CRyder Design

Although testing is the last stage in the Design Thinking process, it by no means that the process is complete. By testing, you may realize some flaws in the design of your product that you may not have previously noticed without user research. In order to fix those flaws, you might have to return to a previous phase. In the video “Module 6: Test” Professor Hastings states, “This might not actually be the end of the process. And just a reminder I said that this could actually be an infinite loop that we are on in terms of our Design Thinking process.” This means that in this process, you might have to return to certain phases multiple times just to perfect your final product to the best of your abilities.

Testing is an integral part of the process. After being exposed to a product for so long, the designer becomes comfortable with it and understands its ins and outs. However, what the designer sees as simple may not come across that way to a user. The only way to figure that out is through testing. In the article “Stage 5 in the Design Thinking Process: Test” authors Rikke Dam and Teo Siang state, “If users experience difficulties, then the design team must revisit their list of potential solutions and strategies in order to establish new ways of solving the same problems. User feedback is priceless; without an understanding of what users need in order to carry out specific activities and tasks, the iterative process will fail.” User research plays such an important role in the Design Thinking process as a whole, not just one step.

However, if you don’t dig deep into what your users are thinking as they interact with your test product, the feedback you will get is merely scraping the surface of the useful information that you really need to know. Although it may be challenging, it is just as important to get negative feedback as it is positive feedback. In the article “How to Get More Honest Feedback in User Testing” the author states, “The trouble with this is that when people feel good, they tend to produce nothing but positive feedback. Countering this requires a certain amount of additional effort. What you want to do is walk them back through the process and collect feedback at each stage of the process. Refer to your observations and bring up any issues that you saw them encounter on the way through.” It is crucial that as a designer you do not settle for what you want to hear. You might need to persuade the user to give you feedback on what needs to be improved even if it is a slight adjustment. 

Testing is significant to the Design Thinking process. It is like a trial run for your product before it enters the real world. In that trial run, you can hit all of the bumps in the road, fix the product, learn from the mistakes, and continue moving in an even better direction.