Problem statement: A way to share milkweed seeds to promote planting and protecting of milkweed 4 monarch caterpillars who can only eat milkweed plants.
List of Primary Needs:
List of Primary Needs:
- Way to share seeds
- Information-motivation to plant seeds
- Low-minimal cost
- Low maintenance - storage
- Easy to plant
- Appealing - quality item
Description of Process Used to Test:
My test was to determine which of the 2 main prototypes, plant stake and business card, people would prefer. I had the actual prototypes on a table with stickers to be placed on the preferred item at a butterfly release where I was a volunteer. I asked people to choose.The voting process was interesting but missed key information. Since, at the end of the program I distributed samples, I could have just tallied those choices because they paralleled the vote only when the subgroups were identified: children prefer the sticks, and grown-ups prefer the cards. Since there were more adults than children at the event, pure voting put the cards first. In fact, if the event had included more children, I am confident (based on comments of parents who wanted a stick for their child -- and I don't think they meant their inner child), that the preference for sticks would have been higher. Consequently, for implementation of this project, I am likely to improve both items to use them at events.
I used both business cards to determine if there was a preferance for vertical or horizontal and included "votes" for either in the total for that prototype. The result was for Vertical, but that might be because of the brighter monarch on it or the "logo" shape for the milkweed4monarchs tag line.
I made a new, more producable Plant Stake because I realized after creating the variety that most would cost too much to produce unless I got a "donation" from a local business that included their logo (which is on the reverse) and I determined by talking with my "5" people who know the gap that it really needed to be safe for kids (less pointy) and easily pocketed (6 inches or so).
I had excluded the shaped seed package because it was like an "upscale" business card and likely too costly to produce.
In all there are opportunities for patentable parts for this project, but I am more interested in sharing seeds than pursuing patents at this time.
My test was to determine which of the 2 main prototypes, plant stake and business card, people would prefer. I had the actual prototypes on a table with stickers to be placed on the preferred item at a butterfly release where I was a volunteer. I asked people to choose.The voting process was interesting but missed key information. Since, at the end of the program I distributed samples, I could have just tallied those choices because they paralleled the vote only when the subgroups were identified: children prefer the sticks, and grown-ups prefer the cards. Since there were more adults than children at the event, pure voting put the cards first. In fact, if the event had included more children, I am confident (based on comments of parents who wanted a stick for their child -- and I don't think they meant their inner child), that the preference for sticks would have been higher. Consequently, for implementation of this project, I am likely to improve both items to use them at events.
I used both business cards to determine if there was a preferance for vertical or horizontal and included "votes" for either in the total for that prototype. The result was for Vertical, but that might be because of the brighter monarch on it or the "logo" shape for the milkweed4monarchs tag line.
I made a new, more producable Plant Stake because I realized after creating the variety that most would cost too much to produce unless I got a "donation" from a local business that included their logo (which is on the reverse) and I determined by talking with my "5" people who know the gap that it really needed to be safe for kids (less pointy) and easily pocketed (6 inches or so).
I had excluded the shaped seed package because it was like an "upscale" business card and likely too costly to produce.
In all there are opportunities for patentable parts for this project, but I am more interested in sharing seeds than pursuing patents at this time.