Batteling Summers Without An AC

Design Thinking Case Study

Background

I enrolled in a UX Design course by GrowthSchool. The course started with this Design Thinking assignment, in which we had to find our users’ problems by conducting user interviews and solving them.

Disclaimer

This was the first project for us to unlearn design and test our problem-solving approach.

Overview

The task began with the formation of groups of five people, each of whom was assigned one room of a house to work on, and we were required to consider members of our team as our users. The Bedroom was my main emphasis. I was to assume that these four users and I were the only five humans on the earth, and that I needed to solve the problems they were having in my focal region. We were told to follow the design thinking process, which entails:

Objectives

• Conduct user interviews to empathize with the users.
• Make a statement about the problem we’re trying to tackle.
• Come up with a number of possible solutions to the situation.
• Make a solution (it might be any kind of prototype). Mine was a doodle.)
• Users should be able to test the prototypes and provide feedback.

The first thing I did was practice for user interviews. I devised a set of questions based on what I perceived to be possible issues that people might encounter in their bedrooms. I’ll admit that I was a little biased at first. However, my research experience in 2018 assisted me in framing wider queries. I was thinking about how to design questions so that individuals can freely share their challenges, so I decided to learn more about conducting interviews.
I researched how to start my design thinking project by reading articles and watching videos on user interviews, and everything I read said the same thing: ask open-ended questions, don’t just interview but have a conversation with them, try to understand what they’re going through, don’t bring in your opinions and just let them talk. When you read it, it all looks quite obvious, but believe me when I say it doesn’t work that way. I had a basic understanding of open-ended questions, but the issue that kept nagging at me was, “How can I actually know if my questions are correct?” As a result, I modified several of my questions, minimizing the bias I had introduced.
“Don’t ask your users what problem they have in that room,” my trainers and mentors always said. If I’m being honest, I had a strong desire to ask this question. But I didn’t, or rather, I made a strong effort not to.

Here are the questions I framed.

User Interviews

I started my first interview with my first user. I recorded the interview so I could make notes later and document them. It’s interesting how people tend to open up and keep the conversation going when they feel comfortable about sharing their thoughts and issues.

My first interview began with my first user. I recorded the interview so that I could take notes and document it later. It’s fascinating how when people feel comfortable sharing their views and concerns, they tend to open up and keep the conversation continuing.
I felt a little more secure after my first interview, and I had a decent notion of what questions I needed to ask my other users. All of my preconceptions dissipated at this moment, and it piqued my interest in what troubles other users might be experiencing. One thing I learnt while conducting the interviews was that I needed to tweak my questions to better fit my users.
I felt at ease with the questions I had from the following interview. As I continued to ask open-ended questions, the replies became more general, which distracted me from the interview’s aim. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I was on the right track or if I was making a mistake. I took a step back and reminded myself of the interview’s aim, which helped me focus on my questions in subsequent interviews.
I got some wonderful insights from my users at the end of it, but I was already thinking of more questions after the interview. When I requested for more information, my users were nice enough to respond. This is something I believe I’ll continue to deal with in the future, because returning to your users with additional queries isn’t always viable or feasible.
The following are some of the insights I gained from my users:

• They spend most of the time in their bedroom due to the lockdown. They would like to have their own personal space while working, studying.
• Some users complained about the lighting being blocked by nearby buildings.
• 2 users I interviewed would like to add more furniture to their room, but some have issues with the space and the placement of the wardrobes which are fixed to the wall.
• The place where the users lived is usually cold throughout the year so buying an AC never crossed their mind. But this summer happed to be way hotter than the previous ones and are considering buying an AC.
  4 out of 5 users have issues with hot temperatures but some users don’t have an option to fix the AC in their rooms.
• 2 users had issues reaching out to the power sockets and switches.

Defining the Problem

After analyzing all the problems my users were going through, I planned to prioritize a problem which most of my users are facing and to what extent does it affect them.

Problem Statement — Users are spending most of the time in their bedroom aiming to be productive. Scorching summers are affecting their experience in the room. Users are considering fixing an AC but it’s not feasible for all the users.

Importance Of Solving This Problem — For a person to spend a lot of time in a room requires suitable conditions to remain focused and productive. If there was no lockdown, people would have worked in offices or colleges which usually have ACs. Some users are overthinking investing in an AC for a limited amount of time, At the same time, they feel helpless and want to get out of this blazing heat.

Ideating Solutions

We were expected to come up with concepts at this point. But I was already doing it in my head during the Empathizing and Defining stages. I’m not sure if this is considered bias, but I managed to keep my opinions to myself during those stages.

So how do I do it?

We were instructed to adopt a technique known as “The Crazy 8.” To put it another way, we had to come up with eight ideas in eight minutes. As a result, one idea each minute. To be honest, I could only come up with six ideas at first. I was leaning more toward one of the concepts, which is likely why I couldn’t keep to the Crazy 8 method. Nonetheless, I came up with eight ideas, despite the fact that it took me longer than eight minutes.
We were asked to choose three of our greatest ideas from those eight and explain why they were the best.

My approach

The problem: Heat
What my users think they need: Air Conditioner
My thought process: AC is just one of the solutions. They need a solution to keep the heat away.
Why do we feel hot in the first place?
How does the heat enter our rooms?

My top 3 Ideas

Dry grass pads- These are pads of dry grass arranged near the windows. Water is sprayed on these pads and the air coming through pads becomes colder.

Mini USB fan- I came across this solution recently where a fan is mounted to a box and the box has to be filled with cold water. The fan emits cold air from the water.

Bubble wraps on windows- Bubble warps have tiny air sockets that trap hot air inside and prevent hot air from entering the room.

After coming up with 3 ideas we were supposed to narrow down on one idea of the 3 best ideas we choose or use a combination of them.
My solution: Bubble wrap
Reason: It’s easily available, Cheaper, and very effective in keeping the heat away.

Prototype

Since my solution is a physical product, I explained my solution through diagrams I designed in photoshop and some photographs. There are no set guidelines for prototyping a solution. The only thing I had to remember was to be as comprehensive as possible with my images so that my users could understand the solution without having to listen to a lengthy explanation.

Describing the solution

Understanding how air conditioners basically work, their basic function is to remove hot air from the room and bring in cold air. By looking at the image here, we can see how hot air enters a house in the first place, this heat map of a house shows higher temperatures(red areas in the image) on the rooftop and at the windows. If we insulate these areas from heat we can drastically reduce the temperature.

Using bubble wrap could be one of the most efficient and cheapest ways to insulate a room from high temperatures. Air conditioners could have been a better option but a study suggests that by 2025, the air conditioners would be the reason for 25% of the world’s global warming.

Testing

I needed to deliver my solution to my users and receive their input now that I had done developing it. I showed them my images and explained the challenge I’m fixing on a group video call. Rather than describing the solution to them, I let them inspect it and asked them to let me know if they had any questions or thought something wasn’t quite right. They all expressed their opinions on the solution and asked me questions about the product.

After going through the photographs, users were curious to try this solution. I explained to them how to use it.
1) Spray some water on the bubble side of the wrap
2) place the wet bubble side of the wrap on the window inside the room.

Feedback 1

After these users tried the bubble wrap:

• 1 user found it effective in keep his room away from heat.
• 2 users found it was working but it was not enough.
• Another user had AC so she did not try it out. But now she understands the reason behind heated rooms.

Iteration

I was brainstorming on how I could increase the efficiency and came up with the following steps.

1. Keep the windows open for a while when it’s cold outside i.e during the nights and early mornings. This helps in bringing down the temperature in rooms.
2. Close the windows when it gets hot keeping cold air inside and use bubble wraps and aluminum foil which helps in reflecting the heat away from the windows.

Feedback 2

Feedback from the 2 users who tried bubble wrap and did not help much:

“ Using Bubble wrap and opening windows when it’s cold has actually helped me. I am surprised by the difference of temperate in my room now!”

“Executing these steps made a difference. Now I am more conscious of managing the temperature in my room. I don’t think I would go for an AC as of now.”

Key Learnings

• As this was a project where I had to unlearn
• Truly understanding your users is very important and I am surprised that a simple solution would have a great impact.
• Framing open-ended questions. I would say that I am well aware of the need of using open-ended questions to obtain accurate and genuine feedback from your users.
• I am not supposed to see myself as user of the product. Regardless of how well a solution works for me, it may or may not work for my actual users. Otherwise, I am just producing something for myself, which isn’t really useful.