The fun of real world experiments

Taking a bit of a breather between projects, I’ve been reflecting on how the very different research projects we engage in throw up a surprisingly similar array of experiences. It’s not that the experiences themselves are exactly the same – that would be dull – but they always feel very familiar.

For example, we’ve just finished setting up a 1 year trial – this time an experimental community car share scheme using zero carbon cars. It took the team 4 months to design the trial and get all the necessary pieces in place – electric charging points, a biodiesel tank, a community insurance policy, an online booking system and an electric car which could cope with hills.

Over the years, I’ve been involved in designing, setting up and running behavioural experiments and real world technology trials. Every time, I am surprised by how much time and effort you end up spending on the small infrastructural issues and the odd set of new skills you have to acquire on the way.

It all started in the 1980’s when I was doing my PhD. A colleague and I wanted to run some experiments recording people’s convergence eye movements. We knew that the critical factor was holding people’s head absolutely still during the experiment so we spent 4 months designing and building an eye recording set up from scratch. This involved acquiring and modifying an ancient leather dental chair (solid base and adjustable height), combined with a motorbike helmet sawn carefully in half and filled with sacs of polystyrene balls. Finally, we fashioned a set of fearsome bite bars by paying (I seem to recall) cash-strapped 1st year students a paltry sum to fill their mouths with putty!

One momentous day, the entire kit was ready for action. We proudly called in our PhD supervisor to try it out. We sat him in the dental chair, pumped him up to the right height, popped his head inside the motorbike helmet, screwed that tight to the back of the rigid seat and then invited him to bite firmly on the bite bar.

Unfortunately, at that precise moment, my colleague accidentally stepped on the dental chair foot pedal – the chair immediately plummeted leaving our PhD supervisor suspended only by his head and the bite bar and at a strong risk of hanging! We were never allowed to forget this incident.

But it’s the wonderful surprises of doing real world experiments and trials which gets you through these stages. How the triallists behave, what they like or don’t like and the creative uses they find for technical artefacts always produces surprises. You gain a new perspective along with fresh ideas and inspiration for the next round of product design. And, within days, you’ve forgotten all the trials and tribulations of the set up period and are wondering what the next, even more ambitious trial might be…..