User Test 1

I decided to do a user test on the energy monitor that I am going to be re-designing, to better understand a typical users perspective on the product - which is very different from my own. I will use the feedback to start thinking about possible areas of improvement. Although Peter is younger than the target demographic, the user test proved invaluable and led to some useful insights which I will discuss further. 

User Profile

The Task

I asked Peter to set up the energy monitoring equipment without my help and to try using the product as he would if he had just bought it. I think the test replicates how somebody would use the product in a real world situation. However, for future user tests - especially testing of the re-design - I will set more specific tasks to try to understand how usable the product is and if the improvements have in fact improved the design. 

Setting up the Energy Monitor 

Peter set up the energy monitor without any major problems. There was, however, an ambiguity in the instructions that caused confusion. The instructions stated that whilst pairing the monitor to the transmitter, an LED on the transmitter would flash rapidly. It flashed slowly and intermittently which made Peter think he had done something wrong. After persisting with the set up, the monitor started to show a realistic energy cost per month and he assumed he had correctly set up the system.

Image 6: Reading the instructions & setting up the monitor.

Image 7: It works!

Using the Product

Initially he pointed out that he did not understand the energy reading but that the cost of energy per month is very clear and easy to understand.  

He tried turning additional appliances on to see what affect this would have on the monthly bill. After trying various televisions, lights, a kettle and a microwave he was astonished at how much extra energy was required to run these items. Although he still doesn't understand the meaning of the energy reading, he could now use the value as a reference point to gauge how much power is being used by the various appliances. As an example, putting the kettle on temporarily tripled the monthly bill, highlighting the need to only boil enough water for what is required. He can now understand when the energy consumption was high or low.

He thought the UP! feature (explained in blog post January 25th 2013) was useful to quickly  understand the impact appliances have on the energy bill.

Image 8: Initial reading before additional appliances were turned on.

Recommendations for Improvement

The middle row of readings were confusing (see image 8); on the left a bar chart comparing  the energy consumption from the last 3 days and on the right a kW/hr reading which fluctuates between the last 1, 7 and 10 days. He explained that he didn't understand what kW/hr meant (who would apart from engineers/scientists?) and that the reading was meaningless. 

Removing the middle row of readings would allow the rest of the readings to be enlarged. Considering the demographic that I am designing for, this seems like a sensible idea - even Peter had to lean forward to see the readings (image 9). 

Knowing that the device will be re-designed for an older demographic, he suggested that it might help if the buttons were larger. However, the buttons did not pose any problems to him. 

After I explained that extra sensors can be purchased to monitor individual appliances, Peter said the additional information would soon become meaningless and that he would prefer the product as it is with the above recommendations. 

I realised afterwards that if users agreed that the additional sensors were confusing and hence the feature was removed altogether from the design, the only reason for having the buttons on the display panel would be to set the time and to start pairing with the transmitter. If this is the case could the buttons be removed altogether? It seems that less information is better. If all of the important information was on the screen at once then buttons would not be required (maybe the time and pairing with could be synced via a computer). This is something I will investigate further.

Image 9: Leaning closer to read the display.