Applying human-centered design to Qualcomm's Thinkabit Lab.
Overview
Qualcomm's Thinkabit Lab is a makerspace for Qualcomm employees & family members to tinker with the technology they offer, such as their Arduino boards.
The problem with the space is that it can be quite intimidating for newcomers and even returners who are unsure how to proceed. It was an opportunity to develop a strong understanding of the physical and cognitive space by leading user interviews and conducting ethnographic research.
We were able to improve the user interaction flow within the Lab by designing an informational pamphlet for the onboarding process.
We conducted several interviews with employees & observed individuals throughout their experience. Initial findings made it clear that there was a lack of general information as well as available materials. A lack of provided help lead to frustrated users.
Poor organization of space & limited guidance led to confused users, which led to low retention rate and a lacking experience.
We conducted two competitive analyses and interviews to better understand existing makerspaces. From this we learned about some existing features of similar makerspace environments that generate a beneficial and immersive experience.
Iterations: transitioning from 3-columns to 2-columns
Ideation to Implementation
We developed a pseudo-Agile approach to better streamline our goals. Each time we met at the Thinkabit Lab, the work was distributed in a way that provided equal attention to both research (i.e. interviews, observations) and prototype development. Aside from in-class discussions, we also designated 1-2 times to meet outside to update weekly progress via a GoogleDoc.
While our target audience was predetermined, we still had to find ways to empathize with this group of people. Initial interactions determined a wide range of experience levels among users; better categorization & understanding the specific needs of each of these subgroups would be essential.
There were a lot of first-time users, and a lot of confusion getting started. Our findings were broken down into 5 main categories.
Prototyping
One of the leading ideas was to re-organize the space and put up labels, but that only helped solve 2 of the categories. In the end, we decided to make a pamphlet, as we felt it was the best solution that could address the variety of problem areas.
For the pamphlet we worked to go through several stages of testing. At first, we had a simple version that was created by folding together paper, with post-it notes on each page that included the potential item that would go there. These included a map, table of contents, and list of materials.
Continued interviews with employees helped determine the layout of the pamphlet. Since we planned on having the pamphlet available in the lab as well, we asked people to look at a prototype and observed where they looked first to help further determine ordering of pages.
Our Solution
Getting Started
Driven by concerns users had on how to gauge experience level. A bio for the Lab and its hosts was included, as well as a list of the materials and a map. This was driven our findings of 1) difficulty of navigating the space, and 2) understanding what is available to use.
Description Briefly explains the purpose of the Lab. Users get a sense of the experience before digging deeper. The goal was to provide users, especially first-timers, a sense of comfort wih the vast array of materials provided. A better onboarding process would easily reduce the need for troubleshooting.
Takeaways
Our working product of the pamphlet guide was shared with users & received a number of positive responses, a majority of which approving the easy-to-access information. Targeting the key problem areas of usability allowed us to come up with a feasible solution that utilized ethnographic prinicples of observation and human-centered research.
