Feedback

Frances Davis; Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford

7 Feedback

Frances Davis and Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford

Gather Feedback and Unpack It

Gathering feedback from users is a fundamental part of a human-centered design approach. Unpacking feedback allows you to refine your solution and also to refine your understanding of the people for whom you are designing.

Ask for feedback

Let the user (or team member) use the prototype. Give them context so they understand how to use it but don’t go into detail explaining your thought process. The more you explain your reasoning the less you will understand the user’s interpretation, and how they think about the device. Use a deliberate procedure when you allow other to interact with your prototype. Actively observe. Watch how they use (and misuse!) what you have given them. Then have them talk through their experience and follow up with any questions you have.

Selling your idea is the worst thing you can do when trying to gain feedback, but we naturally do it in subtle ways. We like to explain our reasoning and make things coherent for people — but doing so prevents understanding the user’s interpretation, and, in turn, the way they think.

Capture the feedback

To capture feedback when sharing a prototype use a feedback grid. The feedback grid helps you be systematic about feedback, and more intentional about capturing thoughts in the four different areas (Amplify, Change, Questions, Ideas). Divide a sheet of paper into four quadrants.

In the upper left hand quadrant, draw a plus sign, to capture positive feedback and aspects of the design that users feel need to be more pronounced.
In the upper right hand quadrant, draw a triangle, to note elements are not working and need to be changed or removed. You should also capture features that users report are missing.
In the lower left hand quadrant, draw a question mark. In this section you should capture, questions users had about the device (even if you were able to answer them). This allows you to see what aspects of the design were unclear to the user.
In the final quadrant, draw a light bulb and capture any ideas you or the users came up with that you want to consider for updating the design.

Do it yourself …

Use this blank feedback grid to capture feedback on a a prototype.

Unpack the feedback

Using the feedback grid is also helpful for unpacking the feedback that you received. Depending on where your are in the process of iterative prototyping, your team could be unpacking the feedback on multiple prototypes or just a single prototype. When unpacking the feed back start by comparing and contrasting the information on the top half of the page. Then move on to the information on the bottom half of the page.

Learn to integrate feedback into your project, while retaining creative license.

What features were well received? What features are missing? What features should/could be removed? How does this impact the overall functionality of the proposed device?
Use the information gathered to set (or refine) the design criteria for your project. Check the new ideas generated from feedback.
Think about how the feedback altered what you were thinking of building for your final prototype.
Use the questions and ideas generate to re-evaluate your perspective on the design project. What did you miss or overlook in framing the problem?

License

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Introduction to Engineering Design Copyright © by Frances Davis and Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.