4 Week - User Testing Project

This project was all about identifying a product with design flaws, and through the use of user testing and development, re-designing the product. 

The began with a discovery of 20 household products with flaws in their design or usability. 

The product that was chosen to develop was an Oral-B electric toothbrush.

Through user testing the existing product some key flaws were identified.

The main flaw that was found with the Oral-B toothbrush was;

Charging Experience and Usability- 

The user had issues when placing the toothbrush onto its charging dock. This was down to there not being enough signifiers in its design to guide sub-consciously guide the user correctly. This led to the brush being replaced the wrong way and thus not charging. 

Another issue identified with charging was the battery status indicator. Many users expressed experiences forgetting to charge their brushes, even after having to use it while dead. It was identified the positioning of the indicator was helping to facilitate this issue due to the user covering it with their hand during use. 

After Ideation, some concepts were taken forward into low fidelity models, and then user tested. The usability of the charger, the positioning of the battery indicator and the way it communicated with the user were tested. 

After the first round of testing the concepts were refined and developed further into mid-fidelity models which better reflected the products shape, ready for a 2nd round of testing. The same features were tested with the users. 

A final model was 3D printed to go through some final feedback with the users, before the design was finalised. You can see how the charger fits onto the charging dock, its only possible for the brush to go on this way otherwise it falls over, removing any room for human error. 

The final product was brand aligned with Oral-B. Inspiration was taken from their iO line of toothbrushes. 

 

The shape and form of the charger, ensures the user identifies the correct orientation for the device to be placed onto, so that the product is charged correctly when needed.

 

Visual cues have been added to the product in the form of the Oral-B Logo on the front of the charger, and the front of the brushes body.

The base of the product features a smooth glossy finish to assist the user in wiping the product if it becomes dirty, and the shape of the charger will allow the user to simply wipe through the slot with a tissue or cloth making cleaning a simple and easy process.

You can see the power button and thumb indentation which is an affordance to show the user where to place their thumb while using the product.

The injection moulded body also takes advantage of different textures, having a smooth glossy finish on the main part of the body to help make the brush easier to rinse and then utilising a textured grainy finish for the thumb indentation, to give the user an added bit of grip if needed.

The power button then returns to a glossy finish, so that the user knows this indent is a button and not a fixed part of the textured surface.