User Research Report: V&A Museum's Fashion Future VR Project, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Research Methodology

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Student Name:_______________

Subject Name________________

USER RESEARCH – INDIVIDUAL

REPORT

V&A – FASHION FUTURE

Individual Report

Supervisor: ___________

Tutor: ________________

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. State of the Art Research
• 2. Collaborative Project - Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) Fashion Future
• 3. User Research
  • 3.1. Contextual Interviews
  • 3.2. Individual Interviews
  • 3.3. Persona
  • 3.4. Usability Testing
• 4. Discussion
• Reference.................................................................................................................
• Appendix
• Appendix I - Contextual Interview Preparation
• Appendix II - Contextual Interview Questionnaire
• Appendix III - Interview Questionnaire......................................................................
• Appendix IV - Persona

2. Collaborative Project - Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) Fashion Future

V&A Museum, a leading museum in art and fashion acknowledge the importance of VR allowing its visitors to experience fashion showcase from different perspectives. Research found that fashion industries are considering VR operation on the catwalks and fashion shows where visitors were given an opportunity to view new collections encompassing brand experience (Arthur, 2016).

This project focuses on fashion design that allows visitors to interact with mannequin and customise the outfit based on their preferences. VR can contribute a lot to museum that increase the feeling of being presence among young people. A short demonstration conducted by our team member Philip at V&A found that visitors were overwhelmed by the technology and were excited to have it in future.

Fig 1.1. Visitors with VR Experience

3. User Research

How well do we know our user? This is the important questions that makes a big different in any project or research forming a solid foundation determining the future of projects (Canziba, 2018). With properly conducted user research can give us insight of their behaviours, needs, and motivations.

User research methods guided by user-centred design (UCD) process applied in this project:

Methods Know Your User Content Design Test & Refine

Contextual Interviews

YES NO NO NO

Focus Groups YES YES YES NO

Individual Interviews

YES YES YES YES

Personas YES NO NO NO

Task Analysis YES NO NO NO

Usability Testing YES YES YES YES

Table 1: User Research Methods (Kuniavsky, 2010)

3.1. Contextual Interviews

During this interview process, participants are observed how they interact in the virtual environment. Synder (2003) suggests that no task or scenarios should be provided rather they were allowed to freely interact with the product or UI. We closely watch the activities of user. This enable us to get insight of user’s perception how comfortable they felt with the equipment, whether they experienced any kinds of health issues or not and were they able to accomplish the task they started or not. There are number of health issues such as motion sickness, fear when they use VR.

Participants Issues

PA001 Holding the controller, commented that UI made him little bit dizzy

PA002 Took time in making selection of controls and keeps scrolling

PA003 Fairly performed better than other participants but was taking time to accomplish small task

PA004 Requested assistant while making selections since participants was new to the VR

3.2. Individual Interviews

Individual interview attempts to determine deeper empathetic of user’s demographics, attitudes, desires, beliefs, motivations, and experiences (Olsen, 2015). It is one of the most common methods used in UX research to uncover user. Open-ended question was used to determine how they think about the issues and context. Before ending the session, participants were provided with paper-based sketch of outfit to customise it how they want it to look like. We used this session to know about user desire in customising the outfit which will help use to develop UI for the proposed VR Experience.

Interview Process

 Step 1: Introduction of interviewee and participants  Step 2: Project descriptions (in short)  Step 3: QA session  Step 4: Scenario and Task  Step 5: Feedback from participants  Step 6: Session end

Individual Interview Session

Participants provided with their preferences and gave feedback what further can be done so that visitors can gain fullest VR experience whilst using this VR technology.

During interview process, participants gave feedback on development of UI design to help visitor use the VR Experience enabling quick learning process.

Participant VR Experience Feedback Given

1 Played games Easy interface

2 Never Control of interactive elements

3 Used for academic purpose Avoid visual distractions

4 Never Provide list of texture, details, patterns and range of colour selections

Fig 1. 4. Customised Outfit – Paper based

Fig 1. 3. Interview – Scenario and Task Session

3.3. Persona

Personas were created based on the information collected during contextual and individual interview session. Personas has important role in UX research. Tomlin (2018) strongly underline necessities on having personas that will lead team in conducting user behavioural analysis, usability testing, or data analysis. Persona helps in determining critical task by filtering information that will help in making decision for UX activity (Gothelf and Seiden, 2016).

Persona of Users

Fig 1.3. Student Persona

Fig 1.4. Customer Assistant - Persona

4. Discussion

V&A project is aimed to be used by different age groups and must accompanied by UI design principles and ethics. Though there are claims made regarding health and safety, further research is essential to enhance experience to its best. Coming to the final concept of design necessities, VR for V&A will have mannequin with outfits that visitors can interact with. Visitors are given options, most importantly seated preference to be offered in order to avoid incident.

Overall, there were various challenges working in a team and the project was novel to few members including me. With the supportive nature of other team members, we were finally able to come up with innovative solutions that can improve visitor’s museum visit experience.

Further, collaborative workshops conducted by fellow UX members Jim and Yuko gave more in-depth understanding of key context and user interactions assisted in designing experience. More research and workshops are essential in future to overcome issues in enhancing user experiences that are not foreseen now due to limited research.

Reference

Arthur, R. (2016). How tech stole the show at fashion week. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2016/sep/23/tech- fashion-week-burberry-tommy-hilfiger-virtual-reality [Accessed 15 Jan. 2019].

Canziba, E. (2018) Hands-On UX Design for Developers. Birmingham: Packt Publishing Ltd.

Gothelf, J. and Seiden, J. (2016) Lean UX. Sebastoptol, CA: O'Reilly Media, Inc., p.36.

Hirose, M. (2005). Virtual Reality Technology and Museum Exhibit. In: O. Balet, G. Subsol and P. Torguet, ed., Virtual Storytelling. Using Virtual Reality Technologies for Storytelling , 1st ed. [online] Berlin Heidelberg: Springer- Verlag, pp.3-11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/11590361_1 [Accessed 19 Jan. 2019].

Kuniavsky, M. (2010) Observing the user experience. San Francisco, Calif: Morgan Kaufmann.

Linowes, J. and Schoen, M. (2016). Cardboard VR projects for Android. Birmingham, UK: Packt Publishing, p.19.

Marty, P. and Jones, K. (2009) Museum informatics. New York: Routledge, p.5.

Murphy, A. (2018) Technology in Museums – introducing new ways to see the cultural world - Museums + Heritage Advisor. Museums + Heritage Advisor. [Online]. Available at: https://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/features/technology-museums- introducing-new-ways-see-cultural-world/ [Accessed: 16 January 2019].

Nguyen, H., Hackett, M. and Johnson, B. (2003) Testing applications on the Web. Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley Pub., p.216.

Olsen, D. (2015) The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, p.231.

Rowland, M. (2018). Museums are most popular heritage attraction among young people | Museums Association. [online] Museums Association. Available at: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/10122018-fifth- young-people-never-visit-museums [Accessed 5 Jan. 2019].

Williamson, J. and Palmer, C. (2018). Virtual Reality Blueprints. Birmingham: Packt Publishing, p.218.

Appendix

Appendix I - Contextual Interview Preparation

Workshop Preparation

Step 1

Booked the cave – Location Kingston University Step 2

Time allocation for participants – 15 minutes for each participant

Step 3

Setup the room – ready to use

Step 4

Short introduction session to make participants comfortable

Step 5

Ask participants to use VR and explore virtual world

Observer notes

Participants Ease of use Completed Task Issues PA001 Y – fair – UI problem Y (noted dizziness due to main UI - screen)

UI visions

PA002 N – not really Y Many controls, lost in navigations PA003 Y – but stuck in UI Y Slow user, facing issues in menu PA004 N – poor performance N (could not use VR for more than 5 minutes)

Having difficulties in making selection

Appendix II - Contextual Interview Questionnaire

Your Name:

Profession:

Introduction of Project

1. How often do you use VR?
2. Do you feel comfortable in virtual world?
3. Controls were ease of use?
4. Do you prefer to use VR standing or sitting?
5. Do you encourage others to use VR?

(Sample)

Third session (QA between moderator and participants)

How do you feel?

Based on this workshop, do you like to see any functions in the final project? Can you name some options that you think will have more impact?

Appendix IV - Persona