The Move Buddy
A friendly and squishy Gumby timer to remind software engineers to get up and take a break from their computers.
Tick, tick, it’s time to move!
Roles - Product Designer, Researcher, User Testing
Challenge - Create a personal and meaningful welcome gift for Full stack students at Prime Academy’s software engineer bootcamp
Methods - Heuristic Analysis, Fly-on-the-wall Observation, Product prototyping, Evaluation Process, Desirability Testing
Duration - 5 day project
The Problem:
What would be a meaningful + useful welcome gift for a Full stack engineer student?
The Overview
Prime Academy’s previous welcome gift for their Full stack software engineer students was an impersonal water bottle. Students have complained that the water bottle doesn’t accurately represent their time while in school, so it doesn’t feel very thoughtful or personal.
The Objective
Prime Academy would like a new welcome gift product design to make their students feel cared for, understood, and welcomed. Through heuristic analysis, user research, and desirability testing I was tasked with developing a new product design concept for the welcome gift. The welcome gift needed to be useful and meaningful to the Full stack software engineer students during their time at Prime and serve as practical memorabilia in their future.
The Research:
What steps did we take?
The USer Group:
STEP ONE - Heuristic analysis
The client requested a heuristic analysis on the previous water bottle welcome gift. It was found that it was low quality and could not be used as a welcome gift for future cohorts.
STEP TWO - User observations
I conducted two fly-on-the-wall observations in both cohorts of Prime’s full stack engineer students.
Who are the Full stack engineer students and what are their needs?
Through the fly-on-the-wall observational research I noted five key findings about the users and their environment:
Highly focused
Sit while working
Multiple screens and monitors
Drink energy drinks and coffee
Interactions are playful and fun
Use fidget toys to stay focused
Needs & Values:
I observed Prime’s Full stack engineer students to be highly focused with intense workloads. Items in the room to help them stay focused and organized were - whiteboards, colorful post-its, and fidget toys. All students were seated and utilized multiple monitors. When they did interact, it was jovial, friendly, and supportive. The Full stack students value playfulness, work efficiency, focus, and organization. I hypothesized, they need a friendly reminder to take a breaks throughout the day to move and reset, so they can maintain focus and efficiency in their work.
Design concept:
What product will meet the user groups needs? Meet the move buddy.
The Move Buddy
An encouraging, friendly, and multiple functional timer made in Prime's school colors, to remind students to take a break and move.
Reasoning
Research by The Energy Project found the body signals to take a break every 90 minutes, and it is best practice for work efficiency to take a break and reset. I suspected that Full stack students would function better if they had a friendly reminder to get up and move at set intervals.
Key Features of Design
The Move Buddy has a timer that maxes out at 90 minutes. I choose Gumby as a friendly and mobile character representing both movement and support. The clip on the back allows the product to be clipped to the students monitors. He is bendable and squishy providing the additional function of being a fidget.
“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative -
intellectual activity.” - John F. Kennedy
The prototype:
Bringing the product to life allows users a real experience
Made in 1 hour with recycled materials. Project done at Leonardo’s Basement, a maker space in Minneapolis.
Evaluation protocol:
What do the users think of the prototype?
Desirability Testing
The next step was to create an evaluation script and perform a desirability test to determine if this product is a good fit for the Full stack students at Prime.
Before showing the prototype, I gathered more data with directed storytelling, to gain unbiased data on users wants and needs. Before explaining the product, I asked questions that would determine if the intent of the prototypes use was clear, and gathered a Think Aloud of their overall impressions.
Key Findings:
The users love it! The users need it!
“I love that you gave life to it. It makes me smile! I definitely need to be reminded to take breaks, especially when I’m really stressing. I can burn myself out.”
- Participant A
“I loved my old boss, because he told us to take a 15 minute break to go for a walk at least once a day. I have ADD so I feel like movement helps me a lot with focus. If I don’t move, I find myself getting disorganized and unfocused.”
- Participant C
sUMMARY
In conclusion, the student participants in the desirability testing showed great interest in receiving The Move Buddy as the new Prime Academy welcome gift. Interestingly, before being exposed to the prototype, several users spontaneously mentioned their need for movement and breaks to keep them focused and on task throughout the day, further supporting the use of this product. All users appreciated that the timer was multifunctional as both a fidget and a tool to organize breaks at set intervals throughout the day. Additionally, all users found Gumby to be an appropriate, friendly, and uplifting character that brought them positive emotions. the insights gained from our findings suggest that The Move Buddy would be a meaningful, uplifting, and useful welcome gift for the Prime Full stack software engineer students. This product will help Prime students and graduates for now, and for years to come.
