Recognizing the real problem

I took a two step approach to finding out more about our water bottle problem. First, I needed to know if there was anything wrong with the existing Prime water bottles design or functionality. I wanted to test the functionality of the water bottle to see if there were any flaws in that specific bottles design that contributed to the students dislike of the bottle. Second, I wanted to know more about our Prime full stack student that would be using this bottle. If the bottle itself was indeed a functional design, then perhaps a bottle doesn’t meet a current need of a Prime full stack student. If I knew more about who this student was, I was better prepared to suggest a gift idea that this student would connect with better than our water bottle.

Testing the existing Prime water bottle

I needed a method for learning more about the current water bottle that Prime is using. With the help of my UX teammate Shawn, I conducted a Heuristic Analysis on one of the existing bottles. First, we made a list of all the tasks that a bottle user should be able to accomplish with this bottle. Then, we proceeded to try to do each of these tasks with our water bottle. We found the water bottle to have a few minor flaws, however, it was a mostly usable and functional water bottle. Our Heuristic analysis of the item lead us to conclude that the water bottle is actually pretty good, therefore, the student’s issues with it were likely not related to the products design or features.

Finding out more about our user?

Testing our water bottle showed it to be a mostly functional item. So, why didn’t these full stack students like it? If not a water bottle, what gift could Prime give that would make a more meaningful connection to their new full stack students? To answer these questions, I needed to know more about who the Prime full stack student is. To get to know the full stack student better, I employed a classic UX research method.

Observing the students in their environment

Observing the students was the first method I used to get to know our them a little better. An AEIOU observation form was used to help catalog what I saw while watching the students interact in their environment that afternoon. I also joined several full stack students for lunch that day and was able to speak with them directly. From these observations and interactions, I was able to make the following statement about the Prime full stack student.

The Prime full stack student is someone who spends long hours seated while working at Prime, the student may not be fully aware of the impact that spending this amount of time seated could have on the long term health of their back.