SCORECARD ANALYSIS
Measuring the success of the solar power lamp will be done through an overall assessment of each needed standard that will be tested and evaluated using a scorecard. The transportability of the lamp is important when understanding the freedom for students in Sierra Leone villages to be able to study in various locations without the hassle of carrying to large of a product with them. Size and weight of the object will be recorded and the flexibility of the lamp will also be tested. Ideally, the lamp should be designed to be flexible because users should be given the option of being able to direct the light in any direction they wish. The pass or fail testing for this standard will consider whether or not the lamp can be directed in any direction. The brightness of the lamp is also important to consider because the purpose of this project is for students to be able to comfortably study at night. The readability as well as the coverage that the lamp provides will be tested and recorded with the scorecard. The lamp will be designed so that users are successfully able to read, and this will be evaluated with a scoring from 1-5: 5 being very readable and 1 being unreadable. It will be designed so that anything on paper will be expected to be clearly visible. The coverage that the lamp can provide will also be tested and recorded on 1-5 scale. The solar lamp will be designed to cover a suitable distance for studying so that students have light to cover a greater area. The grading will be based off of how much coverage the light has, and the visibility level as a user moves further away from the light.
The operation of this product should be implemented in the form of switch or a button that would provide easy use. This will be a pass/fail test based on the how easy it is to operate the lamp. If the lamp turns on with a simple click of a button, it passes and if not, the test fails. The concept of having a solar panel as the main source of energy for this lamp is to provide an eco-friendly product. The test that will be run to test the energy efficiency is testing how long (in minutes) the lamp takes to charge to reach the maximum amount of energy. It is important that the time that the charging is not disproportionate to the time of use of the lamp. The amount of time for charging will be recorded in minutes in the scorecard. Similarly, with the charging time, the lasting time of the solar lamp will be tested. This standard will be tested through observing how long (in minutes) the lamp can last off of the solar panel energy. Consideration that Sierra Leone is a developing country, low cost is necessary and the product that is made should not be too costly. The value of making the product will be recorded as well as a rating on how costly the product is 1 to 5: 1 being inexpensive and 5 being very costly. The goal is to mass produce this product, so it should be as cost efficient as possible. The safety is of the solar power lamp is imperative if it will ever be attractive to a potential student in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone villages have been burned due to kerosene lamps and other light sources that can be very harmful to families. The testing of this standard will be rated (1-5) based on the kid-friendliness of the product. Essentially, the product should encompass the fact that families should have no worries of whether or not the product is flammable. The overall success of the prototype will be defined by whether or not a user would enjoy studying with the product on a daily basis. The product should also be practical and fit the needs that should be satisfied, as shown in the user needs chart and system requirements.
In order to meet end user needs up to 12 validation runs will need to be completed. Using a scorecard, a user will fill record data that will result in the data can be manipulated and analyzed to evaluate whether or not the prototype meets the user needs expressed in the user needs chart below. If the prototype does not meet user needs and scores low on the scorecard, then the prototypes should be improved in the necessary areas. Improvements could include but are not limited to small changes to better fit user needs or large changes to the overall design.
As far as quantitative success, this can be defined as scoring at least an average of 4 out of 5 on each of the tests. Low scoring would mean the prototype was not designed to meet and pass a variety of tests to satisfy a potential user. Scoring an average of 4 out of 5 on the test cases signifies that attention can be focused on minor details of the prototype. Fine tuning will be used to improve aesthetic design details and placement of materials to enhance the attractiveness of the prototype.