Prototype Interviews

I conducted interviews over the final prototype and the rough version of it with my family; it was all one big conversation, so different people answered more questions than others.  My dad and Paul both did interviews before, so they already knew the context of the project, but I hadn’t interviewed my mom before; I interviewed her instead of my grandmother, and she was the most responsive.

What was your first impression of the prototype?

Mom:  I liked it, I thought it was cute.  I thought it looked fun.  You would never have thought of making something like that.

Dad:  It’s cool.

Does the function seem obvious?  Can you look it and say “this is what this is”?

Mom:  Well I can tell it dispenses those capsule things.  If you hadn’t told me it was toothpaste, I wouldn’t have known, it’s so different and innovative.  It’s nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Dad:  The toothbrush sticking out of the top helps.

Mom:  That seems like a good thing.

Is this something you’d have room for and/or have in your bathroom?

Mom:  Yeah I think there’d be room, it’s not too big.

And the plan was to make it have a mount, so it could go on the wall.

Mom:  Oh yeah, that’s doable.  It’s also about the size of one of those Dixie cup dispensers.

Do you think having the little case come with it would be helpful?

Mom:  Oh yeah, and maybe I could actually get on an airplane with it, since [the capsules are] not gel or liquid.

Do you think the new prototype is an improvement over the last one?

Mom:  Definitely.

Dad:  I can’t even tell what that first one is.

The first one was wider and shorter.  Is the new shape better?

Mom:  Definite improvement, considering the space issues in bathrooms.

Dad:  The slimmer it is, the more room there is for it.

Is there a different kind of container you’d like better?

Mom:  Well it’s nice that it does double duty and holds my toothbrush as well as the toothpaste…

Dad:  It seems like you could make it smaller.

Yeah, I thought it was tall myself.  Of course, the other thing is we were thinking about having the capsules bought in bulk, to be economic.

Mom:  Well sure.  There’s less mess too.  Like today, I found toothpaste on the rug in the bathroom.

How about the capsules overall?

Mom:  They look like the exact right size.

Mom:  What flavor is the toothpaste?

We were thinking that there’d be several kinds, mint, cinnamon, bubblegum…etc., and you could buy different packages and mix flavors in the dispenser if you wanted.

Now that you see the prototype, does that change your opinion of the capsule idea?

Paul:  It looks more plausible [than the first one] now that it’s not just cardboard.

Mom:  You know what I thought of, you could put the exact number of capsules you need for your trip [in the carrying case]; when you pack a tube, you have no idea if it’s enough.

What do you like about the dispenser and what don’t you like?

Paul:  Well the question is, do you have to push it in or something?  For a dispenser, I’m used ot pushing a button or pulling a lever or something.

Well it’s only a rough thing.  Originally we thought of having a button that would make a capsule that comes out, but right now you just slide the door open.

What do you think of the size and shape?

Paul:  The shape and size looks fine.

Mom:  As far as space-saving features go, that’s probably the best kind of shape.

Is there anything you like about the rough prototype that wasn’t in the final design or vice versa?

Paul:  The first one doesn’t have the little case, which you’d want if you were going on vacation.  The sh ape of the new one is better.  It looks like a better design than the box shape.

What about the other rough prototypes, what do you think of them?

Mom:  well, they also solve the problem of getting the paste out of the tube, and not being wasteful.

Paul:  It’s hard to say, they just look kind of different in the way they dispense.

Mom:  It seems like [the new one] would keep it cleaner than the tree.

If you were to design a dispenser for the capsules, how would you do it differently, or do you like our prototype best?

Dad:  What about like a pez dispenser, it’d be handy so you’d just get one at a time.

We had that idea too!  We didn’t do it though.

Paul:  Maybe one like a candy machine, and you’d twist the handle and it would drop down a chute.

I actually drew a design like that, it was one of our original designs, but we decided not to do it.  I guess because it was a kid sort of thing.

Mom:  Well I think it would be better to have a button instead of a crank if you did the candy machine one, since it would be harder for older people.