A UX Researcher.
Product Development X Cross-Functionality
Pebble: A toy that incentivices working adults over the age of 40 to inculcate the habit of going outdoors.
Product Design, UX Research, Market Research, Hardware Engineering, Brand and Marketing Strategy, Business Analytics, UI Design
Executive Summary
Just stopping by? Here's the TL:DR version.
Problem Domain
This product was designed as part of the Integrated Product Development (IPD) course. The challenge was to design and develop a MVP that enable older adults to go outside and be well.
Development Process
An agile product development process was used that ranged from rapid ideation, rapid prototyping, and rapid testing. These were done in forms of sprints and test phases. The full project was completed in a span of 4 months. Starting from scratch to building and selling an MVP was done collaboratively by a cross-functional team of 5 members i.e. Team Serenity.
Outcomes
The 'Perfect Pebble' was designed, built, marketed and eventually sold at the IPD Trade Show. Each team was provided a seed fund of $600 for this project. The perfect pebble was the finalist in the IPD Trade Show 2023, and the winner in the 'Creativity and Innovation' segment.
Impact
As the UX Research and Design Lead, I collaborated on every segment of the product development cycle. With the lead 'Converger' of the team, I provided over 70 tangible ideas and conducted over 10 prototyping sprints, 7 ideation workshops, and over 20 usability testing sessions with ~10 participants in each test session.
There's so much more, Check out the full case study below:
Process Overview
Breaking down the Brief
In order to design any product, it was important to clearly establish its requirements. The precursor for that was to clearly break down the brief. We had to find answers to the following questions for this:
What are we designing?
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Who are we designing for?
Why are we designing?
What does our product need to do?
If we were able to extract sufficient information which would answer the aforementioned questions from the brief, the design route ahead would be much easier. Scrutinizing the challenge closely gave us answers to some of these questions, and left some unanswered. Moreover, some of the keywords mentioned in the brief were passive and needed research support to precisely decode their meaning.
The highlighted keywords were ambiguous. To elaborate, what does it mean to "empower" someone? Or, how does the user "engage" with nature? Is something as simple as doing something/anything outdoors classified as engaging with nature?
We proceeded with conducting a series of semi-structured interviews to uncover the user pain points, needs, wants and motivations.
Following this a set of semi-structured interviews were conducted of 25 adults over 40. With 11 female interviewees, and 14 male interviewees. All interviewees were between the age of 40 and 60 and were classified as 'working adults'. The following image is an affinity wall that used to decode the interviews and qualitatively assign themes to the quotes.
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P.S. I know the contents of this affinity wall cannot be read, this image is only a representation of the extensive qualitative coding that was conducted during the research phase.
To corroborate our understanding from the affinity maps, and to accurately describe the 'ambiguous' keywords from the brief, a round of empathy mapping was conducted as well.
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P.S. I know the contents of this empathy map cannot be read, this image is only a representation of the extensive qualitative coding that was conducted during the research phase.
Left: Xiaokun Qian (Project manager), Right: Abby Risse (Visual Designer)
Insights and Findings
Insight 1:
Limited availability for outdoor activities during weekdays due to work, house chores, and children.
Insight 2:
Seeking to maintain good health but favouring less strenuous activities due to physical limitations
Insight 2:
Still love playing but prefer friends, fun, and playful spirits over competition.
Based on the insights above we were able to restructure the given brief into a new brief with precise and active words. The brief being "How might we motivate working adults between the age of 40 to 60 to easily engage in outdoor activities."
Based off of user personas we devised an example of how a working day's journey would look like of our user.
Structured Ideation + Convergence
Once we had a good perspective on the context and scope of the problem statement. A set of rapid ideation workshops were put in place. This was the inception of the pre-funnel development phase which included diverging and converging ideas. The process was adapted from the report by Newell Brands 2018 Innovation Now Report.
Echoing to the user journey, we can clearly see that John's day was extremely tiring and full 0f work, facilitating the children's activities and some house duties. Sometimes, he just wanted a nice coffee or a short break to go stroll outside, however, he is not motivated enough to do so by himself.
He had very little time for himself which was unused due to lack of motivation.
The problem was clearly outlines, and we set to conduct literature reviews and secondary research to find potential solutions for this. A glaring solution that we came across was "Gamification". As discussed by several research documents and publications, Gamification proves highly effective in motivating middle aged and older adults to engage in health initiatives. Hence, another focussed version of the brief was created:
How might we reduce time-commitment and effort required to play outdoor games for working adults between the age of 40-60 years old?
With this began the design sprint process, kicking into the agile process. The next section covers the ideas created during these sprints along with the low and mid fidelity prototyping done by the team.
Sprint - Test - Repeat
The following images are some of the selected concepts that were chosen based of intuitive ideation from the previous pool of more than 50 different ideas from the initial sprints.
The first round of concept testing gave us our finalists. Moreover, it also shed light on the users perceptions about the products. The initial tests were deployed using concept cards remotely through a google form. The main question that the users were asked was
"How likely are you to buy this product?"
The users were asked to rate their responses on a Likert scale ranging from 1 - 5, where 1 was not likely at all or "would never buy this product", and 5 being extremely likely or "would definitely buy this product." The results were extremely important to help us converge into 2 ideas. The following image is an collapsed view of the test results from the first round of concept card testing:
Despite certain ideas garnering more attention, it was important to consider factors regarding product novelty, production feasibility, and business viability, especially since we were under a tight budget and stringent timeframe. The two selected ideas were "the perfect pebble" and "anywhere bowling".
Next, we kickstarted the process of mid-fidelity prototyping and frugal testing.
A table full of frugal prototypes for the pebble idea. To be followed by testing using various materials and technological modifications.
Prototyping quickly and moving into testing as quickly too. We tested these product performances with over 20 different users. Trying to uncover their likes and dislikes, we also re-iterated our designs. We tested with different materials and honed into the root cause os a participant's preference.
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Participants testing mid-fidelity (3D printed) prototypes of both the selected concepts | Note* Due consent was taken from participants to publish their images.
We prototyped quickly and moved into testing as quickly too. We tested product performances with over 20 different users. Trying to uncover their likes and dislikes, we also re-iterated our designs. We tested with different materials and honed into the root cause os a participant's preference.
it was evident from these testing rounds that the "Perfect Pebble" concept was garnering more attention. However, to corroborate our findings from the qualitative user testing, we also conducted a round of concept card testing as well, this was done to solidify our claims quantitatively as well.
"My older sister and I used to skip rocks all the time when we were young, she would love this!"
"My colleagues take smoke breaks in office all the time, this seems like a fun alternative for me!"
Into the Pebble-Development Funnel
Inspiration board | Pebble
The first phase of the development funnel was to understand find answers to the following questions.
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Are there any other similar products in the market? If so, what do they do and how do they work?
How does the pebble skip on water? How can we recreate the same effect on all surfaces i.e. land?
Once the pebble is thrown, how does it come back? What is the retrieval mechanism?
Finding these answers required another sprint of rapid competitor research and rapid prototyping that included technological exploration to determine feasibility, production cost and factor of time into consideration.
Firstly, a detailed competitor analysis was done. This included product tinkering and statistical analysis of what competing products were doing. An inspiration board was drawn out and the mechanics of all of these products were being studied closely. The task was to A) find a feasible retrieval mechanism, and B) test appropriate materials that can recreate a skipping effect.
Tinkering with competing products to extract relevant technological resources.
The most feasible design that was ideated had the following elements:
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1. Pebble held in dominant hand.
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2. Pebbles to be 3D printed using a mixed material of hard rubber and hard (PVC) plastic.
3. A notch from the pebble connects to a soft fishing line.
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4. The fishing line is connected to a lightweight hand held fly fishing handle that holds the reel.
5. User throws with dominant hand while the reel is held on the other.
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6. Once, the pebble is thrown, it skips to a distance and can then be reeled back by the player.
Estimated Cost at Production volume: $ 5.17 / unit
Once, all the high fidelity prototype had been created, the last and final round of usability testing was conducted. This was done to test performance, and monitor any stressors.
Tests were conducted in both outdoor paved areas and glossy indoor floors to test the desired 'all-terrain' feature
The Pebble
Introducing Pebble -
a revolution in outdoor fun. Combining the timeless joy of stone skipping with modern technology, Pebble is designed to rejuvenate your outdoor experiences. Perfect for adults seeking a dash of nostalgia and a sprinkle of competition in their leisure time. It's not just a game; it's a return to simpler, yet thrilling moments.
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Left: The ergonomically designed shape to optimise ease of release while throwing | Right: The easy reeling mechanism to quickly retrieve the thrown pebble
Left: The reel handle has been carved out for a easy two-finger hold while reeling the pebble back. | Center: The line is deployed from a strategically placed nozzle that doesn't allow tangles. | Right: The pebble comes in a variety of colors and designs that the user can choose.
The Trade Show
The trade show was a 3 day competition unfolding in two stages namely the virtual (online) trade show, and the in-person trade show. The events were organized by the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. With over 10 teams competing towards the same cause.
The open-to-all setup had visitors, guests, judges, industry investors and entrepreneurs from all sector visit and purchase products using 'trade-show' money. Each guest who voted and made purchases were given a $100 balance that they could choose to spend purchasing products.
Ultimately, whoever made the highest profit won the competition.
Marketing and Branding materials were specifically designed for the same. Moreover, promotional content and advertisements were created to draw a larger user pool and ultimately drive higher purchase numbers.
Posters designed for the trade-show
The in-person trade show was a grand success with a footfall of over 500 voting visitors. The online trade-show was fuelled by a an even larger audience group. A dedicated website was created for this.
In addition to the website, a promotional video was also created to support the marketing impact of our product. The video narrates the thought process behind the concept of pebble skipping. It reflects on the simplicity of rock skipping and shows how despite so much changing since the advent of man, the simplicity and fun that skipping pebbles produces remains the same. We aim to leverage the same nostalgia and feeling of youthfulness to today's older generation. Have a look:
Looking back
In conclusion, this project was an absolute marvel to be a part of. Very rarely does a person get to be part of the entire product development cycle from scratch to an MVP. This project taught me the crucial values of functioning in a cross-functional team, with developers, visual designers, product managers, engineers, and artists.
This project would not have been possible without the most amazing team. A huge shoutout to Team Serenity comprised of: Abby Risse, Visual Designer and Marketing Expert | Xiaokun Qian, Project Manager and Head of Logistics | Violet Xu, Artist and Branding Lead | Peter Fabe, Head of Engineering and Hardware | Anirudh Kundu (me), UX Research and Design Lead
Lastly, a big thank you to the folks who made this entire IPD endeavour happen, Sheldon Davis, Lecturer and Coach, Ross School of Business, and Stephanie Tharp, Professor, Stamps School of Art and Design, University of Michigan.
There's plenty more where that came from. Check out more projects: