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Out of Box Experience (group project)

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BACKGROUND

Out-of-box experience (OOBE) is the experience a consumer (or user) has when preparing to first use a new product. This generally follows the point-of-sale or the interaction of an expert user.
This OOBE Test was a group assignment completed for my class on "Human Factor." Our group used The OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Spiralizer as our usability testing product. During this testing, we determined the main tasks and subtasks users will need to conduct to use the product for the first time. In addition, we asked the user to open the product, conduct all of the tasks and subtasks required to set it up, and to use it as intended for the first time.

ROLE

Filming and editing video, user research, and case study. All of the group members are responsible for conducting this experiment and analyzing user experience.

INTRODUCTION

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The OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Spiralizer

The OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Spiralizer works to create curly noodles with a variety of fruits and vegetables. Zucchini pasta, beet garnish for salads, and sweet potato curly fries are some of the many items you can make. The spiralizer’s blade design accommodates fruits and vegetables of a variety of sizes, and the non-slip grip is comfortable to hold. The spiralizer also comes with a food holder to protect your hands and act as a storage component.

Main tasks and Subtasks 

  • Entertain Guests

  • Provide visual component to meal

  • Novel food display

  • Spiralize vegetables for garnish

  • Purchase spiralizer

  • Use vegetable spiralizer

  • Open package

  • Figure out how it works

  • Read instructions

  • Cut vegetable to recommended length (at least 1.5 inch)

  • Pat the vegetable with paper towel

  • Align fruit with coring blade

  • Apply pressure while twisting vegetable clockwise

  • Arrange noodle-vegetables on plate for your guests

Hierarchy of Main Tasks

​​Feels happy when hospitable

Entertain Guests

Provide visual component to meal

Purchase vegetable spiralizer

Arrange noodle-vegetables on plate

EXPERIMENT RECORD

User Difficulties during first-time use

  • Afraid of breaking the gadget while unpacking the product.

  • Could not find directions written anywhere on the packaging.

  • Lengthy trial and error process to figure out how to use the product. It took 2 minutes to understand that the product works well if the vegetable is rotated in clockwise direction.

  • Thought cleaning vegetables from the blades is dangerous and cumbersome, and if water is used, it might reduce the sharpness .

  • Confused about the function of  the lid’s sharp pointers and needed additional directions.

  • As a left-handed person, he naturally turned the vegetable counter-clockwise and hence faced difficulty as the product only works if you rotate the vegetable clockwise 

  • Process was messy due to liquid released from the vegetable. 

  • The instruction booklet was difficult to find. The user believed that it should be more visible, as it currently blends in with the packaging, and could easily be discarded by mistake. 

  • Found the product a bit uncomfortable in terms of holding with one hand and rotating with another hand.

Additional Observations

  • Excitement about the product as he imagined possible uses.

  • Liked the product quality and features like portability etc.

  • User feels he would use this product only when guests are in his home, not on a daily basis because it is time consuming.

  • The product’s appearance made him feel it was intended for fancy garnishing and not intended for everyday use. 

Timing and level of success

The user was successful at the tasks after trying the product multiple times. He faced difficulty initially, but by using his common sense, he figured out how to use the product without reading the instructions. 

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Time on task to conduct these activities : 9 mins and 12 seconds /  Q&A took approx 5 mins.
 

REFLECTION

Takeaways

  • The main takeaway I learned from this project is that a positive OOBE is designed with logical easy-to-follow instructions and great quality of manufacturing. 

 

  • The method of Out-of-box experience is a practical way to evaluate if new products meet users' expectations or they stuck on the designer's own view, since out-of-box experience is usually the first impression a product creates, such as the effortless with which users can begin using the packaged box. 

 

  • The way how users interact with the product depends on the culture, region, age, preference, etc. As a designer, even we are not able to consider all conditions, but we should find the average in each tribe.

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