The design thinking process is a combination of analysis, experimentation and testing. This page is about the latter. How do you test and when? And what happens if you skip or rush testing? You can read about it in the green part of the LSD series. On this page an ‘exercise to practice testing’ .
To practice testing and come up with a good test setup, it is best to use the product you are working on. But it can help to practice it ‘dry’ with a case outside your field of work. In this exercise devised by us, you let the participants play with test scenarios.
CASE ‘WHITE NOISE’
You are in the car and suddenly you hear a siren. Chances are you don’t know where the sound is coming from. The same phenomenon occurs when a truck reverses out of an alley. Chances are that you cannot locate the sound or not even notice it. And before you know it, you’ll be flat.
Why is this so and what is the alternative?
In this fun exercise you will research this (or rather: learn to research). The warning signal for a reversing truck was invented because it is the cheapest way to produce sound. All it takes is a small bi-metal and a low voltage. By energizing the metal, it bends, resulting in high bleeps. But… our brain is not made for these kinds of bleeps at all. We have a hard time locating it. One sound that we can place is the so-called ‘white noise’. This is the annoying sound that you hear if you do not properly adjust your TV to a channel.
THE ASSIGNMENT
In the assignment we will work in pairs. We investigate the frame that ‘white noise’ works much better and thus increases road safety. But how do you test this? How do you compare bleeps to the noise? That is the challenge of the teams.
(The most beautiful test setup we have encountered can be seen in episode 7 of the first season of the Netflix series White Rabbit project ).
ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENT
As an extra, you can test the white noise technique against the three dimensions of design thinking: is it desirable, technically feasible and economically viable?
Enjoy it!
Gerjon Zomer, LSD coach