M2.1 Project at ID
The Social Coaster
In this project, I focussed on social encounters for office workers working remotely. This project was during COVID-19, so I had to get creative with an online exploratory probe for the first user test. This showed me how to be creative with user research methods and valuable input in difficult situations. One of my main activities within this project was prototyping. I focused a lot on Technology & Realization, and Math, Data & Computing by making three communication coasters. I had never made a prototype before that could communicate over Wi-Fi. It was a very steep learning curve and took a lot of my time. However, I took the opportunity within this last ‘normal’ project to not play it safe but to challenge myself. I then validated the last iteration of the social coasters during an online semi-structured focus group and analyzed the data with a thematic analysis. This user research method I have used more often throughout my master’s, and it has become a valuable method to me as it can create rich insights when testing in context is not possible.
