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New approaches for conducting utilization studies

Your Contact

Pia

Manager of Research

Special times call for special approaches and methods. How user studies can be conducted without contact or without being present in times of contact restrictions.

Lots of working from home and online meetings are the order of the day. In retail, distance must be maintained and personal contact is reduced to the bare minimum. Nevertheless, it is important to analyze the needs of users through studies. Although the development of new products is slowing down, finding out what the needs of a group of people are or how test subjects react to a new design is still very important for a successful development process. The Allround Team has advocated conducting studies “remotely”. This means that test subjects are not invited to our offices, but can take part in the studies independently without the presence of our test manager at home.

Our development team has been working with virtual reality (VR) for some time and studies have already been carried out with VR glasses. The idea of sending VR glasses to test subjects to show a test scenario with videos of the concepts to be evaluated was quickly developed. The realistic presentation makes it possible to achieve comparable results to real test scenarios. Two challenges were identified in an initial prototype:

  • Test subjects have different levels of familiarity with VR glasses and different levels of experience in using this new technology.
    The system must therefore be easy to design and operate.
  • Test subjects go through a simulation using the VR glasses, which also prompts them to answer questions or evaluate individual aspects. The answers must now be recorded in some way. This task is normally performed by the test supervisor present.
    The system requires a recording function for later transcription of the test subjects’ answers.

These challenges were overcome with competence and expertise in another prototype. With this technology, it is now possible to conduct studies remotely. This has several advantages at the same time: The test subject can take their time at home and a possible risk of infection is minimized. The VR technology also allows the test subject to immerse themselves in the simulation at home. In addition, operating the goggles is a new challenge for some test subjects, but many people have a keen interest in new technologies.

Thanks to iterative development, new ideas and approaches can be implemented quickly and day-to-day business can continue even with restrictions.

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