Prototype & Test

Problem Statement:

How to equip students to adjust and excel

better for the workforce

Selected Ideas:

2 prototypes were created for the problem

statement. These prototypes evolved around

creating awareness among the students with practical career

tips through their daily lives on campus.

Prototype 1: Re-design a vending machine with different drink labels based on the job students are interested in. The dispensed drink will contain a career tip of the day wrapped on it. It will also contain a QR code for student to access a website or video to know more about the career tip on the drink.

QR Code linking to website for career tips / videos

CAREER TIPS

Career tips label on the drink

“Get prepared for your first day of work”

CAREER TIP OF THE DAY

“Ge

t p

rep

are

d f

or

yo

ur

firs

t d

ay

of

wo

rk”

CA

RE

ER

TIP

OF

TH

E D

AY

• ‘Re-dressing’ of the vending machine caught the user’s attention.

• The different career tip for different can drink appealed to user.

• Get students to complete a career training video online. Upon completion, the students will be issued a barcode for them to obtain a free drink at the vending machine with another career tip. Using reward to motivate them.

• Will be useful if the career tips from the can drink can be peeled off and stick on elsewhere for recycling purpose since the cans will most likely be discarded after drinking.

• How about students who are not interested in getting drink from the vending machines? They may not be accessing the machines.

• This may not be the most impactful as not all the students will be reached.

• How to motivate more students to come forward to purchase the drinks to get free career tip.

• User may use the vending machine once only and may get only 1 useful tip, which may not be sufficient. Need to find a way to lead them to more resources to sustain their interest.

Prototype 2: A series of Career Tip Decals to be located at high traffic areas within the campus (e.g. Study tables in the library, Canteen table) to provide useful quick info/tips to help student adjust better for the workforce. There will be a QR code on the decal where students will be directed to an online video portal to view more about the tips.

• Quick & bite-size info - user found it easy to remember the key tips from the decal.

• User also found it easily accessible since it is in high traffic locations such as library & canteen

• Tips is found in the canteen – pretty unusual for career tips to be located, thus it caught the user’s attention

• QR code is not very obvious, thus it not prompt user to scan the code using the mobile phone.

• Access to the online video is slow after scanning the QR code, thus affecting the user experience.

• The decal worked better in the library than in the canteen as user then to focus more on eating than exploring the tips on the decals.

• Would be better if the useful tips can be stored in the mobile phone for future reference.

• Student without QR code on their mobile phone may not find this convenient to use, thus may miss out many more information which cannot be found on the decals.

Reflection:

What you learned by testing your prototypesThere seem to be gaps between the assumptions made in designing the prototypes with the reality check on the ground. For instance, I thought user might find the vending machine idea useful but not all will buy their drinks from vending machines. As a result, it has a reduced impact since I would have missed out some of the students.

Prototyping has helped me to fail earlier and learnt quicker to see from the user’s perspective even in designing the prototypes. I found this process very insightful and helped me to challenge my own assumptions more. What I thought would work actually might not worked very well on the ground. Very humbling experience I must say but also enriching and motivating as it keeps me wanting to work till I found the right solution to the problem I identified.

What you would do next if you were to continue working on the project.I would continue to work on the feedback I gathered from the user and relook at the list of ideas generated earlier. I might reselect a different set of solution, incorporating the feedback from the users and work on an improved prototype before I go out to seek feedback for the 2nd time, 3rd time, etc till I get it right from the user’s perspective.