The Light-Up Coaster
The Light-Up coaster is an interactive coaster designed for parties, get togethers, or simply a casual evening at home. Simply place a translucent glass on the coaster and the blue LEDs will turn on creating a fun atmosphere, lighting up your drink, and brightening the room. To turn off the LEDs just take your glass off. The metal piece on top is also interchangeable so you can simply remove it and replace it with a different design.
To test the product users were given the coaster and then asked questions. They were first asked the following establishing questions: Have you ever used a coaster before? and What aspects do you look for in a coaster?
They were then asked to perform a series of tasks to determine if the coaster was functional and easy to use. The first task was to get the coaster to light up, once accomplished the user was asked to rate the difficulty of determining how to do this on a scale of 1-10. The second task was to get the coaster to turn off its lights, once accomplished the user was again asked to rate the difficulty of determining how to do this on a scale of 1-10. The final task was testing durability, the user was asked to pick up the coaster and move it around and then rate on a scale from 1-10 the durability with a follow-up question of why they gave it that rating.
The user was then asked the following questions about the overall quality and any improvements or changes they would like to see: Were there any features you would have liked to see in the design? Are there any features you would like to have removed? Would you use this product?
The main feedback was that the affordance of moving the glass on and off the coaster made it simple to determine the functionality. One problem, however, was that the battery pack powering the lights has to be turned on first which is extremely difficult to do. Another piece of feedback is that while most of the coaster is sturdy the metal top is not secured and easily falls off when picked up. The aesthetic was also brought up in that incorporating the metal with wood looked very nice, however, being able to see the wires through the cutout metal detracted from the look. Overall, users thought the concept was good ad would use it.
