Presentation
Formative Methods Early in the Design Process: Strategies and Lessons Learned
SessionPoster Session 1
DescriptionHuman factors formative evaluations are essential in early design stages to understand user interaction, uncover usability challenges, and identify design improvement opportunities before changes become costly or are limited due to design freeze. Methods used may include expert-based methods (e.g., expert review, cognitive walkthrough, and heuristic evaluation) and user-based methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups, and simulated use with low- or high-fidelity prototypes). Early formative evaluations benefit the design process by providing insights into the context of use and by challenging assumptions about user groups, use environments, workflows, and pain points. However, early formative evaluations also pose challenges. Specifically, budget and timeline constraints, confusion towards the purpose of including human factors practitioners early in the process, unstable design concepts and scope, and difficulty accessing intended users or use environments pose difficulties in implementing early formative evaluations.
This poster will highlight strategies for addressing these challenges, including partnering with other internal company projects, leveraging internal users, conducting remote evaluations, evaluating low-fidelity or modular prototypes, and educating project teams on potential cost and time savings of implementing human factors early in design. Additionally, this poster will outline lessons learned to promote efficiencies in early formative evaluations, including creating a collaborative, team-populated database to drive evaluation scope and crafting broad concept recommendation that remain relevant even when early-stage features may change. Overall, the overarching benefit of conducting formative evaluations early in the development process is the ability to influence a safer and more effective product and support a smooth summative evaluation. Identifying potential use errors with the user interface early, specifically those critical to safety, allows more time to address and mitigate the risk while the design is malleable. The outlined strategies and lessons learned aim to enable human factors practitioners to promote formative evaluations earlier in the design process as well as execute effective evaluations with meaningful impact.
Application: This poster will provide insight to human factors practitioners designing human factors evaluation plans in understanding benefits, challenges, strategies for implementing, and lessons learned for early formative evaluations.
This poster will highlight strategies for addressing these challenges, including partnering with other internal company projects, leveraging internal users, conducting remote evaluations, evaluating low-fidelity or modular prototypes, and educating project teams on potential cost and time savings of implementing human factors early in design. Additionally, this poster will outline lessons learned to promote efficiencies in early formative evaluations, including creating a collaborative, team-populated database to drive evaluation scope and crafting broad concept recommendation that remain relevant even when early-stage features may change. Overall, the overarching benefit of conducting formative evaluations early in the development process is the ability to influence a safer and more effective product and support a smooth summative evaluation. Identifying potential use errors with the user interface early, specifically those critical to safety, allows more time to address and mitigate the risk while the design is malleable. The outlined strategies and lessons learned aim to enable human factors practitioners to promote formative evaluations earlier in the design process as well as execute effective evaluations with meaningful impact.
Application: This poster will provide insight to human factors practitioners designing human factors evaluation plans in understanding benefits, challenges, strategies for implementing, and lessons learned for early formative evaluations.
Event Type
Poster Presentation
TimeMonday, March 234:45pm - 6:15pm EDT
LocationRhinelander Gallery
Medical and Drug Delivery Devices