#usercentered

For everything that I post or write on the internet, I have one golden rule: don't be negative. Or, when you want to be negative... At least say something how to improve that. So here is the thing that I have on my mind for the last few days. 

As we all might have noticed: Apple introduced us to some cool new stuff. A watch, the iPhone 6, new iOS software. It sounds all very great for Apple fans - and believe me, I'm most of the time one of them too. But this time I have to confess something. I don't have any experience with the watch, of the new iPhone - honestly, I don't even know too much about it. But I am using the new iOS for the last few days. And I'm not too big of a fan of it. 

My phone seems to be more slow, I can not slide notifications up so I won't see them anymore (I have to click on them, or they are stuck in the screen), my settings crashes at least once when I try to open them, and so on. And then there is the whole 'bend-gate' with the new iPhone 6. 

So, what I am wondering... Is Apple doing anything with usertesting? I can not imagine that you will not find these things if you would give a few users one of the new iPhones, or new software, so they can test it for let's say... a week? And that is what I would do. 

Give a few (maybe even 5 might be enough, although I would use more participants when it comes to such a big brand) users a new iPhone, iWatch, or the new software, and let them use it like they would normally use their phone or watch. Let them write down their findings, their opinions and other stuff they find out. Measure how often different apps crash, how long your battery holds, and other things that are interesting for phone users. See how easy a phone can bend, or how the signal is working.

If you would even do this for a week, I truly believe that they will find out most of the failures that are in the phones right now. If Apple would do it for more then a week, maybe some other failures can be found as well. Wouldn't this be a great thing for the brand itself as well? Now they get so much negative publicity, and jokes about the failures in the new published stuff... Wouldn't it be great to go back to the days where everyone was really happy when new stuff got introduced? 

CKS is India’s leading research, design and innovation consulting firm that employs user-centered research and design methodologies to help organizations create better products, services and systems. 

CKS has worked in an array of sectors including Healthcare, Telecom, Financial Services, Home Décor and Appliances, Aviation, and Automobile Design.

Over the last ten years, CKS has worked with various partners and multinational firms like Gates Foundation, Nokia, Asian Paints and others across different emerging economies worldwide including India, South Africa, China, Nigeria, Philippines, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

CKS regularly organizes Design Public that enables people to share information and insights with one another on topics related to Design, Innovation, Governance, Planning, Public Interest and so on.

The last week I've been working so hard, that I didn't even have time to write a blog. Or no, I did have time to write a blog. I just did not make time to write one. And I just did not know where to write about. The only thing I was doing was sketching. Thinking how the app should work. How the functions should be. I thought I didn't do anything special. But now I think of what I did, I asked user feedback all the time. About small things, about what the users want, how they think about things. But only in a small way: through a chat on facebook, face to face, sometimes even via a text. Every small decisions I was not sure about, I asked people. I checked other apps. I compared things. I thought about everything very careful. It is a great process to go through like this. Especially when you go to the next step: user testing. 

For the user test, I showed my sketches to users and asked them what they thought what kind of app it was. I did this, in order to check the concept. After this, I asked if they understood the screens and how they thought it works. What happened, everyone was enthusiastic, understood and liked the idea. Which is really nice to hear after so much work! There are some minor things I have to adjust now, but I did not really analyze the results yet, so that will come later. 

The last few days I am really trying to find a subject for the graduation project. I wanted to let loose, to explore boundaries, to do something totally different. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. Maybe that is why it was (and is) so hard to find that one amazing idea where I want to settle and work with for the upcoming five months. 

After writing and thinking a lot, I found that there was one subject that I came back to every time: online relationships. Or how to build one. Or to connect with people. Something like that. So, the main idea I have right now is to conduct a research about how users online relate to something of someone. I can check previous research and already existing apps: what does the research say and how did these apps do it? Does it match? Have the apps what the research says is necessary? Or something like that. 

At the same time, I have to design something myself. Although I am not really sure what exactly, I want to do something with these relationships as well. But, for what kind of relationships I want to design is a complete different question. Romantic? Friendship? Or maybe even a customer relationship? The assignment is to design something rarely new or to redesign something that already exists. While I am writing this, I can not stop thinking of the app 'Party with a local'. The goal is that if you are new in a city, you can go party with someone who is a local there. However, the problem is that I really don't get how this app is supposed to work :). 

So, in the meantime it is a few months later and I haven't wrote any school related blogpost ever again. It is time to change that. It is time to graduate. 

My graduation exist out of two different parts: a design project and a dissertation. In the design project, there are different things I have to do. First of all, design something of course. But besides that, there has to be a plan on how to proceed, a written design report and an optional choice that describes the project (eg. a website, poster or video). When I am writing this, it seems like a lot. But the best way to keep in mind what I am doing (and more, what I have done) is for me to blog about it. So that is what I am going to do. I want to blog about different phases, about what I am doing, thinking and probably as well about my mistakes. I want to keep track of everything. Maybe I even want to blog about interesting things I find on the web. I don't know exactly yet, but I know that I want to blog very active :).