by looking at the things they choose, you can learn a lot.
Another experiment might simply involve you trying out 50 different materials with the sun paper to find out how they come out. Some materials, like leaves and flowers, will let some light pass through, so they make create interesting patterns. You will need to create a user manual for the product, so you need to know what materials to recommend that they use.
OK, please let me know if you are unclear about this, and we can meet next week to talk in person.
steven
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