Design validation
The Ford company realized in 1957 that making a perfectly functional car was not enough to achieve commercial success. Indeed, nobody wanted to buy it, and the company suffered a loss of 250 million dollars [1]. The goal of validation is to ensure that a design meets the user's needs, and it is just as important as producing a functional design. Indeed, an inadequate validation will result in designing an undesired or unsuitable product, wasting significant amounts of resources, money, and time. The increase in complexity and duration of design projects often causes the initial objectives to get forgotten. Validation closes the production loop and ensures that the functionality intended for the user is fulfilled. Traditionally, validation is performed at the end of the product design process, through direct user testing, among other methods. However, a newer validation approach is called User-Centered Design and consists of early user integration in the design process, which spreads the validation over the whole project timeline.
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Note to the reader
I realized that all the text that I uploaded Sunday wasn't saved so it would be nice if you could wait for me to add it again before giving feedback :) . Should be done for wednesday.
Big Idea
Definition of design validation
According to the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration, “Design validation means establishing by objective evidence that device specifications conform with user needs and intended use(s).“[2]. Simply put, validating a design means answering the following question: did you design the right product?
Difference with verification
Verification is linked to validation, but its goal is to make sure that the product works. It answers the question: did you design the product right?
Validation in the V-Model
The V-Model is a commonly used graphical representation of the lifecycle of a product’s development. It provides guidance to minimize the risks, reduce the total cost and improve the guarantee of quality and communication between the stakeholders. Validation steps appear on the right branch of the “V” and each of them is a mirror of a verification phase shown on the left branch.
Application
Methods
Validation methods can be divided into 2 main categories: qualitative and quantitative. They can of course be combined, and they do not all allow to analyze the product in its entirety, but only on certain aspects such as ergonomics for example. Many of these methods are mainly used in the IT field, for applications or websites. However, they are completely extrapolatable to any field involving the creation of a product or a service, and therefore to many projects. Some of them are detailed below.
| Qualitative | Quantitative | |-----------------------|---------------------| | Usability test | Data analysis | | User feedback | Metrics monitoring | | Heuristics analysis | A/B testing | | Pilot User Test | Quantitative survey | | Stakeholder interview | Pilot test |
| Titre col. A | Titre col. B | |
|---|---|---|
| Donnée 1A | Donnée 1B | |
| Donnée 2A | Donnée 2B | |
| Donnée 3A | Donnée 3B |
Qualitative methods
Nielsen's Heuristics
Nielsen’s Heuristics is a ten points checklist that highlights as many requirements as possible that need to be fulfilled by a piece of software. If only one of them is missing, then it is sure that the product will not satisfy entirely the users’ expectations. It is a powerful way to ensure that the product is relevant enough before submitting it to users' experimentation.
Pilot User Test
Products tested under this Design Validation Method are submitted to real users in real use conditions (time, environment). The testing users receive a scenario to follow which is a part of the typical use of the product. Throughout the simulation, the testers give feedback and their opinion.
Quantitative methods
Metrics
The Pilot User Test is combined with digital tools whose aims are to gather quantified data on the use of the product: number of testers at the same time, execution time, mean task realization time, etc. This data is then used by the IT team to improve the capacities of the product. The testers may also grade their experience, providing more numerical information.
User-Centered Design
A newer validation approach is called User-Centered Design and consists of early user integration in the design process, which spreads out the validation in time. A notable example of this process is open-source collaboration, in which users can provide real-time feedback and suggestions.
Examples of successful validation
Limitations
- Lack of awareness of its tremendous benefits especially in emerging countries like China, India, Brazil, and Argentina.
- External pressure (in pharmaceuticals where big amount of funds is invested.)
- Increase of design complexity (this point is a key challenge in various domains. The variables to create the right product is ever-changing and with-it outdated methods of validation fail to produce the right product quite consistently).
References
- ↑ Bahill, A. T., & Henderson, S. J. (2005). Requirements Development, Verification, and Validation Exhibited in Famous Failures. (Www.Interscience.Wiley.Com). Syst Eng, 8, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/sys.20017
- ↑ eCFR :: 21 CFR 820.3 -- Definitions. (n.d.). Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-H/part-820/subpart-A/section-820.3
