Happiness
MTV wanted to better understand its American market. Peel conducted primary research with youth to explore factors influencing happiness and get into the minds of their targeted market. Discussion groups were held in Starbucks throughout the country. Collaging was used to get at youth aspirations, allow for individual expression before the groups, and to prime the participants for the discussion. A prioritization exercise allowed MTV to discover what was most important to their target audience. Hypotheses were supported and new areas determining and influencing youth happiness were found.
Read one of the press releases
Music
XM Satellite Radio wanted to create the next generation of handheld music products. A study was done to understand what's working and what's not with current handheld products, as well as understand expectations for future product. Participants created a visual representation of their ideal product. Likes, dislikes, forms, and features emerged and were translated into design.
Typing
More than ninety million adults in the United States use a computer keyboard. Jasper Designworks wanted to evaluate the ergonomic impact of their Freeboard keyboard to understand its benefit in terms of comfort, health, and productivity. The keyboards were installed in a high-profile financial company in New York City. Seated work posture, wrist angle, and measures of comfort were taken. The impact of the new keyboard was used for marketing, and design recommendations were implemented.
Explore the product's website.
Think
MTV's social activism campaign for teens, needed further definition. Peel conducted research to better understand what social issues are most relevant to teens, and the language and aesthetics associated with the topics. Recommendations were used to improve the content, language, organization, and aesthetics of the online Think campaign.
See MTV's Think site.
Men's Grooming
Philips wanted to identify trends in men's grooming to inform new product direction in the category. By looking at the influences on men's grooming such as changes in gender roles, new emerging spaces for men, and competitive grooming products, Peel helped identify the future direction of the category. Profiles of target market users were created to help translate the the findings into scenarios and further explore new product concepts.
Cell Phone for the Visually Impaired
Physical limitations can create the need for a new product use-case. Diving into the world of the visually-impaired allowed Nextel to design a more usable cell phone interface. Text-to-speech, audible additions, and tactile cues were added to an existing Nextel phone. Using interview and discussion group methods with visually impaired participants, we evaluated the prototype and gained feature insights which led to a more universal design.
Mesh
Motorola knew it wanted to enter the firefighting market with its Mesh technology. Design Research, Human Factors and Industrial Design were brought into the product development process. We explored the firefighting world to inform the design direction. How would the product work? How would the information be viewed by a commander?
The team was off to discover the current behaviors of firefighters and commanders. Using observation, interview, and discussion group methods, Motorola developed guidelines for the product. Concepts were generated based on device deployment, features, and maximizing safety to firefighters. Mesh is now one of Motorola's most promising technologies.
Learn more about Mesh
MultiTouch
Well before speech or language was developed, hand gesture was an important mode of communication. As a means to find a compelling, easier way to interact with computers, we wanted to find out if gestural input was better than other modes of computer input. Fingerworks developed a MultiTouch surface, a common surface for keyboard, cursor positioning, and gestural input. A study was done to compare MultiTouch against the mouse and touchpad for speed, preference, and wrist posture.
Read the journal proceedings and learn more about the study.
Download proceedings
