PROTOTYPING
Let’s say you have a brilliant idea. How do you invite others to experience something that exists only in your brain? Prototyping is a way to make your ideas tangible, think of it as a prop., something you can use to tell the story of your idea.
Prototyping is a way of sharing your ideas with others. Prototypes are great because they help us get beyond words and focus on the actual experience, they allow us to make our assumptions shareable.
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a prototype is worth a thousand pictures” Source IDEO-U
Prototypes help us move from ideas to action. Follow these
three steps:
Build to think – It is important to build in order to think, seeing and interacting with your ideas is a great way to work through the kinks and allows you to get to better solutions faster.
Gather feedback – Prototypes prompt great feedback, and feedback is a gift that allows you to learn and move forward. Thank your critics, they will help you get to better solutions.
Fail early to succeed sooner – Getting tangible and asking for early feedback allows you to make inexpensive mistakes, rather than finding out something isn’t working too far down the road.
Is it a sketch?, Is it a model?, Is it role-play? No, it's a prototype...
When you hear the word prototype you might think of concept cars or elaborate models, but a prototype can be anything, a model built out of sticky notes, an office space that encourages collaboration or the inner workings of a company, anything.
Prototyping is really just about painting a picture of what the future might be, and getting it into a form that makes it easy to show others so they can provide feedback.
Prototypes should be props that help you tell a story, they bring life to your ideas and allow people to imagine a future with your idea in it.
Although you want to feel excited about your prototypes, you don’t want to get too attached to a particular design at this stage, people may critique your idea and that’s totally fine, that’s actually the whole point, additional perspectives can help you push a concept from good to brilliant. And if one idea doesn’t work, no problem on to the next.
Prototypes can be physical, digital, experiential or simply just a sketch.
– Source: Insights for innovation IDEO-U
Low cost, high impact...
Prototypes don't have to cost the earth, there are many low fidelity ways to communicate your ideas to stakeholders and clients. I love this clip from Design Thinking – Ideas to action Source: IDEO-U
Build, share and reflect...
You can’t just stop once you have built your prototype, that’s when the learning really begins. You need to share it with others for feedback and then reflect on what you have learned.
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Get ready to BUILD – Think back to your ideation list or board, you clustered your ideas into themes to help begin to tell a story. You have ideas that could join together to form a scenario of use. Try sketching out these scenarios to increase your readiness to build your prototype.
Try breaking down your scenarios and stories into 3-5 scenes
like a comic strip, and then identify the moments that highlight
the best aspects of your idea.
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BUILD it – It’s important to have access to simple materials like paper, card, foil or even play dough. It’s also important to give yourself restraints, sometimes it is good to work with just one material, give yourself time limits like 3-5 minutes, this can be really helpful in terms of expressing yourself more easily, not thinking too deep about the design and opening yourself up for early feedback.
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Get ready to SHARE – Once you have built your prototype or even a sketch for your story it’s time to share them with others. Be ready to share, you might tell a story, act out a scenario or even put together a playful advertisement for your project.
As with writing any story you need to consider your audience,
their needs and how their needs might change after engaging with your prototype. As for who to choose, think about internal
stakeholders, customers and partner companies.
Don’t try to sell your idea and do your best to avoid defending your product, here it’s all about welcoming constructive criticism. Pay attention to body language, it’s as or more important than what they are saying.
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REFLECT – You want to listen carefully to what others have to say and think about how you might respond with your next prototype. Sometimes it’s about reading between the lines, and don’t feel you have to make changes based on everything you have heard, you should decide what really matters and make informed choices.
If someone didn’t love your idea, were there aspects that they we are drawn to? Remember these are early stages, it’s not about the colour or the shape of the button, it’s about the why? and the need that the prototype is helping you understand more deeply.
TIP: I find it useful to record feedback into themes, positive, constructive, ideas given and questions asked.
After you have reflected on the feedback, you might want to make a list or map the ideas you would like to run with. It’s a good time to consider and visualise next steps, sketch, write and map it out, whatever works for you.
– Source: Sketch prototype for a VR puzzle reading game ALStarr75
It's all in the hat...
Here’s an activity to get your hands dirty and BUILD to THINK.
PARTICIPANTS: 2 people +
TIME: 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Tinfoil, scissors, tape, construction paper, a camera, and
a few friends or colleagues, if possible.
BUILD A HAT
Design and build a hat using only the materials listed under the ‘what you need’ section.
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Find a partner and ask them 2 questions about themselves, for example, what do you do for a hobby?, What did you want to be when you grew up?
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Sketch ideas for no more than five minutes (your sketches can be rough).
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Build a conversation worthy hat. Take 10 minutes to bring one of the sketches to life. That’s right. You’re building a prototype.
SHAREBACK
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Take 5 minutes to share / tell the story of your prototype with the other participants.
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Take 5 minutes to listen and note down feedback.
– Source: Feedback recorded as positive, constructive criticism, questions and ideas ALStarr75
TIPS:
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Struggling to prototype services, experiences, or systems? Rather than trying to prototype the whole thing, think about particular moments, interactions or experiences you could prototype to test specific questions or assumptions.
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Setting up the sharing experience and asking the right questions is critical to collecting meaningful feedback. The point of a prototype is to spur rich conversation and unearth new insight about the need, challenge or audience.
Resist the urge to over-explain, or to sell, your idea. Ask them to walk you through their thinking, ask open-ended questions, and invite them into a conversation about what other solutions might look like or ways to improve your idea.
Why not read Design Thinking - Iteration >