During Fall 2019, OmniVis sponsored a project for our Experience Studio at Purdue University. We worked with their Head of Operations Lynne Cheng and later, the CEO Katherine Clayton throughout the whole semester.
OmniVis is a technology startup based in California. They developed a device that allows people from developing countries to test Cholera, a bacteria found inside their drinking water. The device is connected to an iPhone app with instructions and other helpful functions.
My role and contributions:
Lead the design team to do design tasks and keep track on progress
First and secondary research, usability testing, ideation (focus on manual), prototyping and style guide creation
OmniVis is looking for an image-oriented half-page instruction sheet that individuals can take with them as they collect and test the water. Although the field workers would have past training completed before using the device, the half sheet would act as a refresher that is universally understood and easy to interpret. Because the field workers will come from a variety of cultures and languages around the world, our main focus is learning about colors and graphics that can tell a story with the least amount of words.
Countries that OmniVis is currently focusing on: Bangladesh, Yemen, Haiti, Kenya
Before we dig into the manual itself, we researched about icons and colors for their usage in different cultural backgrounds. We would like to make sure our solution will be recognizable by the wide range of users. Some takeaways from these secondary research are:
1. When designing icons, always be asking “Is it recognizable?” People should always be able to tell what the icon is representing.
2. We discovered the list of "Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals" (aka traffic signs) that are agreed upon to be universal in both their design and meaning.
3. Always be thinking about what the metaphor of the icon is. Every icon is a metaphor, it is something used to represent something else.
After we have these rules in mind, we started to look at existing manuals. We picked IKEA, a global furniture company; LEGO, a global toy manufacturer; and a couple of smaller companies that have visual manuals for their products.
From these manuals, we summarized the similarities amongst their designs that my team used as inspiration:
1. List the required materials at the beginning of each step. This helps users to get prepared before they start the action.
2. Use universally recognizable numbers for the order of the steps.
3. Use arrows instead of words to indicate the exact location for individual components.
To understand what the user journey looks like from start to finish using the device so that we can be able to create an experience map from insights to help generate empathy for the users and identify holes in the detection process to inform the design of the manual and half sheet.
Members of our team went through a mock training session with one of the sponsor team members. The session was followed up by a series of questions pertaining to where the instructions were lacking and what steps needed more clarification. Our team took detailed notes on all of the steps and emphasized where icons and troubleshooting could be present.
We created an experience map after meeting with all the OmniVis members who were involved in the product production. We created this experience map based on information and feedback from our sponsors.
We had four sections in the map. Stages section addressed the different steps through the whole process, from getting started to finishing everything. Materials gave the information on what devices and materials will be used during what part of the journey. Steps were very detailed step by step instructions which includes everything that may happen during the process.
We did sketching through out the design process. From the different versions of sketches we slowly landed to the idea of our final design. We used Figma to digitalize our sketches.
Manual
Half Sheet
Once we learned that our testing in Bangladesh was unable to be completed by our sponsor, we needed a way to test the icons we used in our half page and manual. We wanted to look at how the symbols we used were understood by other countries and cultures. This would help complement the feedback we got from our sponsor. In order to do this, we created a reddit survey. Below is a sample question.
We received about 50 responses came from 9 countries. All countries of focuses were able to participate in the survey. Besides the gloves and tape icon, all the rest of our icons were understood properly by all responses except a few outliers. This was extremely reassuring because the demographics of our survey were from our countries of focus. It was also very valuable because we identified areas of improvement.
We also would like to test the steps for the instructions. In order to do so, we invited people who has 0 knowledge and experience of the product to participate in "teach-back testing".
Participants will read through the manual and instruction sheet. Then, they will need to teach a team member how to use the product. From this step we would like to know which steps are too confusing to understand, or if there were any missing steps or materials.
After we done the testing, we had a list of things we can improve to polish the final solution. These included adding more steps and replacing confusing icons. We went for another round of ideation and finally came to the final version of the solution.
A detailed manual that includes all the information from start to finish. Below are some pages contain the key functions that we'd like to highlight.
Device overview: introduce all the materials that will be used during the water testing session. Detailed diagram showing all parts of the device.
Instructions: Step-by-step tutorial includes all the possible steps. Visual aids right next to each step to make it extra clear.
Mobile app navigation: Another big part of the testing is happened in the app. Detailed steps that matches the steps between app and device which make the process easy to follow.
Troubleshooting: contains all the known problems that may occur during the process. Each problem has a solution that is recommended by the sponsor.
This is a two-sided instruction half-sheet. Field workers can carry this mini instruction with them when they don't have access to the manual. This sheet is icon based with very few word instructions.
Style Guide
This is the first time that I worked on a project which requires a physical deliverable. It's a brand new experience but we also faced a lot of challenges: a very tight timeline, the sudden change inside the sponsor company (the member who was doing contact quit her job)... These unexpected events allowed us to practice the ability to deal with things outside the project.
When we left the classroom and went into the workforce, anything could happen. Dealing with problems and finishing work at the same time is an important skill that everyone should prepare.
I like the project itself a lot, and I also appreciate the chance of experiencing problems.
Team OmniVis, Fall 2019