Questionnaire

After establishing a good understanding of the users with development of the persona's, which gave us a general idea of our target market. However, before focusing on the design of our tool, as to following the User-centered design (UCD) philosophy and a process in which the views and feedback of real users throughout the design process is necessary. Therefore, it seemed beneficial to get the views of our potential users as it would assist us in the design of our tool.

Obviously there are various different methods in collecting data from our potential users, such as interviews, questionnaires, observations, surveys, etc. However, a questionnaire seemed more objective, certainly so than interviews as to collecting sufficient data in a minimal time resource and being quite inexpensive to administer.

The aim of the questionnaire is to collect data from potential users, which can be invaluable in understanding the attitudes and requirements of the diverse user groups as the validity of the results are more reliant on the honesty of the respondent. This giving us a clear idea of what our potential users may want from this new educational tool and how it can be differentiated from those tools people own or that are currently available in the market.

Furthermore, the questionnaire will enable us to get rapid feedback from real users (children and their parents) who would be potential users of the tool. A good approach in making sure that our product has good usability in the market in comparison to the current educational tools.

The main points considered in development of the questionnaire were:

1. Use of factual questions

• This will help us to know our likely users better, as different users will have different preferences.

2. Use of open ended questions

• They should start with words such as “Why” and “How“, for instance “How many educational devices do you currently have?”

• To encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject's own knowledge and/or feelings

• The question should lead generally for the person to think analytically and critically about the tool

• Advantages:

• Greater freedom of expression to respondent

• Enable us to see whether we miss out few details about our tool, which might be core to touch a broader audience with it

• Also, when we ask open-ended questions, children reap great benefits as they think through their responses to express what they want to say. Then with their answers, we find out more about what they think and feel

• Disadvantages:

• They can become a bit problematic as we can misinterpret and therefore misclassify a response

• Time-consuming to answer

3. Use of close ended questions

• Tend to encourage a short or single-word answer (i.e. “Are you a boy or a girl?”)

• Lead to a straightforward answer (i.e. Boy/Girl). Further examples include: “Yes/No”, “Don’t know”, “Not Applicable”, etc. Thus, limiting the response.

• Styles of closed ended questions that will be included in the questionnaire will consist of:

• Likert-scale: To assess a person's feelings (“Least Satisfied” or “Most Satisfied”)

• Multiple-choice: Giving the respondent a finite number of options and instructing them to the number of answers to select

We will take all of these points mentioned in consideration for construction of our questionnaire and ensuring that the questions are a combination of factual, open and close ended questions. The questionnaire will be for children and their parents, as parents are the source of income and the purchasers of such tools for their child‘s benefit.

Our questionnaire will have clear headings for child/parent questions and will be short enough to allow people who do not have time to complete a tedious long questionnaire.

Below, our Questionnaire: