3D Doodle Fidget: Designing a Better Welcome Gift
Prime Digital Academy is an intensive program that trains participants to be literate in full-stack programming, learning languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, React, and Node.js. I was given the opportunity to design a new welcome gift for students that would help foster a healthy community at Prime and encourage a greater sense of connection.
Role
UX Researcher - Product Engineer
Tools
Figma, Keynote, Notion
Methods
Ethnographic Observation, Heuristic Analysis, Concept Design, Think-aloud Protocol, and Desirability Analysis
Defining the Problem
Don’t expect a gift to replace someone’s existing daily items
Prime Digital Academy had gotten feedback from their students that the previous welcome gift, a water bottle, was impersonal and unusable. But why was this the case? To gain more insight into the problem, I conducted a heuristic analysis and found the gift lacking in quality materials and it also had a distinct visual style that might not be accepted by everyone. I realized that giving students an item that asks them to replace a personal and daily object with a new one can result in the gift being thrown away or used but disliked and thus not ideal. Instead, I wanted to create something that allowed the user to engage with it as much they wanted without it attempting to replace an already used item.
Weak plastic construction of lock
Distinct visual styling
To see the full heuristic analysis, click here
Understanding The User
Prime students value frequent breaks and note-taking
To learn more about full-stack students, I conducted ethnographic observations, studying the students’ work environments, the artifacts they own, and the activities they engage in.
I noticed two things:
Many students had artifacts that facilitated mental breaks and creative expression.
83% of students took notes in some kind of physical medium
Ideation and Evaluation
An idea starts to take form..
Design Concept Sketch
After discovering what was wrong with the previous gift and finding out how students work, I thought of an idea that would combine the mental break of a fidget toy with the note-taking aspect of a notebook or whiteboard. The design featured a sphere that had a whiteboard surface allowing you to draw on it with dry erase markers, held by 3 rotating wheels that would let you rotate the sphere freely. My intention with it was that students could use it as an interactive tactile diversion, a place to doodle and express their creativity and also a surface to take notes in a unique way and re-discover later.
Initial concept design with goal statement, product sketch, and aesthetic inspiration
Low-fidelity Physical Prototype
Next, I created a low-fidelity physical prototype that communicated the vision of the gift. It ended up accomplishing this well, but the prototyping process was also illuminating. I realized that my grasp of physics was a little more tenuous than I thought! The wheels to rotate the orb did not work as I had intended and if this were to be made into a real product, they would need to be changed into bearings that could spin freely in any direction.
Evaluative Interview
To get a sense of how it would appeal to students and how they might use it, I conducted interviews using a few different methods to evaluate the design. First, I used a “How Might We?” question that inquired as to how they would instinctively think to use the design without any specific guidance. At first, they didn’t understand what the object was or how to use it. However, when the final materials and available actions were explained (whiteboard sphere, being able to rotate), they had lots of ideas of how they might interact with it. Here’s a collection of what they came up with:
“Write something motivating or fun, or write down how I’m feeling”
“Draw basketball lines, or draw a globe if I got good at it.”
“You could draw faces on different sides and make it be a mood board”
“I would want a way to affix the marker so that it’s always drawing.”
“You could also have multiple spheres for different purposes.”
“It looks fun to spin around”
After that, I asked them to complete a Desirability Analysis exercise that included picking 3-5 adjectives that aligned with their perception of the design out of an unsorted list of around 60 to choose from.
During this exercise, the interviewees made their opinions clear, repeatedly choosing adjectives like creative, entertaining, engaging, fun, and satisfying. Their overall feelings were overwhelmingly positive and it was obvious that were interested in giving it a try. On the other hand, the words that they didn’t chose also gave me valuable information. None of the students chose adjectives like useful, effective, or helpful which solidified the product as a good way to disconnect and have some fun rather than a tool to take notes or help with problem-solving. Because I could see this trend during the interviews, I also asked them directly if this was the case and they confirmed my thoughts. Fortunately, this didn’t require any fundamental change in design, but knowing how the product would be approached could inform decisions and feature additions later on in the development process.
Final Solution
3D Doodle Fidget
With all these insights and data points collected, I felt confident that the design would be well-received among full-stack students and contribute positively to a healthy community and consistent productivity for a few reasons.
It gives students a chance to take mental breaks which, as we’ve learned promotes good health and productivity. It’s good for students, which is good for Prime.
It doesn’t ask the user to give up a personal, daily object in favor of the new version of it. The design allows the student to decide how much they want to engage with it.
The design is simple enough to be customizable. People love to make things their own and there’s tons of ways that you can do that; using different spheres, swapping spheres with other students, displaying your drawings as a conversation starter, it’s totally up to you!
What I Learned
Emergent Behavior
When creating a design that is unique or combines different elements into a singular package, people may end up deciding to use it in a different way than intended. If we only pursued our original ideas, we would never find exciting new solutions to our problems or goals. The emergent behaviors that I got to see unfold were invigorating for me and gave me motivation to continue.
It Helps to Ask for Help
During the physical prototyping, I had a moment of abrupt clarity where I realized that the way I had thought the sphere would rotate didn’t work at all and had to be changed. It’s important be aware of your strengths and weaknesses so that when you’re engaging in a space that is a weakness, you can ask for help to see if there are any gaps in your understanding. If I had asked someone I knew who had experience with mechanical engineering, I could’ve avoided this setback altogether and made something that worked in the first go.