Product Testing

This project is designed to determine how to improve first aid tools and make them easier to use by one person or even one hand. The process of the treatment and the function of the tools are both important to the successful dispensation of first aid and it is also vital to provide clear instructions to help people to use these products. I have designed a series of functional first aid tools, which users can successfully operate using only one hand. Since this project is closely related to users, it could be described as a user-centred design (UCD) and the tools should be highly usable. This project will focus on the testing of these products.

I designed a leaflet to introduce my ideas to the participants and explain what my study was about and why I was holding this event. I also prepared instructions for the testing, which involved many different kinds of wounds the participants were meant to have. I chose some pictures to accompany the written instructions to enable the participants to more clearly understand the severity of the wounds and where they would be located on the body. The participants needed to make their own choice of the relevant treatment steps and first aid materials. Since most of the materials in my project are for single use only, more prototypes needed to be prepared for testing. On average, every participant used 4 different materials in one test.

Most of the instructions in current First Aid kits are in booklet form; however, the instructions in my first aid kit are on the first aid box. They are followed by the materials and different colors are used to indicate their purpose. The instructions are designed to educate users how to use the first aid kit, and the materials are followed by them to ensure that users can have an idea of how to start their treatment and the kinds of things that need more attention. I felt that the instructions did not do their job well during the event. Although most of the participants said that they appreciated the fact that the materials were accompanied by instructions, they did not use the instructions much.

I had set this event to test my design in order to evaluate the usability of my products. Since the target group of the study was very wide, I basically separated the participants into two types, namely the general public and first aid specialists. Moreover, I also wanted participants within a wide age range so that I could gauge the reaction of people of all ages. The participants in this event were 3 first aiders and 7 members of the general public within an age range of 7-82 years. The first group consisted of a ten-year old girl named Zuzi, who had no experience of first aid. The second group contained three first aiders, namely Elena aged 44, Rose aged 30, and Dowand aged 65, who were working for the British Red Cross. All three had abundant experience of first aid and still worked on some accident victims in Edinburgh. The third group consisted of a 7-year old boy named Jack, who had a slow reading ability, while the fourth group contained two Chinese girls who were studying at the ECA. They had some common sense about first aid but had never treated anyone before. Since they were designers, their suggestions were more constructive from a design perspective. The fifth group contained three people from Edinburgh’s elderly community, two of whom lived alone, while the third lived with his wife. They all treated themselves when they were injured. I am convinced that recruiting participants with a wide variety of ages benefitted my project because I was able to understand the places elderly people would find a struggle and I was also able to know whether or not children under 10 have sufficient knowledge and ability to achieve first aid treatment themselves.

In terms of the participants’ feedback, this gave me some good ideas for improvement; although not all their suggestions were useful, many of them were, such as redesigning the first aid instruction to make it more visual and adjusting the tape dispenser to make it easier to use.