PROBLEMS:
- Labs are very difficult and time-consuming for research teams to build
- Traditional labs cannot be easily moved
SOLUTION:
- An off-the-shelf, turnkey lab
The process to design, plan, build, and manage a UX Lab takes significant time and money.
Even for large companies with multiple labs, the process is the same for each new lab built using traditional methods (building / converting a fixed room) and does not scale well. Each new lab built in a large organisation costs MORE time and money, not less.
Even then, each build is different, with many small compromises combining to make each lab different, and to significantly reduce the usability of the spaces and their effectiveness for research teams.
A research team needs research and design spaces that are:
- Reliable
- Multi-functional
- Identical
User Pod is our project to address these needs; it is a complete off-the-shelf lab…
Building a traditional lab or design space takes on average 6-12months … User Pod can be delivered and installed in a day.
Traditional Lab
- Takes months / years of planning
- No two labs built the same
- Compromises mean the labs don’t meet Research needs
- Cannot be moved
User Pod
- Delivered and built in 1-2 days
- Every User Pod is identical
- No compromises needed to build User Pods
- Can move multiple times
As with all our labs, User Pod is built around UX Lab-in-a-box so has all of the features needed for use in all modern research methodologies.
“Participant pod”
User Pod can be controlled remotely, allowing the researcher to run sessions from anywhere and manage them over video conferencing or streaming.
Participants are met by a ‘greeter’, shown to a sanitised pod, all technology is set up, then the researcher connects remotely and begins the session. The greeter is on-hand nearby for logistical or technical issues.
COVID-19
User Pod contains almost entirely hard surfaces, meaning it can be thoroughly sterilised and wiped down.
All areas that participants interact with can be cleaned between sessions.
The entire pod can be cleansed internally overnight using UV.
Our prototype User Pod is at our office – by the canal side in Hackney, East London. You / your team can visit, or we can arrange a remote demo via video conference or streaming.