User Testing

I had few user testing section with students and professor from California College of the Arts. My approach was showing them the material and ask them what do they feel about it, what it reminds them of, and what usage case of this material they can think of/ accept. Then I explained what is scoby and my goal is to use this material to replace plastic usage in food packaging, and asked if that change their opinion about this material. Finally, I asked if they can imagine themselves using this material.

After few user testing, these are the comment concerns they had about this material:

1. The Smell: Because socby is the by-product of fermented drink--Kombucha, it contains the vinegary smell.People don't want to carry a smelly product around. Even though adding baking soda will help with the smell but still maintain some kind of aroma (depends on what the raw materials are used). I think my challenge will be how to let people accept the smell as it is.
2. The sanitary concern: Knowing the fact that this scoby material is made out of a drink, users can't help thinking how long will this material persevere and how clean it is.
3. Waterproof or not: Almost every interviewee asked if this material is waterproof or not.

There are also something that surprise me from the conversation:

1. Show it as it is, don't try to present something it is not.
2. They are okay to use this product as food wrapper which is for temporary usage rather than permanent usage; like being a backpack
3. This material reminds them of food and this property help them adapt the concept of food packaging easier.

I think the challenge for me is how could I let public accept scoby as it is, without trying to advertising it into other materials.

Originally my idea was to build an app but after talking to my professor Kate Rutter, I realized I should have a landing page for people who don't familiar with this area because asking user downloading an app requires the user already have some understanding of what scoby it. So my next step will be building a landing page for my concept.

Crossing the Chasm