040 | Desirability Testing |
Gauging first-impression emotional responses to product and service designs
- Desirability testing explores the affective response that different designs elicit from people based on first impressions.
- Using index cards with positive, neutral, and negative adjectives written on them, participants pick those that describe how they feel about a design or prototype.
- Testing can focus attention on responses from end users, instead of on personal opinions that often leave teams at an impasse.
- When the process is applied repeatedly, the team can begin to compare and cluster the words that are most frequently chosen and visualize the results.
- The method helps focus the design team efforts on shaping the exact emotional response they want people to have while using their products.
- It can be conducted using low-fidelity prototypes or on products already in the public domain as a baseline before the team embarks on a redesign.
See alsoTriangulation • Usability Testing • Value Opportunity Analysis
Microsoft Product Reaction Cards are a powerful tool for gathering emotional feedback.
Quality | Appearance | Ease of Use | Motivation | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
version 1 (n=14) | ||||
Comprehensive (2) | Professional (2) | Usable (2) | Compelling Engaging Exciting Fresh Innovative Motivating Novel Stimulating |
|
version 2 (n=12) | ||||
Comprehensive (2) | Appealing (2) | Useful (5) | Relevant (4) |
|
version 3 (n=4) | ||||
Advanced (2) | Friendly (4) | Easy to use (6) | Motivating | Fast (3) |
Courtesy of Carol M. Barnum and Laura A. Palmer