TINK - sketching product experiences of connected objects

92 - TINK
5.4.3 User test results
The test produced a lot of useful data and
insights. Participants generally had positive
experience with the concept behind TINK,
a functional and easily adaptable system
diagram.
The purpose, function and aesthetics where
understood and appreciated by users.
Testing did reveal several usability
dimensions of the platform that could
be improved. Some of these confusions
are rooted in the functions of the
prototype being tested on, and its
limited functionality. Other challenges
have straightforward resolutions which
are addressed in the next chapter of this
report.
PLATFORM’S PURPOSE
The main objective of the platform is to
support the interaction designer build
experiential prototype of complex system
of connected object.
Both expert coders and designers with no
previous coding experience experienced
the platform positively. The graphical
representation of the entities on a
system diagram was considered useful
and necessary especially for interaction
designers that are not used to deal with
complexity. In one participant’s words:
It help visualizing [..] it makes
it much easier to write the code
since it creates an overview on the
system. You will have to think more
consciously at all the requirements
and pieces you will have to build.
The participants experienced positively the
completeness of the platform, even though
the facilitator had to intervene several
times to clarify some matters. The entities
included in the platform allowed everyone
to represent the envisioned design.
SKETCHINESS
The sketchiness of the platform was
not evaluated positively. Participants
found usability issues with the system.
In particular they found the process of
drawing the system diagram cumbersome
and slow.
It must be considered however that the
prototype tested was not comprehensive
of all the functionalities and presented
several bugs.
The fact that no real object could be
connected to the platform, and the
absence of real-time feedback, influenced
the evaluation of the sketchiness of the
platform. Moreover the impossibility
of testing the behaviour of the system
diagram produced, prevented the user
the possibility to iterate on their design
and made the participants experience the
representation of the system diagram as a
very mental exercise. It must be highlighted
how this observation are really far from the
intentions of the design.
Most importantly, some participants in the
testing found that the platform provided
inspiration for how to develop the original
concept while using TINK.
This supports the thesis that TINK can
facilitate idea generation, and iterative