Before formal user testing I had the opportunity to share the live prototype with my lecturer Kyle and get his initial reaction. Handing someone the URL and watching them navigate it without any instruction was a useful early indicator of where the prototype was landing and where it needed work.
His first reaction was to the voice control, which he engaged with immediately and described as something that made the concept feel genuinely alive. That was good to hear. Voice search was a late addition to the prototype and one I was uncertain about, so having it land as one of the strongest moments in the experience validated the decision to include it.
He did note that the navigation required some explanation, particularly around the idea that the interface is meant to be predictive and contextually aware. Because Pane OS is set in the 2040s and designed around ambient intelligence, a lot of that behaviour is implied by the concept rather than demonstrated by the prototype. This is an honest limitation of the medium. A prototype communicates an idea, it cannot fully simulate a system that learns from you over time. That said, Kyle's suggestion was a practical one. A suggested widget on the home screen based on time of day and location would give a user coming in fresh a nudge in the right direction without requiring them to already understand the product. I think this is solid advice and it connects directly to the contextual intelligence that sits at the heart of the Pane OS concept. It is something I would implement in a further iteration.
On content, Kyle made a point that I had been thinking about myself. The prototype would feel more holistic and more believable if the content it references felt real and familiar. His specific suggestion was to replace generic labels like Media Player with actual products and services that people use every day. Netflix rather than Media. Spotify rather than Music. This grounds the product in the present even while the concept sits in the future, and it makes the experience feel inhabited rather than illustrative. Again this is something I would carry into the next iteration.
The overall impression from Kyle was positive, with his strongest reaction being to the voice interaction and the glass aesthetic. The areas he flagged were all actionable and none of them undermined the concept. They were refinements rather than redirections, which felt like confirmation that the core idea was communicating clearly.
After receiving feedback from Kyle, a focused round of iteration was carried out on the prototype ahead of the class critique. The changes fell into three broad areas, navigation intelligence, content depth, and interface refinement.
The first change was straightforward. Generic labels like Music and Media were replaced with Spotify and Netflix respectively. Spotify gained its green dot identifier and Netflix its red, grounding the prototype in products that feel real and familiar rather than illustrative placeholders. This was a direct response to Kyle's point about content needing to feel inhabited.
Kyle's most actionable piece of feedback was the suggestion to add a contextual widget to the home screen that nudges users toward relevant content without requiring them to already understand the product. This was implemented as a row of three suggested widgets sitting beneath the search bar. Rather than static suggestions, the widgets are time-aware — they change based on the actual time of day. Morning surfaces Energy, Spotify and Home Control. Afternoon shows Home Control, Photos and Mail. Evening brings Netflix, Home Control and Spotify. Late night shows Energy, Home Control and Netflix. The greeting also updates accordingly, reading Morning, Afternoon or Evening depending on when the prototype is opened. This felt like the most honest way to demonstrate the ambient intelligence that sits at the heart of the Pane OS concept.
Previously the home screen had a row reading Voice, Type, Gesture as three separate options beneath the search bar. This was visually cluttered and implied a level of navigation that contradicted the simplicity of the concept. The row was removed entirely and its information was absorbed into the search bar placeholder itself, which now reads Search, ask, or gesture anything. All the same meaning, none of the visual noise.
