What is Project Baseline?
This is an ambitious 4-year long, 10,000 person study to determine what “healthy” looks like.
Baseline is asking participants to test multiple monitoring devices. These devices have already been approved by the FDA, so changing them quickly to resolve any usability issues, would be a challenge. Instead, our job was to make sure that the instructions we easy to follow.
The watch - a heart rate monitor The sleep sensor The hub - collects all info from the watch and sensor to send to an iPhone app.
Stakeholder goal
“How do we ensure that users will successfully set up all devices without needing 1 to 1 attention?”
Rocky Medure, Interaction Designer
Participants
- 5 participants
- Even mix of age, education, and gender
Method
- 1:1 in person user interviews with external Ps
- 60 min each
- Testing location was at the Hive, where we set up a bed and nightstand for participants to use
- Observed setup for the first 30 minutes, then elicited feedback responses.
The testing space - not a normal lab setup.
We set up a mock bedroom, with a nightstand and bed.The instructions that we tested were: a sleep sensor, a study watch, and a study hub. As the moderator, I needed to set up a portable camera and microphone in an area where others could see the participants, but did not interfere with participant actions.
Overall findings
Participants felt overwhelmed with the many sets of instructions and cords.
Once participants had opened all of the boxes, they had 3 separate instruction manuals. They also had a number of cords for only 2 outlets.
“[I would like] a sheet that says ‘set this up first, plug the watch in, let it charge for this many hours.”
Participants took about 30 min to complete setup.
Participants did not feel “finished” when they completed the setup.
“Now I’m waiting for something. Not sure what I’m waiting for… I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do right now.”
3/5 participants did not use instructions on the sleeve of each device.
Our design team had created instructions on the sleeves, hoping that they would be easier to use than the in-box instructions. However, most participants did not realize there were sleeve instructions.
Overall recommendations
1) Create one master user guide that explains which device to set up first and indicate when participant is finished with setup
2) Communicate: (a) what information is collected from each device and (b) where that information is sent.
Hub Findings
3/5 participants did not know the hub’s purpose.
2 participants thought the Hub charged devices. 1 participant did not know what the Hub did at all.
Hub recommendations
1) Use consistent naming conventions across all instructions, sleeves, and packaging.
2) State what the device does directly on package or master user guide.
Watch findings
3/5 were unable to charge the watch.
The participants placed the watch upside down on the charger. There was no indication that the watch was charging successfully.
Watch recommendations
Add instructions to the instruction guide, or place notifications on the charging dock, itself.
Sleep sensor findings
2 participants were unable to determine the sleep sensor’s purpose.
“I have no idea what the Live does. I would call somebody up and ask what the hell is this supposed to do?”
“It’s going to sense your temperature, your heartbeat. actually it can’t do that through the mattress. I don’t know!”
Participants wondered about how the sleep sensor connected with the Hub
"There's nothing to tell me that anything is talking to anything." --Participant 2
The watch connected to the Hub via a USB cable, but it was unclear how the Sensor connected to the Hub.
Participants thought there were contradictory instructions to placement.
“This [instructions] says to place under the mattress, and this one [another set of instructions] says to place it near my pillow. On the nightstand? These are contradictory.”
Sleep sensor recommendations
Much like the Hub, the Sleep Sensor needs to have information on what it does, and how it communicates with the Hub.
Impact
Design recommendations were implemented in a master guide
Due to FDA regulation, the instruction guides for each device could not be changed. So we included a master guide for setting up all devices.
Watch cradle design improved.
Based on the difficulty users had with charging the watch, the cradle included more color to show which side was right-side up.
Repeat user testing showed users spent less time setting up devices when using the master guide
After the changes were implemented the VUX team did another OOBE study to: determine (1) whether the changes helped users and (2) what additional changes needed to be made.
