“How well is your design language being understood by your target consumer…?”

ASSESSING USER RESPONSE TO DESIGN OPTIONS

Communication & Interpretation We have developed a small collection of diagnostic techniques for assessing user response to design options. Each of these structured interview protocols is based on a specific adaptation of the standard communications check. We have developed both qualitative and quantitative assessment techniques for use in exploring reactions to varying levels of finish.

Assessing User Response to Design Options/StarPoint Consulting Group
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS, USABILITY STUDIES & ADVANCED TECHNIQUES

Qualitative Design Assessments The guiding objective behind all of our qualitative screening techniques is to explore the full range of the target user’s cognitive response – the emotional as well as the rational – elicited by a new design. We incorporate multiple, directed probes to gauge success on your specific design objectives probing beneath “like-dislike” response to tap the underlying associations and the (often unstated) “reasons why.”

  • If you’re looking for rapid feedback during the early phases of a design effort, we offer a quick diagnostic screening process based on one-on-one interviews or small group sessions.  Here we focus on initial thoughts and feelings, considered main impressions, perceived uniqueness, levels of engagement or intrigue, potential utility/usability and ascribed imagery (projective exercises).
  • If you’re further along in the process, our qualitative usability check is a quick, inexpensive method for identifying – and correcting – the subtle miscues and hidden flaws in an otherwise great design.  Through a series of short one-on-one interviews, using a prototype of your interface or a model of your device as the stimulus, we can quickly determine whether the target user understands the features, functions and controls offered by your design.  Click here or more information. 
  • Other advanced qualitative techniques for assessing new product designs – q-PFO, q-RAI and q-NCC – are described here.

Design assessments can be conducted in a central facility, on-line or in specific, category-appropriate environment – such as simulated shopping exercises within prototype store designs.

DESIGN DIAGNOSTICS BY THE NUMBERS

Quantitative Design Assessments If you require estimates of purchase intent or levels of comparative appeal as part of your design evaluation process, we also offer custom-designed quantitative assessments that leverage the diagnostic foundations for our qualitative approaches.

  • Our standard quantitative assessment technique statistically models that factors driving concept preference.  We incorporate both a weighted measure of purchase intent and – where appropriate – a preference ranking as our dependent variables.  The aim of this approach is to leverage the stated levels of purchase interest to reveal the factors that would appear to be driving (or suppressing) appeal.
  • b-EXT  is our unique approach to concept screening based on discrete choice modeling of price, features and brand preference.
  • We have also considered an extension of b-EXT that would estimate the pricing and demand differential associated with specific package or product design options.  This technique is still in the experimental stage, though we hope to have a functional prototype available soon.
NEW PRODUCT CLINICS

Hybrid Approaches In collaboration with other suppliers we also have developed a hybrid quant/qual clinic for the evaluating the designs of household durables.  This technique is based on the automotive new car clinic model: a quantitative comparative shopping exercise followed by focus groups with selected participants.

A Joint Workshop As with every phase in the design process, we recommend an interactive workshop with the client product team to sift through the research findings and jointly identify the most promising options.

Please feel free to contact us for additional information about our design diagnostics techniques.