Interactive Industrial Design and the Wave RTA Project – Part II

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Intro

“…Innovation is a new idea, more effective device or process.[1] Innovation can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, inarticulated needs, or existing market needs.[2] This is accomplished through more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. The term innovation can be defined as something original and more effective and, as a consequence, new, that “breaks into” the market or society.[3]…”

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When the project of the Wave was conceived, we framed the goals of the new atomiser with the help of a list of DOS and DON’TS (more about this in the upcoming Part III).

This list was based on a procedure of identifying the needs of ourselves, blended with the needs of the vaping community (also see Part I).

It’s been a really demanding procedure, which we have tried to see as a continuous exercise in creative problem solving. We have aimed to give adequate answers on how to achieve each and every goal implied by this basic list of DOS and DON’TS of the Wave initial design frame.

Now, putting things right: No ambition for a nobel prize here, or claim for inventing the “vaping wheel”. However, innovation surely has a completely different meaning from invention.
And the Wave definitely is an innovative atomiser.

Shedding Light on the Public Testing Procedure

Then, you may ask:

“If that’s the case, does Atmizone need the vaping community after all? Why is the public testing phase necessary?”

For a start, Atmizone has already utilised the contribution of the vaping community. As already explained, we have not been waiting for this final stage to turn to the community for help.
First of all, the vaping community has helped indirectly with the aforementioned list of DOS and DON’TS.
Afterwards, our closest members of the Greek vaping community have formed our small team of Atmizone testers. With their feedback we have made important additions, alterations and finally ended up with the current Wave prototypes.
What we ended up with, is a fully targeted atomiser, with diligently specified specs. By all means original, absolutely effective in terms of design and function. Above all, offering answers as per how to do everything as straight as possible, while at the same time suggesting clear alternatives. A real Wave of change regarding how things have been designed and brought to market up to now.
And this is a achievement of both Atmizone *and* the vaping community.

Right now, Atmizone needs vapers for the public testing phase.
This phase is useful for two important reasons:

1. The Wave in its current form is great. However, great is better than good but worse than excellent.

2. There can always be factors that we, or our team of testers, might have missed. It is a matter of statistics. The bigger the sample size, the safest the results.

Here is the plan of how the public testing procedure will be held out.

We will be starting with the official announcement of the public testing release.
This release will take place on a set date and time, due to be scheduled until mid August.
The public testing release actually includes 80 slots of public testers.

Each and every public testing dispatch will include the Wave RTA testing device and an email with an attached questionnaire. This questionnaire will guide each tester towards the feedback we need in detail, through targeted questions.
We have ended up to the use of a questionnaire, for a number of reasons. Some of them:

a. Questionnaires are more practical and to the point as per what kind of feedback is asked for.

b. Questionnaires can be analysed in a more effective way, and they can help so that no information/feedback is left out. The structure of the questions will help us quantify the answers if needed, with rating etc.

Some blank fields will also be there for extra comments, to overcome any restrictions from the nature of the questions.

The testing period is meant to last one week from the day that the devices are in the hands of the testers. After this, all questionnaires are to be sent back to us for evaluation. We know that this period is not enough for exhausting testing. However, it is quite sufficient for effective testing if the tester deals with the device on a daily basis, also in a focused way.

We wish that the time margins were a tad bit larger. However, revealing the design of a new product publicly before its official release is already a bold action. We should also have the time to incorporate any radical or important change of design into the batch of the upcoming official release, already scheduled tightly one week to ten days after the end of the public testing period.
Additionally, there is a “safety net” to prevent from losing valuable feedback: If the public testing feedback brings along changes that can not pass to the Wave’s final design in time for the official release, we will definitely take them into account for the next batch.

Atmizone has always been following a functional design approach that takes community feedback seriously into account, focusing on innovation and thorough engineering. With the Wave RTA project we are trying to take things more than one step forward: interactive industrial design and public testing are extrovert procedures new to the industry common practice. With your help, we intend to make them a trend.

*Sketches in this post by courtesy of ThanoRaf*