Stellar

Remote Co-Design Session 1

After identifying two concepts that aligned with our problem space, we wanted to get feedback from our target audience. We did this by sharing our concepts with kids through a co-design exercise. We created a prototype video for each concept and asked the kids a series of questions. We created a slide deck and gave the kids access, asking them to note down their reactions.

I helped plan, develop videos, and was a primary facilitator for the session. 

Key Takeaways and Insights

Of the two concepts, kids liked the constellation night light for its playful nature. Our second concept, a pregnancy monitoring device that would sense when a baby kicked and vibrate a wristband that a young sibling would wear, brought out curiosity from the kids concerning pregnancy but they were generally unenthused. This session helped us narrow down to the constellation night light and left us with a few key insights:

• Kids wanted to write text-based messages through the night light board
• They would consider using it all times of day, not just at night
• Facilitators expressed concerns about kids using the lights too much, delaying their bedtimes

These insights got us thinking about different modes of operation, for example, how kids could interact with the night light during the day vs at night, and how we might address these over engagement concerns. This also started a long discussion about how to integrate messaging into the design.

First Prototypes and Wizard of Oz (WoZ) Testing

After testing with kids, we began developing a web-based platform where primary inputs to the night light would take place. We realized a physical board may not be accessible for individuals with limited income or space. For these reasons, we wanted to ensure people could interact with Stellar from a computer. 

We wanted to test the web application features and interactions with adults considering our cross-generational stakeholder group. Thus we created a WoZ prototype using Figma and Miro to explore four main interactions:  

• Create a custom constellation 
• Select a pre-arranged constellation 
• Customize colors
• Display a scrolling LED message 

I contributed to the process by developing the WoZ prototype and acting as the Wizard during testing. 

Participant Would Draw a Constellation in Miro (Left), Then I Would Create Their Constellation in Figma (Right)

Key Takeaways 

Our testing primarily focused on participants inputting a constellation and viewing what it would look like on the night light board. We could have designed our study to include both sending and receiving messages as this would have provided more insight into the receptive communication of our design. 

We began to consider more metaphorical expressions of messaging after receiving feedback about issues relating to the type of content kids might share linguistically.

Remote Co-Design Session 2 

Based on our first kids co-design session and the WoZ testing, we refined our web-based interactions and showed them to the kids. 

We wanted to test customizing a constellation with a randomized grid that would look more like the night sky and a uniform grid which we thought may be easier to use. We also wanted to gather opinions on alternative forms of messaging.

I analyzed the session recordings. 

Key Takeaway 

The results were mixed and inconclusive. The session was conducted remotely and kids found it difficult to use Miro. We think future testing should focus more on mock-up activities and role-playing interactions (like pretending to be a grandparent receiving messages) which will allow us to gather more explicit feedback.