The Slideshow
To show our three weeks worth of work, we presented a 27-slide PowerPoint presentation showcasing our research, limitations and outcomes. This was shown to the stakeholders in the form of a formal, group presentation. It took roughly half an hour in total and they had a lot of positive, constructive and progressive feedback at the end.
Feedback
General comments
Bella and Richard were extremely interested in what we had to say and gave us a flattering amount of praise at the end. They were impressed with the content and delivery but in particular, the way we introduced and explained industry jargon. By explaining user journeys and personas, the stakeholders were able to view our prototypes and research in a more user-centric way. Additionally, the functioning QR code was a nice touch and they enjoyed interacting with the high-fidelity prototypes.
They thought extremely highly of how much research information we managed to pull together in three weeks. They even loved it so much that Richard requested a copy for himself and they have invited us to present it at their next quarterly board meeting and to the relevant people at The Lottery Heritage Fund. This is very exciting news and if all goes well and we do get the chance to present our findings, this is will be a great opportunity to refine my professional presentation skills.
Hidden Habitats Prototype Comments
Feedback received from my prototype was positive and constructive. To my pleasure, they really loved the season selector. This validation felt great because this is an idea I have been passionate about from the beginning and will definitely want to be developing.
On the other hand, they also validated my concerns about the rest of my experience. Richard explained his worry about whether users will become too engaged with their phones and forget to look up. My experience includes a lot of text as an information platform and this may distract the user from experiencing it for themselves. I admit, I am yet to find the sweet spot between displaying enough interesting, consumable information and not letting the user spend too much time staring at their screen. In addition to this, Bella also commented on whether users will benefit from reading information about a flower or animal they can’t see. For example, in the Summer, Fen Raft Spiders are very common at Carlton Marsh and would be included in the showcase part of the app, but they are hard to spot and the user may come away feeling disappointed having not seen one themself.
To tackle these issues, Richard and Bella were kind enough to offer to set up a meeting for us with the ecology and biodiversity team at the Broads Authority. I think this will be extremely beneficial because I believe that my lack of subject knowledge is weakening my potential app experience idea. I have overarching concepts, ideas, and functionalities, but with minimal knowledge about the theme itself I struggle to have a main focus for a user outcome of the app.
Lastly, Bella had a comment about the [i] symbol in the global navigation. She assumed that this symbol would take her to more information about how to use the app, where in actual fact it brings up more information about the location where the user currently is. We discussed that this could be tackled by a change of icon.
Personal Improvements
To improve myself as a professional I am constantly discovering ways in which I can improve myself in any way. In this case, I have analysed the way in which I deliver presentations and have looked at ways in which I can improve.
In this case, I merely had a lack of practice. I believe I was confident and carried myself well, but couldn’t help but notice myself saying “umm” an awful lot whilst explaining my user journey. I had practised other slides in the presentation and spoke with a lot more confidence. I assumed that because I had worked on the prototype and user journey the day before that I would be able to speak clearly about it, but now I know to rehearse speaking about a subject beforehand.
Final Thoughts
Phase 1 of Water, Mills and Marshes has been an intense learning curve, to say the least. It has been a quick turnaround of gaining, digesting and reflecting on data to come up with a fully functioning, high-fidelity prototype in a very narrow time-frame. It has been challenging in all the right ways, and I am very pleased with the way that the practical work has turned out.