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Backyard Brains

 
 
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Overview

Backyard Brains (BYB) is a DIY Neuroscience Company that creates gear and other kits to encourage amateurs and students to participate in graduate level neuroscience experiments and learning. They believe that there is an untapped need to build a community around DIY neuroscience and we believe a new platform on their site will physically bring members together through Backyard Brain events.

Role:

Project Manager & Designer

Timeline:

4 months

Team:

4 members

 

Goals

  • Design a section of the website that connects attendees, experts, and organizations looking to host events through Backyard Brains
  • Connect Neuroscience Experts with organizations who would like to serve as hosts for workshops through Backyard Brains
  • Display Backyard Brains workshops and their details
 

Research

Competitive Analysis

Direct competitor: Mad ScienceIndirect competitors (DIY-related): Ann Arbor Hands on Museum, Ann Arbor Makerworks, Ann Arbor’s Makerspace, and Head-FiIndirect competitors (In-person events): Meetup and Start-up WeekendIndirect competitor (Online com…

Direct competitor: Mad Science

Indirect competitors (DIY-related): Ann Arbor Hands on Museum, Ann Arbor Makerworks, Ann Arbor’s Makerspace, and Head-Fi

Indirect competitors (In-person events): Meetup and Start-up Weekend

Indirect competitor (Online communities): Head-Fi

Competitive Analysis Goals

  • To understand how competitors are currently engaging with their community
  • To determine what methods and features are effective in connecting community members together
  • To understand how these competitors are organizing community events
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    User Interviews

    Our client initially provided multiple users including: Backyard Brains workshop attendees, neuroscience experts, and event hosts. The process for these interviews begin with outreach to users via an existing BYB e-mail list. For participants who were interested, a consent form was provided for permission to audio record and to ensure that responses are being used for research purposes only and will be private. Interviews were conducted 25 - 30 minutes either over phone or video through Skype. After the interview, participants were followed up with the option for follow up and what their preferred method of communication is for future interviews and testing.

    Interview Goals

    • To better understand the role and value that Backyard Brains has for the local neuroscience community, but also as a nationally recognized company.
    • To examine the expectations of current users, especially in regards to attending or hosting events/workshops, and what makes these events successful
     

     

    User Survey

    Survey Goals

    • To ensure that there is adequate interest in Backyard Brains events to validate the project
    • To gather contact information from people interested in taking part in Backyard Brains events for use as the project matures, and for interviews
    • To gather general information about the scale and activities of a neuroscience event.
     

     

    Main Findings

    Passion for "_______"Users who are passionate about their communities will work to coordinate events using their resources and within their own community platform or a third party platform, such as Meetup.

    Passion for "_______"

    Users who are passionate about their communities will work to coordinate events using their resources and within their own community platform or a third party platform, such as Meetup.

    Emphasize CommunitySome competitors allow users to directly interact with each other online. While this could be a nice have feature, a simple way to emphasize this is by showing the local/national community aspect to these events.

    Emphasize Community

    Some competitors allow users to directly interact with each other online. While this could be a nice have feature, a simple way to emphasize this is by showing the local/national community aspect to these events.

    AudienceThe survey confirmed that the BYB audience is both large & highly receptive to the idea of BYB events. Of the three personas, attendees are the primary persona we design for.

    Audience

    The survey confirmed that the BYB audience is both large & highly receptive to the idea of BYB events. Of the three personas, attendees are the primary persona we design for.

    Visibility of eventsVisibility of these events are most important. Displays must contain details of the event, but should provide users to find events based on groups, locations or views such as calendar or list.

    Visibility of events

    Visibility of these events are most important. Displays must contain details of the event, but should provide users to find events based on groups, locations or views such as calendar or list.

    Event FeaturesDetails of events are important, but also interactive features such as RSVP, share on social, connect on other calendars and view other users attending. Social media should be better utilized for these events.

    Event Features

    Details of events are important, but also interactive features such as RSVP, share on social, connect on other calendars and view other users attending. Social media should be better utilized for these events.

    Resources for Hosts & ExpertsUsers who identified as hosts & experts - especially for experts, who responded as being comfortable with any training materials offered. The process for becoming a host/expert should be simple and clear.

    Resources for Hosts & Experts

    Users who identified as hosts & experts - especially for experts, who responded as being comfortable with any training materials offered. The process for becoming a host/expert should be simple and clear.

     

    Personas & User Journeys

    Attendee - Primary Persona

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    Based on user and stakeholder interviews, 3 main personas were defined:

    1. Attendee: someone who is interested in attending a Backyard Brains workshop
    2. Neuroscience Experts: someone who is interested in leading a Backyard Brains workshop
    3. Host: someone who is interested in running/hosting a space for a Backyard Brains workshop

    All three of these personas are important in influencing the design, but the persona to focus on designing for is the attendee, the primary persona. These are the individuals who may or may not be already engaged with the neuroscience community. If they are not engaged, we seek to attract them to the neuroscience research community through Backyard Brains.

    The secondary personas are the hosts and neuroscience experts. These two personas can either work together or independently in order to provide their community with Backyard Brains events. For these personas, it’s a matter of gauging their interest and what they are willing to provide the community whether it is expertise or a venue for an event. The host and neuroscience experts also share a similar goal in that they want to educate community at large.

     
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    Requirements

    Here are the basic requirements that have been identified for this project based on the entirety of the user research.

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    Design Process

    Paper Prototype

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    Goals for user testing with paper prototype:

    • To ensure all of the information required by the attendee persona to use the system identified in the user research is present and discoverable
    • To verify which event results display is most useful
    • To validate the flow of screens of for the process of signing up

    Main Findings

    • Only some users found the geographic information in the map useful when looking at event results - List View will be the primary display but users will have the option to toggle to the map
    • Pop-up onboarding process is clear and intuitive because users have seen this on other sites
     

     

    High Fidelity

    Tool(s): Adobe XD

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    Goals:

    • Make profiles persona specific to increase the usefulness of information on profiles.
    • To ensure our profile designs help foster a sense of community towards Backyard Brains in the users of the system.
    • Ensure users can easily self-select which user profile type is most appropriate for them.

    Main Findings

    • Information displayed on attendee user profiles met expectations for potential users
    • Users suggested allowing for information on community member profiles concerning neuroscience interests, accomplishments in the neuroscience field, hobbies, location as well as past and upcoming events of interest
    • Users expect to see neuroscience skill level in relation to BYB on user profiles
     

     
     
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    Goals:

    • To design and test the information and interactions required for the host and expert personas to successfully use the system

    Main Finding

    • During the initial sign-up process, it isn’t always clear to users what the difference between the three user types is - and how to sign in as a specific user
     

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    Click Here to view Invision prototype


     

    Validation Study

    Methodology

    • Participants are asked to take a short pre-test questionnaire, which gathered demographic information
    • User tasks are given and think-aloud method used to simulate a user journey
    • When tasks are completed, participants are asked to respond to SUS questionnaire

    1. Attendees: Are they able to find events that they are interested in and RSVP to them?

    Evaluation metric: Based on completion of steps within a task completion log

    The main requirement for attendees is for them to be able to easily locate events that are not only within their own community, but within the larger Backyard Brains community as well.

    Not all users were able to successfully identify all information that we had required them to find.

     
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    All 5 attendees successfully completed the tasks of changing event result views, RSVPing, Signing up and completing their profile. Of the 12 information location tasks, there were three in which not all 5 attendees were able to successfully find. This included distinguishing between hosts and leaders among the organizers section within an event, and finding Backyard Brains topics that they are interested in. As seen in the graph below, the breakdown of those who answered correctly and did not answer correctly are as followed. In being able to identify workshop leaders 3 / 5 attendees did not answer correctly, in being able to identify hosts 2 / 5 attendees did not answer successfully, and in being able to identify topics they were interested in 1 / 5 attendees did not answer correctly.


    2. Expert: Are they able to understand the process in becoming a expert?

    Based on completion of a comprehensive quiz and their score

    The main requirement for experts is that they have an understanding of the process that is involved in becoming one.

    All experts were able to locate informational elements

     
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    The prototype aimed to mock the actual process that these personas would have to go through. In order to ensure that they understood this process, there were 3 main comprehension questions, 4 tasks, and 5 locating informational elements. From the 2 hosts that were tested, both were successful in answering the comprehension questions surrounding who a Backyard Brains expert is and the two ways that they are able to complete the application. But 1 / 2 experts were unable to easily remember the three simple broken down steps in becoming an expert as seen in the graph.


    3. Hosts: Are they able to understand the process in becoming host?

    Based on completion of a comprehensive quiz and their score

    The main requirement for hosts is that they have an understanding of the process that is involved in becoming one.

    Not all hosts were successful in locating informational elements and identifying the workshop leader.

     
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    The prototype aimed to mock the actual process that these personas would have to go through. In order to ensure that they understood this process, they answered 3 main comprehension questions, completed 5 tasks, and located 10 informational elements. For the 2 hosts, both were able to complete all 5 tasks successfully. Similarly to the 3 main comprehension questions, one of the questions was not answered correctly by one of the hosts, which was the question in regards to the three steps required in becoming one. Within locating the 10 informational elements, 1 /2 did not successfully identify the hosts and 1 / 2 did not successfully identify the workshop leader.


    4. All personas: How do users perceive the overall usability of the system?

    Based on System Usability Scale (SUS) rating

    The main requirement for hosts is that they have an understanding of the process that is involved in becoming one.

    From the responses received, our test scored a SUS rating of 92.5 which indicates that our system easy to use and easy to learn how to use

    This validation test was not able to gather enough subjects to conduct meaningful statistical analysis using t-tests to fully confirm the main user flows. It is highly encouraged as a part of our further recommendations to continute testing.

     

    Final Recommendations

    1. Distinguishing Personas:

    Confusion on identifying hosts from experts within organizers ---> Provide clear identifying factors for quick and easy identification

    2. Vague Language:

    Language on the page was not clear which was indicated by pauses before answering questions ---> Provide clarity and specification on all text elements

    3. Re-Design:

    The current design is effective for testing and working iteratively through ---> Re-vamp to match modern design trends