User-centred design practice questions.

A school buys one fixed-height workbench for a technology room used by students aged 11 to 18, and the bench height has been set so that the tallest students can work without stooping. Which single addition most reduces the ergonomic mismatch for the smallest students?

• Fit a larger vice to the bench top
• Increase the front-to-back depth of the bench top
• Fit lockable castors so the bench can be moved between rooms
• Provide a raised standing platform for the smallest students

Answer: Provide a raised standing platform for the smallest students

When a working height cannot be lowered, the standard remedy is to raise the small user to it, so that the elbows come back to bench height instead of the shoulders being lifted to reach it. A larger vice, extra depth and castors change what the bench can do but leave the height mismatch untouched.

A team states the context for a new product as: a community allotment in a town where plot holders keep hand tools in a shared shed. Which further information most improves this statement for specification writing?

• The names of three brands of hand tool sold locally
• How many tools each plot holder keeps and the space free in the shed
• An account of how allotment gardening in the town has changed over the past century
• The student's own preference for timber rather than steel

Answer: How many tools each plot holder keeps and the space free in the shed

A context statement earns its place by supplying quantities and constraints that later become numbered specification points, such as tool count and available volume. Background history and the designer's own material preference constrain nothing that can be tested.

A makerspace has chosen a fixed wall tool board over a mobile tool trolley because the same two volunteers work at one bench every session. Which single change in the situation would reverse that decision?

• The tools are needed at three benches by volunteers who rotate weekly.
• One extra hand tool is added to the set kept in the space.
• The wall behind the bench is repainted in the summer break.
• The volunteers are given a written list of the tools held.

Answer: The tools are needed at three benches by volunteers who rotate weekly.

The decision rested on one fact about the users: a stable pair of people working in one place. Once the same tools must serve several benches and changing volunteers, mobility outweighs the order of a fixed board, while the other changes leave the deciding fact untouched.

A library specifies self-service kiosks whose receipt roll can be replaced only by unbolting the rear panel with a tool. Borrowers are unaffected by this. Which group carries the cost of the decision?

• The borrowers who queue at the kiosk each morning.
• The suppliers who deliver the receipt rolls to each branch site.
• The readers who ask for a paper receipt at the desk.
• The library staff who reload the kiosk during opening hours.

Answer: The library staff who reload the kiosk during opening hours.

A decision that is invisible to the primary user can still transfer time and effort to another group. User-centred design counts everyone in the product's working life, including the people who reload, clean and service it several times a day.

A transport operator tests a new ticket barrier with twelve participants, all of them members of its own station staff, and reports that the barrier is quick to learn. Which flaw most weakens that conclusion?

• Twelve participants is too few to time a task to the nearest second.
• The participants were not told what the barrier was for.
• The participants already know how the operator's equipment works.
• The test measured learning instead of counting errors.

Answer: The participants already know how the operator's equipment works.

Staff bring knowledge that passengers do not have, so the result describes practised users and says nothing about a first encounter. What makes trial evidence transferable is how well the participants represent the intended users, not how many of them there were.

A wearable alarm for older residents passes every technical test, yet six months after issue most residents keep it in a drawer. Which omission in the development process best accounts for this?

• Acceptance in daily life was never tested with residents.
• The alarm was tested by engineers before it was issued.
• The battery life was specified before the case was designed.
• The alarm was made in one batch rather than in several.

Answer: Acceptance in daily life was never tested with residents.

A product can satisfy every functional requirement and still fail because it is not accepted: appearance, the impression it gives to others and the routine it must fit into are user requirements too, and only the users themselves can report on them.