Nerf gun userstudy

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Nerf_gun#User_Study COLLEGE CAMPUS USER STUDY recorded by Gregory Valvik

Experimenters: Ian Norman, Greg Valvik, Tracy Ziev.
Products: Big Bad Bow, Rapid Fire AS-20, and Buzz Saw
Environment: Study conducted during and in between class time in a very high foot traffic area of Carnegie Mellon University campus, Pittsburgh. The weather was sunny.
User Population: The sampling comprised of Carnegie Mellon University students and faculty as well as some unaffiliated individuals. Participation was voluntary.
Method: Users were given a gun and were told we were observing them using it. Some users were given more explanation as to why we were conducting the study. Users were not given instruction on how to use the gun. The data presented below is paraphrased quotes and general observations recorded by the experimenters.

USER 1- Male CMU Mechanical Engineering student

Buzz Saw-
user winds up the flywheel, releases 3 rounds
“slow reaction, feels kinda laggy, anti-climatic”
Rapid Fire AS-20-
Ian: “you got to pump it 30 times”
User: “well that’s annoying”
user pumped it, fires entire clip
“Okay that’s cool, that’s my favorite so far. This one is the best”
starts loading
“This process sucks”
user suggestions: “replaceable clip”, “use some sort of power instead of pumping”

USER 2 – Female CMU student
Big Bad Bow
She resisted. Didn’t “find it fun to touch someone... [hurt someone]”

USER 3 – Female CMU student
asked if it was fun to play with them
we said yes
she declined anyway

USER 4 – Female CMU student
Ian: “you would very much like to play with Nerf guns right?”
“I like that one; is that a cross bow”
Big Bad Bow-
user had some trouble figuring out how to use it, but eventually figured out how
to retract the bow and fire it. After firing one shot, tried to fire again without reloading. “I thought it would spin and load itself” disappointment “... In a Nerf battle you don’t have time for that. ‘Kind of a let down”
“Definitely have the aesthetics down. It looks cool”
user attempts to fire another shot. It fired and then fell short about 2 feet from the user. User was not too surprised.
User suggestions: “[I would like it more] if it was more interactive. It looks like a very cool contraction but it’s just a glorified gun.

Buzz Saw
wound up two pulls it flopped 3 balls on in front of her.
“oh God I think I broke it”
“That’s it?!”
“That’s really disappointing”
Ian shows how to use it
“That’s really annoying; I want it to stop making that noise”
She winds it up, and shoots a few rounds
“it’s much cooler now. Maybe it’s cuz of the wind.”
“Oh it ran out of bullets already”
User suggestions: “Maybe I would be excited using it if I was a 12 year old boy.”

USER 5 - Male CMU student
Rapid Fire AS-20
“The design is bad. I don’t like the look.”

USER 6 – Male CMU Mechanical Engineering Professor, Professor Messner
Rapid Fire AS-20
Fires all the rounds
“Oh this is way too cool”
We retrieve the ammunition and load it
“Let’s see I should recharge.”
Starts pumping
“It’s a pretty good workout”
Finishes pumping
“How many [rounds] does it have?”
Ian: “20”
Messner: “We’ll time it”
Ian: “2.2 seconds”
“10 rounds a second
“600 rounds a minute”
“Now you need a belt”
USER 7 – Male CMU student
Big Bad Bow??
“it shoots pretty far”

USER 8 –Late middle-age Male, son is an Industrial Design Major
Big Bad Bow
“Cross Bow Design”
“Symetrical, left handed or right handed. My son is lefty”
user cokes the gun
“cocked”
“accurate”
“gotta load one. It doesn’t automatically load... It would be better if it automatically loaded”
“Sight is no good. It’s so distorted in the sight... I sight without a lens is better. Line them up [with] a cross hair here and cross hair here” pointing to the front and back.
overall opinion “Okay I like it”

Buzz Saw:
“I think I got the hang of it. You got to pull on it. Shoots 3 shots.—oh coo!l” Overall:
“I don’t like that they are weapons.” “Saw is a violent name”
Which do you like the most?
“I like them all for different reasons. [the Buzz Saw] you can pump and vary the speed. This one you can pump up and vary the speed... I think a smaller child would have difficulty pulling it back. Whereas [the Big Bad Bow] is easy.

Rapid Fire AS-20
us: you need to pump it 30 times
“I had a pellet gun that you could pump only two times. – 30 times”
“unique feature = rapid fire”
“As a toy for young people I don’t agree”
“heavy. Not balanced well. It gets difficult to pump at 25”
“A little heavy for a 7 year old. doesn’t have any sights. It’s bulky.”
Us: what do you think about ammunition? What do you think about it being slow and soft, non-injurious.
“It’s a given that it didn’t hurt.”
“I put it on single and it didn’t single fire.”
Big Bad Bow
“large, more fragile, easy to use, intuitive, easy to aim, technology is obvious, so they can learn something.
user suggestions: “make it clear so they can learn something... learn the mechanisms”

Us: “So what do you think of the ammunition? any improvements there?”
The packaging says don’t modify the darts
User: “I was thinking that already”
“[The ammution on the Rapid Fire gun] are more bullet like... it has more of them...”

USER 9 – Male CMU Student, Recorded by Ian
Rapid Fire AS-20
Lost air pressure to quickly on single shot mode
Hard to pump
User didn’t like that it was so large
User thought it could be smaller

USER 10 – Male CMU graduate Student of foreign origin
Big Bad Bow
User tried to work the sights, had trouble and then removed sun glasses.
User still had difficultly getting the darts to go where desired voices concern by saying “aiming problem”
User would fire one dart then go retrieve it, load it and fire it again. Did not notice the extra ammunition at first.
“Looks like a cross bow”
“Looks like something from outer space”
“I would rather see a cross bow”
“You can aim but [it only goes] 2 or 3 meters and then just falls.

USER 11 – Late middle age Male with British accent
Big Bad Bow
First time firing the bow the arrow fell right away off the gun.
Second time it went several meters
“Oh I just didn’t know how to operate it”
“Oh my son would love this!”
As picking up the ammo, “the trouble is picking up the ammo”
Rapid Fire AS-20
Fires a whole round
“Oh He’d really like this!”
... “[These types of guns] leak or the pump fails
“lifespan of the toy is very short”
Buzz Saw
No comment

USER 12 – Female CMU student unfamiliar with Nerf guns
Big Bad Bow?
Us: “you want to fire a Nerf gun?”
User: “Why?”
“[you mean for me to] shot at someone?!”
We explain that we wish for her to use it without instruction. It’s for a class.
User: “Do I pump it?”
User had never played with one before. We did not provide any assistance at first.
“This thing is confusing... Oh, I got it”
User attempts to fire
“Wait, it doesn’t go anywhere... It doesn’t go anywhere!”
“Oh I got to load it”
Fires gun
“This could come with better instructions.”
“Freaking confusing”
“you have to load it every single time”

USER 13 – Male
Rapid Fire AS-20
“More ammunition”
“Aw the pressure is gone”
“I expected it to pump like 5 times [not 30].” User had a pump-action rifle as a child and had to pump it only 5 times to prime.

Buzz Saw “It’s easiest to get the balls stuck [out of the three guns]”
“can’t shoot up”
“[It’s] lame!”
“[it] Needs a funnel on top”
“Awesome and funny name”
“I like the simple design”
“It’s a cool concept, but the fact that it gets stuck when building momentum [ruins it].”

Big Bad Bow
The bow is the most appealing at first