Questionnaires to Parents on DigiCab Prototype

We came up with some questions to ask the parents who are going to use the DigiCab product with their children, as they are the ones who are going to play with them. We would be doing some questionnaires on the initial prototype, use heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough for our evaluation methods. We went back to the nursery that we visited about a week ago and asked the parents about our prototype design. The questions that we asked were related to the non-functional requirements that we have initialised Even though our system is workable, we have to ask the parents for their feedback so that we can redesign it and make it better. Some parents may have problems in understanding the questions that we asked so We showed them what we are going to do and how it should work. The bold fonts show the explanation that we had done during the questionnaire.

Questionnaire on the product

1. What do you think of the colour that we have put on this paper design?
(This refers to the prototype that we showed them)

Response: Too colourful – might confuse the child when playing with it.

Response: The colours are just right but maybe the total number of colours could be reduced.

Response: Some parents think the borders should be done in white colour.

Percentage: 65% of parents said it is too colourful, 25% think it is good enough but needs to reduce the number of colour in there, 10% think they should make it plain.

2. What do you think of the screen design?
explaining why we decided on the glass (touch screen)

Response: Parents have doubts on the product type that we are going to use in the design. Some of them think it would be better to have plastic type of touch screen and some were concerned about the child’s safety on the glass touch screen.

Percentage: About 85% parents were worried about the design especially the safety of their children, 15% of parents think the glass screen is fine but would be better if we design the product with safety as our priority.

3. Looking at the design (referring to the prototype), what do you think of the placement of the start button?

Response: Placing the start button behind is useful and it is easier for them to turn it on and off.

Percentage: All parents agreed on the placement of the button.

4. Do you think the picture screen is too small?
(Referring to each picture on the grid layout)

Response: Most parents think the pictures are too small and they want to reduce the number of pictures on the prototype itself as it might confuse children if there are too many pictures on the screen at a time. Also, many think that cartoon pictures are not really useful for their children to learn because children might want to get more exposure to real pictures (probably photos) rather than cartoon pictures, which are not realistic.

Percentage: About 70% of the parents think that there are too many pictures on the screen and that they are too small.

5. What do you think of the edge of the design? (Sharp cornering)

All parents prefer to have a curved edge device.

6. What do you think of the speaker shape and size?

The shape does not look like a shape of a speaker.

Percentage: About 87% of the parents do not like the square shape of the speaker.

Questionnaire Analysis

Based on the questionnaire that we have done with the parents, our product has to follow the proper health and safety issues especially for young children aged between 2 and 3 years old. We would have to consider on the type of material that we are going to use to design the screen of our product. Most parents think the product does not have to be too colourful as it could be to complicated and parents would not want to buy this product for their child if it is too colourful. Some parents have suggested that we could use red, green and blue only on the product. Parents are satisfied with the buttons placed behind the product as the young children would not be able to look for them and this is a good design for not letting the young child to know where the on/off button is placed. Many parents also think the pictures are quite small for a young child between 2 and 3 years old to touch it. These children tend to smash or touch the image in the screen and the size of each picture does not cover the size of a young child’s hand. We would try to place the placement of the pictures so that it fits with the young children’s hand.

Parents want to have a curve shape at each corner of the product. This is important as most toys in the market have curve shape cornering to make it usable for young children and it is also one of the health and safety issues – young children will not get hurt easily if there is a curve at each corner. Parents would love to have a round shape speaker because it really matches to the design of the speakers that are used in the market, which are round shaped speaker. Parents know that the shape is referring to a speaker. They were able to recognise the shape.

At the end of our questionnaire, some parents actually suggested that the product could be very useful if it can be moved or carried around at any time the parents want. Some of them have suggested to have a handler at the top of the device so that they can carry them - just like how they carry a laptop bag. Since it is a technological device, it would be an advantage to make it portable.

We are considering that for our final prototype and we hope we could design a complete prototype that meets the requirements of the users.