How do you evaluate the concept for a smartphone service, that presupposes a smart personalization technology which doesn’t yet exist? And that needs to be tested in the wild, not in the lab?
Together with the Deutsche Telekom Creation Center, we responded to this challenge by creating a complete evaluation platform in which the smart technology is simulated by the “Wizard of Oz” – in other words, a couple of colleagues took the seat of the computer and delivered the desired service manually. The testers were aware that they were participating in an evaluation study — but they assumed to be experiencing a real service.
Over a period of three weeks, a group of a dozen testers were monitored and cared for using our custom-made web tool. Based on the real-time feedback the participants delivered via video, audio, or text, the service was continuously enhanced and refined.
Consequently, the feedback gathered in the study proved to be highly valuable. As the client formulated in the summary workshop:
“This is by far the most realistic and useful evaluation of a mobile service I have ever taken part in.”
This work was presented as an academic paper at the WCI 2012 – Wireless Communication and Information Mobile Society.
Smart Contextual Services
How do you evaluate the concept for a smartphone service, that presupposes a smart personalization technology which doesn’t yet exist? And that needs to be tested in the wild, not in the lab?
Together with the Deutsche Telekom Creation Center, we responded to this challenge by creating a complete evaluation platform in which the smart technology is simulated by the “Wizard of Oz” – in other words, a couple of colleagues took the seat of the computer and delivered the desired service manually. The testers were aware that they were participating in an evaluation study — but they assumed to be experiencing a real service.
Over a period of three weeks, a group of a dozen testers were monitored and cared for using our custom-made web tool. Based on the real-time feedback the participants delivered via video, audio, or text, the service was continuously enhanced and refined.
Consequently, the feedback gathered in the study proved to be highly valuable. As the client formulated in the summary workshop:
“This is by far the most realistic and useful evaluation of a mobile service I have ever taken part in.”
This work was presented as an academic paper at the WCI 2012 – Wireless Communication and Information Mobile Society.