Overview of the design session

We had a design session with Project Malev primary target group on the 27th of March 2010.

The persons with whom the session was carried through, were Marvin (male, age 17) and Regina (female, age 14). First of all, I have to state out the fact, that this sort of design sessions on the essence of our project is not quiten ew, as I personally have had the idea of Project Malev for months now and I have discussed it with my youngsters, with whom I work as a part of my youth-work.

So a lot of the feedback I have gained from them, was cultivated into the creation of the outline of Project Malev. Nevertheless, the end-product concept we had, still had some issues which were unseen to me and my co-members of the project, and those issues succesfully arised during the design session.

Mainly
The main thing I have to congratulate us is the build-up of the site. The paper-based prototype of our project worked effectivly on the design session group and I believe, that our success derived from the fact, that a lot of the build-up principles were borrowed from Facebook. As the target group spends a noticeble amount of the daily-internet-usage in Facebook, it was rather easy for them to see the navigation structures from the moment they saw the prototype.

I feel that the decision to borrow Facebook build-up principles should stay, as there is no need to re-invent the bicycle. What works for millions, can be used in smaller projects also, especially in our case were we know that we will not grow to be a competitor for facebook.

Constructive feedback
As I stated before, there still were some negative feedback to our prototype:
The feedback will be in Estonian, as I don't want to translate it, for the sake of better utilization later on
- Registreerimisel selgemaks, mis juhtub edasi (kas saab kohe oma sisestatud kasutajanimega sisse või peab kinnituskirja ootama jääma, kas saab kohe live account'iga sisse või peab autoriseerima hiljem midagi)
- + nupp ei tööta. Noored ei seosta + nuppu asjade lisamisega. Pakuti, et võiks olla selgelt välja öeldud "Lisa pilte" nt.
- Lisa meediat ei tööta, kuna ei teata mis meedia on. Pakuti et võiks olla "Lisa pilte" "Lisa video" "Lisa twitter" jne.
- Otseselt Lisamine kui tegevus tekitab segadust. Otseselt midagi ei lisata, seega seda sõna ei peaks kasutama. Võiks olla siis pigem "Viita piltidele" vm. (siin on kirjutaja-poolne järeldus tehtud)
- Importimisel muudest keskkondadest ei peaks olema drop-down listi esimene rida ----- vaid YouTube vm. (juba keskkonna nimetus). "Sest muidu sinna ei vaatagi"
- Minu profiil peaks olema avaleht. "Sest nii on igal pool"
- Kui paluti eelmise rühma pilte otsida, kasutati kohe otsingut. See tähendab, et otsing peaks tulema väga struktureeritud, kuna mõlemad testijad liikusid mitmel korral otsingut kasutama.
- Profiili all oleval tahvlil peaks olema pealkiri. (Nt. viimased uuendused - autoripoolne järeldus)
- Help menüülink võiks ka olla, kus on kiire KKK võimalus

At the moment, this was the main critique offered for our current project.

In conclusion I'd like to state out that the expected outcome of the session was rather good, as the audience understood the interface and performed the received tasks quickly. The real value of the session however was indeed the ability to put one-self to the side, and see, that many of the features, that appeared overly simplistic to the creator, were simply ill to the user.