Our top priority lately has been getting everything ready for our first round of testing. We are planning on reaching out to a handful of testers this coming week and scheduling observational interviews before the end of the month. We hope to accomplish a few things with these tests:
- How do people approach discovering and purchasing a pattern?
- Is the design intuitive enough to figure out without instruction?
- What is the first impression of the design and any suggestions?
We have a clear path for testing all thanks to Zen (@zenbyhand on IG). Zen is a freelance user research and product training consultant whose experience in the field is evident with every interaction we’ve had with them. They’ve been incredibly kind answering all of our questions and walking us through every step of this new process. They’re also an avid knitter!
In other news, we received a lot of responses regarding the special edition update from Teri (@commonteri on IG). Thank you everyone for thinking about the question and submitting your responses.
Here are some suggestions that expand on the “What is diversity? Who is missing?” image:
- Crafters including weavers, spinners, loom knitters, machine knitters, felters, dyers, embroidery, cross stitch, tech editors, etc.
- Disabled might be too broad of a term and should be separated into smaller groups to understand their needs. Groups include blind, limb differences, autistic, chronic illness, neurodivergent, mental illness, etc.
- Age – old, young, etc.
- Beliefs such as Buddhism, Atheism, Paganism, Hinduism, Wiccan, etc.
- Income and varying ability to purchase materials as well as substituting materials due to allergies or mobility.
- Gender and sexuality.
- Left-handed folks.
- Travellers (includes New Travellers, Roma, Sinti, and more) and perhaps separating Pacific Islanders from Asians.
- Language
- Culture
- Workforce perspective
Asking these open-ended questions ultimately lead to more questions than it does answers. However, we believe it’s an important brainstorming exercise to intentionally think of and create for a diverse group of people.
As always, thank you for your support and openness to engage in these important conversations. You can find us @fiber.club on IG or join our Patreon.
Edit 11/9/2020: Changed wording “New Travellers (includes Roma, Sinti, and more)” to “Travellers (includes New Travellers, Roma, Sinti, and more)”
Originally posted on November 9, 2020.